The Daily Galaxy

The NFL shares revenues and allows weaker teams pick new young players first.

Upon taking over in 1960, Pete Rozelle persuaded NFL team owners — most notably Carroll Rosenbloom of the Colts, and George Preston Marshall of the Redskins — to agree to share revenues between teams. His business model was essentially a system that benefited all teams equally, from revenue sharing to the player draft.

Whenever you buy an NFL licensed product, say a San Francisco 49ers jersey, the revenue is distributed evenly between all members teams. The worst performing teams of the previous season get to pick first when the wealth of college talent becomes available for the new season. There are revenues that teams get to keep for themselves, particular stadium revenue.

Few sports fans are likely to argue for a change of such policies. This system, along with the salary cap have contributed to competitive balance. By contrast, European soccer is now facing facing a growing imbalance between high-revenue and low-revenue teams, to the extent that, but for a few exceptions, the same top teams are qualifying for the Champions League cash cow (Europe’s top club football prize) every year.

Short Definitions of Socialism

Socialism – The set of beliefs which states that all people are equal and should share equally in the wealth of the country, or the political systems based on these beliefs  (Cambridge Dictionary)

Socialism – a political theory advocating state ownership of industry. (Princeton Dictionary)

The US Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

The preamble to the Constitution states:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Questions

• Is any government, especially one that lauds it’s pioneering founding documents -  and since it represents the interests of all its citizens – by definition, a socialist entity?
• Is the choice between socialism and capitalism a false dichotomy?