I understand the economic argument, but the fact is that far too much money goes into subsidizing luxury when it comes to professional sports rather than job creation. Do you get jobs? Yeah. Would you get more if you didn't pay an entire team more than the local neighborhood put together grosses in a year? Most definitely. You don't need to pay them what we pay them given that we dropped millions on their stadiums in the first place--stadiums that now charge far too much for a ticket than most people can afford and are overpopulated with luxury box seats that too few rich people are actually interested in. I haven't seen the figures on what a team brings in, $$$-wise to the neighborhood or the city in general, but I suspect it doesn't begin to recoup our millions of dollars for building not one but two new stadiums. And it won't for many, many years, especially with the economic slow down. By then, they will probably want more from us.
And like I said: I'm not entirely rational about this because I dislike that we throw so much money at these people for so little and then act all shocked when they aren't paragons of virtue. It's like being surprised that the hooker you paid for isn't a virgin--it's not in her best interests to risk losing more money coming in by turning away any options that would keep her in the game for longer. I have similar problems with Congress as I do with pro sports, actually.
Hell, I watch fictional sports once a week! And they have the same problems with steroids that real pro sports does.
And that doesn't bother me a bit because no one is pretending that it doesn't happen. They may not publicize it, but it's an open secret. All the pro leagues act like steroid use is something that happens to other athletes, not theirs. The hypocrisy bothers me. Cases like Benoit's are also the exception rather than the rule--with how pervasive steroid use is, it would be like saying chewing tobacco or the pill cause people to kill their spouses. They can, sure, but most people use them with little to no problem. (Outside problems, emotional problems, etc. can be aggravated by steroids, I absolutely agree, but the reports of "roid rage" are overhyped.)
I also agree with you: make steroid use legal, and develop the shit out of some new drugs. We can use the admitted steroid users as guinea pigs--just promise Mark Maguire he can get back in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he'll let us do anything we want to him. And, once technology improves enough, why not splice their genes? I want an all-spliced league: Man-cats versus Man-dogs! FIGHT!
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And like I said: I'm not entirely rational about this because I dislike that we throw so much money at these people for so little and then act all shocked when they aren't paragons of virtue. It's like being surprised that the hooker you paid for isn't a virgin--it's not in her best interests to risk losing more money coming in by turning away any options that would keep her in the game for longer. I have similar problems with Congress as I do with pro sports, actually.
Hell, I watch fictional sports once a week! And they have the same problems with steroids that real pro sports does.
And that doesn't bother me a bit because no one is pretending that it doesn't happen. They may not publicize it, but it's an open secret. All the pro leagues act like steroid use is something that happens to other athletes, not theirs. The hypocrisy bothers me. Cases like Benoit's are also the exception rather than the rule--with how pervasive steroid use is, it would be like saying chewing tobacco or the pill cause people to kill their spouses. They can, sure, but most people use them with little to no problem. (Outside problems, emotional problems, etc. can be aggravated by steroids, I absolutely agree, but the reports of "roid rage" are overhyped.)
I also agree with you: make steroid use legal, and develop the shit out of some new drugs. We can use the admitted steroid users as guinea pigs--just promise Mark Maguire he can get back in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he'll let us do anything we want to him. And, once technology improves enough, why not splice their genes? I want an all-spliced league: Man-cats versus Man-dogs! FIGHT!