Minor Sports on TV/Arena League Salaries

[Young Drachma]

It's on NBC right now and I've always found it moderately interesting, more back when it was on ESPN and was on in the middle of the night...but its all big time now.

What do you they pay them? Anyone have any clue? I know they were going to strike a few years ago or something because they wanted to start a players union.

I guess the other thing was, I wonder why ESPN is more showing like poker, bowling and such, rather than back in the day when they used to show minor sports like lacrosse. Do they even show fishing anymore? Eh...

Just random thoughts....

[Fritz]

A few years ago the Avg Salary for an Arena League player was about 30k.

[Bubba Wheels]

Arena seems to be busting out, what with the NFL buying into it. More teams and interest just seems to be getting bigger. Never thought it would last, myself, sounded kinda like roller-hockey. But hey, might give it another look with all the hype and all.

[yabanci]

This is from the decision in the Clarett case (footnotes omitted):

"the 2000 salary cap in the Canadian Football League — the total amount
of money that a team was permitted to pay to all 50-odd of its players combined — was approximately $1,700,000. Similarly, the 2003 team salary cap in the Arena
Football League was $1,643,000. In other words, the average starting running
back in the NFL makes only slightly less than the average teams do in the CFL
and AFL."

See AFL/AFLPA CBA Term Sheet (Oct. 14, 2003), available at
http://www.aflplayers.org/documents/AFLtermsheet.pdf.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I guess the other thing was, I wonder why ESPN is more showing like poker, bowling and such, rather than back in the day when they used to show minor sports like lacrosse. Do they even show fishing anymore?

The hunting & fishing block is on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings now.

Meanwhile, I imagine there are several factors involved in the change in programming you mention but among them:

1) The audience for one vs another.
2) The production expense of, say, bowling (indoor venue, smaller venue, etc) vs some outdoor sport like lacrosse can be significant.
3) A good bit of the secondary programming that ESPN airs is actually produced by independent companies not by ESPN directly. Those programs tend to be very sensitive to whatever the market (i.e. advertisers) are most interested in at a given moment, so there may be some shifts in what programs are available from one year/every few years to the next.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The hunting & fishing block is on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings now.

Meanwhile, I imagine there are several factors involved in the change in programming you mention but among them:

1) The audience for one vs another.
2) The production expense of, say, bowling (indoor venue, smaller venue, etc) vs some outdoor sport like lacrosse can be significant.
3) A good bit of the secondary programming that ESPN airs is actually produced by independent companies not by ESPN directly. Those programs tend to be very sensitive to whatever the market (i.e. advertisers) are most interested in at a given moment, so there may be some shifts in what programs are available from one year/every few years to the next.

Would be kinda hard to play lacrosse outside right now wouldn't it? I think he meant indoor games which are in-season now. Traditionally the only field lacrosse games that get on tv is the Final 4 on ESPN.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Chubby

Would be kinda hard to play lacrosse outside right now wouldn't it? I think he meant indoor games which are in-season now. Traditionally the only field lacrosse games that get on tv is the Final 4 on ESPN.

I know diddly from lacrosse, but it was really just an example.

Still, it's generally cheaper & easier to produce something from a venue like a bowling alley than it is from an arena setting (which I assume is where they play indoor lacrosse, basketball-type facilities & such).

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I know they were going to strike a few years ago or something because they wanted to start a players union.

From what I remember the league locked the players out--or tried to--because the league wanted the players to form a union. The players didn't want to form a union because of the advantages in the antitrust/labor law arenas.

It's an example of how sports labor law situations are often opposite from those in other industries. In most places management would try to bust a proposed union. In sports, the leagues encourage them because of the exemptions they can provide.

[Flame Eater]

Again...I'll give props to the AFL. I had season tickets to the Albany (now Indy) Firebirds before games were televised. The TV exposure is great for the league, but there is NOTHING more exciting than an AFL game with no commercial time outs.

There were a couple of games where I nearly pissed my pants because the game was too exciting to leave and there wasn't enough time to go to the restroom.

I think all AFL games now have some TV element, but I think the AF2 is still fairly untouched. If you have a chance to seen a game live...DO IT! It really is fun.

The dance teams are generally pretty nice too. It's great! Watch a play...watch the girls...watch a play...watch the girls...drink some beer...repeat. You can't beat it!

[Pumpy Tudors]

I want to go see the New Orleans Voodoo, but that'll have to wait unti next month, as their home opener is on February 14, which happens to be my wedding day, so I'll miss it. Then they'll be on the road for a while (probably because of Mardi Gras), so I'll have to catch them sometime. I've never been to an AFL game live. I'm looking forward to the Voodoo and the dance team (known as the Voodoo Dolls)!

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm also looking forward to seeing them here in New Orleans. Too bad they beat Philadelphia, but if anyone had to do it, I'm glad it was the Voodoo.