Talk with Richard Levin (Blue Ribbon Committee member)
Kenny1111
from the university or outside comes to have an informal talk in our
residential college (dorm). Today's guest was Yale President Richard
Levin, and I was able to ask a couple of baseball questions. I
didn't want to monopolize his time on a topic that few were probably
interested in, but I did learn some interesting things that I will
summarize as best as possible without inflicting my bias:
(1) I pointed out the way teams hide revenue by owning multiple
companies, specifically using the examples of the Dodgers and FOX,
the Braves and TBS, and the Cubs and the Tribute Company (I didn't
say WGN, but I figure he knew what I meant).
He agreed that this is an issue, and that we really can't take the
numbers at face value without delving into the books and looking at
all of the multiple companies that the owners may have.
(2) I pointed out that in the revenue sharing schemes the owners get
money and just pocket it.
He acknowledged this, and said that he would have wanted a payroll
floor, but the union was against this. We do know that the union was
against this based on the issues earlier this year. Unfortunately I
did not have time to propose other ways that this could be avoided
besides a salary floor.
(3) I mentioned Derek Zumsteg's (sp) plan of basing the re-
distribution system on market size (population). He said that was
the plan he proposed and wanted from the start, as it would not
penalize teams that have done well making money in their market.
------
Now my comments:
Based on the fact that we only spent a few minutes of the roughly
hour-and-a-half on baseball, I'm happy with what I learned, in that
Selig did have some advice in what I feel was the right direction
(i.e., redistribution based on population, and the issue with owners
hiding money).
Thermos
news:MPG.1828dc261...@News.CIS.DFN.DE...
Interesting. Thanks for passing that along, Kenny.
Keith Willoughby
> So today we had what is called a "Master's Tea," in which someone
> from the university or outside comes to have an informal talk in our
> residential college (dorm). Today's guest was Yale President Richard
> Levin
[...]
You should post this to rec.sport.baseball, if you haven't already.
--
Keith Willoughby | http://flat222.org/keith/
"It's being so cheerful as keeps me going "
Kenny1111
lwe...@thesimpsons.com says...
No problem.. At one point I thought I would take questions from the
newsgroup and try to ask them, but I figured that even though it was
only a dozen or so of us talking with him, most people wouldn't want
to hear so much about baseball and I'd have to give everyone else a
chance to :-)
Kenny1111
says...
> Kenny1111 <kenneth....@yale.edu> writes:
>
> > So today we had what is called a "Master's Tea," in which someone
> > from the university or outside comes to have an informal talk in our
> > residential college (dorm). Today's guest was Yale President Richard
> > Levin
> [...]
>
> You should post this to rec.sport.baseball, if you haven't already.
I'll do that now.. I only posted it here because this is really the
only newsgroup I post to, and people here for the most part know who
I am. I've posted a few posts to rec.sport.baseball over the past
couple of years, but less than a day's work in the Yankees group :-)
Kenny1111
PY
I'm wondering- do you know of a way I can get in touch with him? My law
school's looking to do a sports law symposium and we'd like the main topic
to be about the new CBA. I'd love to hear if either he or someone he knows
would be interested in being one of the guest speakers.
-PY
Kenny1111
baseba...@yahoo.com says...
I'll email you with the best answer I can give.
Thermos
news:apnjr3$3chcg$1...@ID-160038.news.dfncis.de...
Have you considered inviting Doug Pappas?
PY
news:aponnc$3ekp3$1...@ID-123550.news.dfncis.de...
No. I should, though. I'll have to get in touch with him.
-PY
JCMumsie
Yale for over 20 years before becoming Yale's President and has excellent
financial credentials.
J
Thermos
I've never heard him speak, but given his background and expertise on
baseball economics, I would think he'd be a great contributor to something
like that.
Kenny1111
jcmu...@aol.comnojunk says...
I would have loved to hear him talk more about baseball, and
definitely think he's a great pick. As jcmumsie said, he is
certainly more than qualified from an economics background sense.
He'd also have "inside information" being part of the Blue Ribbon
Committee--but at the same time, there are probably (don't know for
sure) aspects of the negotiations/labor issues/etc. that he would not
be able to tell us.
Pappas would be fun as well, though.
PY
I've been e-mailing him. He said he's interested. I think he'd have a
fantastic perspective on it.
President Levin's assistants have been working with me too. If we could get
both of them to speak at the same symposium, I think that would be one
terrific afternoon spent.
-PY
Thermos
Absolutely. If I lived in the area, I'd take the day off of work to hear
that discussion. Good luck with it.