It’s time they share the game. It’s time American sports fall in line with American ideals and principles of allowing free market systems to flourish.  There is no reason to continue to allow legislatively protected monopolies to harm the consumer, the athletes and American economic interests.

We support open systems in professional sports, the stringent enforcement of anti-trust law ensuring open systems and the repeal of all anti-trust exemptions provided by the U.S. Congress to American sports leagues.

Professional sports are not just innocent pastimes anymore. They are major economic forces which affect a lot of lives.

In the NBA there are thirty teams, thirty owners/ownership groups, thirty GMs, thirty accompanying staffs and player rosters.  It all adds up to a few thousand people involved in the sport making incomes they spend in their communities and taxable to local, state, and the federal governments. Along with the direct employees paying their bills and taxes, there are many thousands more whom rely on the income the sport creates including support staff, stadium vendors, merchandise manufacturers, hotels workers, security staffs, local law enforcement agencies and so forth. With all of these people getting paid, they pay their taxes and buy the goods and services we all do and which helps our economy.

In open competition systems, there would not be thirty professional basketball teams. There would be hundreds broken accordingly into various leagues both national and regionally stacked in clear hierarchies. Accordingly, there would be multiple the amount of executives, managers, trainers, vendors, manufacturers and athletes needed in such a broad system. Concerns regarding minority ownership of sporting franchises would be resolved by broadening the sports to allow for new teams in every city in America. The expansion of professional sports is the largest single job creation mechanism available to Americans. Further, jobs within the sporting industry excluding merchandising and equipment are not exportable.

Is there any city within our great land with more than 100,000 people that would not have a professional or semi-professional basketball team placed within an open system hierarchy? A hierarchy which would ensure on-court success was met with advancement and where continued success results in the right to compete within the top league, NBA, itself.   Per the 2010 Census, there are 298 cities in America with more than 100 000.  It is hard to underestimate how broadly opening sports systems could benefit American employment and tax rolls.

Unfortunately, the potential economic impact and benefit to us all either through direct or indirect employment or tax revenues is limited to preserve the status quo of current monopolies. Current monopolies comprised of mega corporations who do not deserve such protection.

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