[dannymac]

Am I the only one here that thinks Americans put far too much emphasis on athletic competition. Honestly if we spent half the money that we do on paying all these athletes we would be able to significantly reduce poverty. Tell me what you think!
-Daniel

[Bleedin Purple]

That may be true..But its not our money..Its the owners and their organizations..And helping poverty has no income, while sports broadcasting does.

[NASCAR Gnome]

Athletics is entertainment and we Americans pay well to be entertained!

As long as people continue to patronize the games and networks continue to fork over the massive amounts of money to get the rights to broadcast these events, star athletes will make big bucks!

Now, if you take account of sports that shine only in the Olympics like Judo, Rowing, Weightlifting, Javelin, etc., you will see that these athletes are compensated just about as well as normal working people are! It's all about perspective and presentation...

The Gladiator fights in ancient Rome were presented as entertainment and from all historical accounts, the people ate it up! No different today, except people don't get killed on a daily basis!

[purple]

They do take them seriously but such is the way of the great mighty US. At least many of the teams and players do lots of donating and championing causes.

[Dusty]

What about the way countries go insane over soccer? In Brazil a player accidentally had a ball go off his foot into the oppositions goal and he was shot in a drive by and died for it! That wouldn't happen here in the US I don't think. Also while speaking of soccer I read that in some country they threw banana peels and made monkey noises at the oppositions black players....that's disgusting and doesn't happen here in the USA. So you see while sports does overpay in the US other countries have other ways of overvaluing sports and in the examples I've shown it seems that those countries almost have a bloodlust for sports.

[Bette]

Athletics, singers, movies, etc. you name it we Americans put a high value on it.
As was noted in a previous post though, fans all over the world go overboard about their favorite teams no matter the sport.
We run into fanatics on this forum. The problem comes when people cant put their team or sport into proper perspective. Hey, whether your team wins or loses the sun arises the next day.
Too many bucks to the pros? Yes. But check the salaries of some CEOS of large companies. That end of the discussion I will not touch here.
For me and for many others sports are just an enjoyable part of our lives.
Most of us are not blind to the negative aspects of sports.

[vincesanity82]

Originally Posted by dannymac

Am I the only one here that thinks Americans put far too much emphasis on athletic competition. Honestly if we spent half the money that we do on paying all these athletes we would be able to significantly reduce poverty. Tell me what you think!
-Daniel

I totally agree. I also think we should save the dolphins, instead of cutting down trees we should hug them, stop slaughtering friendly cute animals for steak and bacon, cut our grass with scissors instead of gasoline ozone killing machines, man I could on and on. But seriously though why cant capable people get jobs. Sports is entertainment, what I spend on it has nothing to do with poverty..

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by vincesanity82

I totally agree. I also think we should save the dolphins, instead of cutting down trees we should hug them, stop slaughtering friendly cute animals for steak and bacon, cut our grass with scissors instead of gasoline ozone killing machines, man I could on and on.

Vince you made me spit out my water on my keyboard after reading this post! I'm sending you a bill buddy!

[Bette]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Vince you made me spit out my water on my keyboard after reading this post! I'm sending you a bill buddy!

Yeah, I thought he was serious at first. Started to get a little worried for a sec.