[BostonCard]

[quote author=washingtonismoney link=topic=17321.msg199401#msg199401 date=1504806150]
We would literally *never* accept this logic in any other field. "You can't work for Amazon because your startup needs you." "You can't transfer to Harvard because blah blah blah."  B.S. While pro sports get away with these kind of labor restrictions -- and to some degree I think they make sense -- pro athletes are compensated with millions of dollars. So I'm afraid you can't have it both ways. Either offer lots of compensation for players' abject lack of freedom, or give them freedom. Having it both ways is ridiculous.

For pro team sports, it helps to adopt the perspective that the athlete is an employee of the league, not a specific team; not unlike an individual who works for a division of a large company.  Intra-company transfers are easy, quick and painless (except for the politics, I'm just talking about the mechanics) and the employee technically goes on a new payroll, but it's the same basic monolith.

Two teams have to play each other, really it's an entertainment.  Giants fans buy Giants tickets, Dodgers fans (largely) buy Dodgers tickets.  Each division is merely a geographic division, so trades and free agency are common and immediate.
[/quote]

I believe that is the model for MLS.

https://medium.com/@isaacccccccccc_94128...7f4b784bcd

MLS teams don’t have owners in the classic sense: they have Investor-Operators. It’s actually an important distinction when considering the MLS business model. Unlike other American sports leagues, MLS isn’t structured as a legal cartel where a number of competing interests work together to facilitate healthy competition. Instead, MLS Investor-Operators are all financially invested in the same business entity — Major League Soccer, LLC — and succeed and fail together. They all made their initial investment in the LLC, and they all receive a pro-rata share of the profits if and when MLS generates a profit (or they can write off their share of the losses, should MLS lose cash in a given year.)

BC

[BostonCard]

[quote author=washingtonismoney link=topic=17321.msg199401#msg199401 date=1504806150]
We would literally *never* accept this logic in any other field. "You can't work for Amazon because your startup needs you." "You can't transfer to Harvard because blah blah blah."  B.S. While pro sports get away with these kind of labor restrictions -- and to some degree I think they make sense -- pro athletes are compensated with millions of dollars. So I'm afraid you can't have it both ways. Either offer lots of compensation for players' abject lack of freedom, or give them freedom. Having it both ways is ridiculous.

For pro team sports, it helps to adopt the perspective that the athlete is an employee of the league, not a specific team; not unlike an individual who works for a division of a large company.  Intra-company transfers are easy, quick and painless (except for the politics, I'm just talking about the mechanics) and the employee technically goes on a new payroll, but it's the same basic monolith.

Two teams have to play each other, really it's an entertainment.  Giants fans buy Giants tickets, Dodgers fans (largely) buy Dodgers tickets.  Each division is merely a geographic division, so trades and free agency are common and immediate.
[/quote]

I believe that is the model for MLS.

https://medium.com/@isaacccccccccc_94128...7f4b784bcd

MLS teams don’t have owners in the classic sense: they have Investor-Operators. It’s actually an important distinction when considering the MLS business model. Unlike other American sports leagues, MLS isn’t structured as a legal cartel where a number of competing interests work together to facilitate healthy competition. Instead, MLS Investor-Operators are all financially invested in the same business entity — Major League Soccer, LLC — and succeed and fail together. They all made their initial investment in the LLC, and they all receive a pro-rata share of the profits if and when MLS generates a profit (or they can write off their share of the losses, should MLS lose cash in a given year.)

BC