On Sunday afternoon at a nifty public golf course in San Francisco, a young twenty-three year old golfer charged down the fairways to grab his first major championship trophy at the PGA Championship.

Twenty-one years ago, that young golfer was Tiger Woods.  This weekend, it was a young man named Collin Morikawa.

Both are California born.  Woods went two years to Stanford before turning pro.  Morikawa played for the University of California-Berkeley golf team and graduated last year in 2019 with a degree in Business Administration.

When Tiger Woods left Stanford, expectations were extremely high coming into professional golf.  When Collin Morikawa left Cal after four years on the golf team, he had won five collegiate events in four seasons.  Not bad, but he came onto the scene as just another in an increasingly long line of talented college golfers.

On Sunday, it was Collin Morikawa who calmly and confidently stared down a stellar field which included the aging Woods.  At one moment coming down the stretch, there were seven golfers tied for the lead at 10-under par.  The CBS golf team had already announced that the playoff would start on the 16th hole.

How prophetic!  Someone stepped-up to that 16th hole during the final hour of the fourth round to put a strangle hold on the Wanamaker trophy.

It was Collin Morikawa launching a tactical missile with his incredibly precise 294-yard drive which rolled onto the green and just seven feet from the flag on the tricky par-4 16th hole.  When he drained the putt for an eagle 2, he moved to 13 under par.  You could almost feel the bubble burst on the rest of the field’s hopes when that putt fell into the hole. 

It was a moment right out of the Tiger Woods playbook from twenty years ago.  Morikawa’s march to victory on Sunday was a reminder of how Woods was doing the same thing a generation ago. 

Back then, Woods was dusting off many of the PGA Tour’s veteran stars such as Ernie Els, Tom Kite, and Nick Price. 

This weekend, 23-year old Collin Morikawa led a top ten whose average age was just 29.83 years.  Paul “Close Again” Casey finished in a tie for second place at age 43 to skew the average ages upwards a bit. 

In addition to Morikawa, there was 21-year old Matthew Wolff, a 24-year old (Scottie Scheffler), two 25-year olds (Cameron Champ and Jon Rahm), and two 26-year old phenoms (Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele).   Seven of the top ten golfers in the 2020 PGA Championship were from the “We watched Tiger Woods on television” new generation of players.

Somewhere, the late Arnold Palmer is surely smiling to see so many young golfers coming into the game after being inspired by one of golf’s biggest stars. 

For the 44-year old Tiger Woods, he still retains a fading hope of catching up to Jack Nicklaus’ professional record of 18 major championship wins.  Woods has 15 majors now, but he will need a lot of good fortune if he is going to win three more against an army of Mini-Me golfers.

These young whippersnappers all drive the ball 300-yards or more, have great poise under pressure, and are getting better by the year with more experience gained with each event.

Just like Tiger Woods twenty years ago.

Unlike Tiger, though, Collin Morikawa kept his golf ball in more fairways than everyone else in the field.

With a daily question marks hovering over the upcoming college football season due to a lingering pandemic, the biggest college football conferences and schools will find a way to survive by relying their massive network television contracts.

For smaller football conferences, though, this fall could mean serious trouble for the budgets of their athletics departments.  Since we have talked about UL-Monroe before, let’s feature the Warhawks once again in today’s post.

The University of Louisiana at Monroe had three “payday” road games scheduled in 2020.  The season schedule shows them hitting the road to Athens, Georgia to play the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, September 26.  Then, the “Road Hawks” fly to Virginia to play the Liberty Flames on October 10.  On Saturday, November 21, ULM takes on the Hogs at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

For a smaller FBS school like ULM, those three road games would likely generate around $3 million in guaranteed revenue.  ULM, like so many mid-level football programs, doesn’t generate enough home football game revenues to survive without taking their team on the road to be the feisty “homecoming victim” in a few games every season.    

The Warhawks, who compete in the Sunbelt Conference, have the smallest athletics budget in all of major college football.  For the year 2018, the university’s athletics program hovered near the break-even point with annual revenues and expenses hovering around $16 million.  That’s not just football.  That $16 million also covers the cost of men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, etc.  Yes, $16 million is ULM’s entire athletics budget.

If the pandemic forces the cancellation of their non-conference football games, the loss of $3 million would mean nearly 20% less revenue available to ULM’s overall athletic budget. 

The Warhawks are by no means the only football team which survives on one or two big money road football games played for big guarantees by the big conference teams, though.    

ULM’s in-state Sunbelt Conference foe, Louisiana-Lafayette, has been averaging nearly $3 million per year from a few payday road games on their football schedule the past few years, too.  This year, though, the Ragin’ Cajuns would only make one big road trip with a November 21 meeting against the  SEC’s Missouri Tigers in Columbia, MO.  Cancellation of that game will probably cost the Cajuns well over $1 million in 2020.

Louisiana-Lafayette has an annual athletics budget of about $28 million.  So, the loss of about $1 million this year will certainly sting, but it won’t be as devastating as for their rivals in Monroe.

2017 Sunbelt Statistics: Sources: knightcommission.org and NCAA.org

Conference USA’s Louisiana Tech Bulldogs had their annual payday road trip game for the 2020 season planned for September 26 at Baylor to play the Big 12’s Bears.  Like the Ragin’ Cajuns, the loss of a $1 million road trip football game won’t kill Louisiana Tech’s $25 overall annual athletics budget.  It certainly doesn’t help, either. 

Whether a mid-level university loses $3 million or “just” $1 million in guaranteed revenue, the athletics budgets at most mid-level universities across the country will feel a big sting this fall.    

Seeing this approaching storm, ULM’s athletics director (Scott McDonald) has be...

Don’t take your love away from meDon’t you leave my heart in misery‘If you go then I’ll be blue‘Cause breaking up is hard to do

That iconic Neil Sedaka break-up song was a huge hit back in 1962 and solidified his name as a pop music icon.  In the mid-1970’s, he sang it once again (but slower this time), and the song once again climbed to the top of the music charts.      

Today, this classic tune does a great job of describing how a growing segment of American sports fans are feeling.  We have invested much of our lives participating in and watching team sporting events on television and in person.    

All Americans (and especially sports fans) are saddened by the tragic events which have made the news in this country during 2020.  Those events rightfully serve as a wake-up call for everyone to do a much better job of trying to get along with their fellow man and woman. 

We really do get it. 

A true sports fan is color blind.  Fans want to root for the players on the sports teams of their favorite schools, colleges, or cities.  The only colors that a true sports fan will notice at an athletic event are the colors on the uniforms being worn that day.   

More importantly, a true sports fan just wants to have a good time while supporting their favorite team.  Sports are a friendly competition.  Win or lose, sports fans generally remain loyal to their favorite teams.  In many ways, we truly do love our sports teams and all of the emotional ups and downs that go along with investing our time and money into this generally pleasant addiction.    

Re-mem-ber when you held me tightAnd you kissed me all through the nightThink of all that we’ve been throughAnd breaking up is hard to do

In this upside down year of 2020, many Americans are showing signs of breaking-up.  Mentally, that is.  The longer this pandemic keeps people from congregating with other human beings (whether at schools, shopping, churches, and, of course, sporting events), the more psychological damage appears to be manifesting in this country.

I wholeheartedly believe that the worst possible activity during this stressful year has been watching the 24/7 television news channels.  If you want to dig a hole for yourself and become even further depressed about the world in 2020, watch more than one hour per day on any of the wall-to-wall “news” channels. 

Even if you haven’t been watching the news channels, the 24/7 sports channels are doing a fine job at depressing you, too.  With no live sporting events to cover, these sports channels are mentioning “Dr. Fauci” nearly as often as they said “Tiger Woods” or “LeBron James” during the previous decade.   We have gone from watching scores and stats on the sports ticker to seeing the crawler advising of more cancelled sports events and increasing numbers of virus cases and deaths.  Sigh.

I get it.  With no sporting events on tap, what are these sports outlets supposed to cover?  They have to fill time and try to preserve what little audience some of these networks actually have right now.  So, they have started covering current events, social issues, and opining about many other things outside of sports. 

Once you go down that road, you are guaranteed to alienate about half of your audience.  The results from any recent presidential election will confirm that simple stat.   For every person nodding in support, there is one other person saying,

The man who has won more major golf tournaments than anyone else (including Tiger Woods) has spoken. 

This past weekend, this same man proved that if the self-appointed “Guardians of Golf” don’t make changes to golf balls and golf equipment, he will inflict punishment on professional golfers all by himself!

That man is Jack Nicklaus.

For many years, golf’s legendary Golden Bear has been trying to get the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Europe’s Royal & Ancient Society (R&A) to make much-needed changes to today’s juiced golf balls and golf equipment and preserve the challenge of some of America’s and the world’s greatest golf courses.

We’ve covered this topic before in this space, but let’s take a closer look at what Jack Nicklaus and many of us golf fans are talking about.

Several decades ago, most championship level golf courses were designed with the idea that professional golfers would rarely hit a 300-yard drive off the tee.  The maximum length of such golf courses generally hovered around 7,000 yards.  Some were a bit shorter (such as Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh at 6,600 yards) while Augusta Country Club in Georgia (home of The Masters) measured at about 7,100 yards.

Just forty years ago in 1980 (the first year in which the PGA Tour’s driving distance statistics became available), the longest driver on the men’s professional tour was Dan Pohl.  His average distance off the tee was 274.3 yards per drive.  The PGA Tour average drive back then was a paltry (by today’s standards) 257 yards. 

Let’s review how distances off the tee have increased by each subsequent decade:

1990 – Tom Purtzer was #1 at 280 yards and the tour average was 263 yards.

2000 – “Long” John Daly led the way at 301 yards with the PGA Tour average at 273 yards.

2010 – Robert Garrigus was the top driver at 316 yards with the tour average up to 287 yards.

2019 – Cameron Champ averaged 319 yards per drive as the PGA Tour average was 296 yards.

Forty is the operative number.  The average men’s professional golfer is now driving the ball about 40 yards longer than he did 40 years ago in 1980. 

So, what does that mean?  It means that, on a par-4 or par-5 hole, the average PGA Tour golfer is likely hitting an average of nearly three clubs shorter into the greens than he did in 1980.   Those 40 yards equate into about three lower club lengths.  In other words, a 6-iron into the green in 1980 has been reduced to a 9-iron today. 

As a result of shorter shots into the greens, the weekly scoring averages have tumbled.   Back in the dark ages of 1980, only two players (Lee Trevino and Tom Watson) averaged fewer than 70 strokes per round for the entire golf season. 

In 2019, the PGA Tour fielded a whopping 16 players who completed the year with a scoring average of less than 70 shots per round. 

Last year’s leader, Rory McIlroy, came in at 69 shots per outing.  During a four round golf tournament played on a Par-72 golf course last season, Rory was statistically likely to finish 12 strokes under par (on average) for any weekly event!

How can we compare the skill of golfers versus those who played 40 years ago? 

While on vacation visiting family last week, I heard the news that ESPN Radio was ending its “Golic and Wingo” national morning radio show after Friday, July 31.  Though changes had been rumored for months, I am still sad to lose the one national radio show that I could usually count on for timely sports headlines and interviews with sports personalities. 

Former Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Mike Golic and ESPN television host Trey Wingo have held the coveted morning drive time slot since 2017.  Prior to that, Mike Golic was paired with another ESPN host, Mike Greenberg, in the highly successful “Mike & Mike” morning sports talk show for nearly 18 years.   At that time, Greenberg moved to television and now hosts the expensive (and poorly rated) morning television show named “Get Up!” on ESPN television. 

ESPN Radio abruptly announced several line-up changes beginning in August, but the omission of Mike Golic from the line-up is the biggest news. 

Despite waves of changes and the egos that come with working in radio and television, Mike Golic seemed to be a steady rudder during his 22-year career on the air at ESPN Radio.   His first two years from 1998-2000 were spent alongside veteran sports broadcaster, Tony Bruno. 

When Tony Bruno left ESPN in 2000, Mike Golic was then paired with sports journalist Mike Greenberg, and the “Mike & Mike” show’s success helped to build a national network of local radio stations seeking to attract the coveted male sports talk listener demographics of 25-54. 

That age group is generally coveted by many advertisers.  It corresponds to being the most likely demographic to succumb to audio pitches to buy the widest variety of products to young families all the way to when Mom and Dad are sending those same kids off to college.  

From 2000-2017, Mike & Mike delivered large audiences as their unlikely chemistry made for entertaining shows nearly every day.  Mike Greenberg’s journalistic perspective often-times clashed with Mike Golic’s defensive lineman “no frills” approach to sports talk.  They were funny at times and entertaining most of the time.

Greenberg bolted for New York City as ESPN television had visions of “Greeny” building a new and larger audience for their lagging morning drive television show.  Despite his expensive contract and new studio set, it just didn’t happen.  ESPN’s “Get Up!” has been a bona fide dud.

On the radio side, ESPN Radio paired Mike Golic with veteran ESPN sports personality Trey Wingo.  Wingo’s television background seemed like a good fit, but his chemistry with Golic just didn’t mix as well.  Whereas Mike Greenberg seemed to enjoy getting under Golic’s skin to poke-the-bear on occasion, the laid-back Trey Wingo seemed to prefer serving-up stories for Golic to tee-off on. 

Though Wingo was quite competent and a respectful radio sidekick, the show’s spicy side went lagging after the loss of the sometimes unpredictable Greenberg.  I would compare the “Golic and Wingo” show to eating a plain McDonald’s hamburger after getting used to a “Mike & Mike” Whataburger with grilled onions, mustard, ketchup, and pickles!

Umm…Tasty!!!

Both Mike Golic and Trey Wingo are in their middle 50’s, and their respective contracts were up for renewal in 2020.   It had been rumored earlier this year that Wingo wanted out and may not have enjoyed the early-morning wake-up calls which mornin...

In a surprise move this week, Fox Sports announced that it was leaving the business of televised golf effective immediately.   Fox cut a deal this week and will hand-over its remaining 7-year contract obligations to NBC Sports to televise all United States Golf Association championship events beginning this year.

Fox Sports said that the C-Virus pandemic was going to cause a scheduling conflict as the June US Open event was being pushed into mid-September and smack dab in the middle of the network’s profitable NFL football schedule. 

Enter NBC.  The Peacock network agreed to take not only this year’s US Open event but walked away with all of the remaining years on Fox Sports’ golf contract with the USGA, too.

Ladies and gentlemen – Fox Sports has just exited the world of televised golf! 

If you’re a true golf fan, can I get a “Hallelujah!” right about now?

Beginning in 2015, Fox Sports obligated itself to a 12-year contract at a cost of nearly $100 million per year for the rights to telecast a number of USGA golf events.  Both the Men’s and Women’s US Open and US Amateur events were the cornerstones of the deal.  The men’s US Open had been covered by NBC for the previous 19 years.

Fox Sports stated that they were looking to revolutionize televised golf coverage as well as grab a share of the lucrative televised golf advertising market.

After Fox acquired the 12-year golf package, former USGA President Glen Nager was quoted as saying, “The game is evolving and requires bold and unique approaches on many levels, and Fox shares our vision to seek fresh thinking and innovative ideas to deliver championship golf.”

For the record, Glen Nager was fired soon after the new Fox golf deal was completed.  The rumor mill suggested that other USGA insiders believed both NBC and ESPN weren’t being given fair consideration during the negotiation process.  Who knows now? 

Any golf fan who has suffered through the first five years of US Open golf coverage on Fox and its pipsqueak cable outlet, FS1, noticed the changes. 

Perhaps Fox Sports had some grand ambitions, but they struck out on the basics.  Things as simple as picking a solid announcer team and having television cameras able to locate where a golf ball was going would have been a big help.

The initial year of 2015 was downright embarrassing for golf coverage on Fox.   

Fox Sports football and baseball anchor Joe Buck was enlisted to anchor the network’s golf coverage, too.  Though Buck said he played golf to about a 5-handicap, he seemed to have a rather limited knowledge of many players and even the rules of golf at times.

He talked.  A lot.  He apparently never learned the adage “Less is best” if you’re the lead golf announcer.

Making it worse, the network tabbed Hall-of-Fame golfer Greg Norman to be Buck’s sidekick analyst.  Fox Sports apparently believed that Greg Norman’s global name recognition along with his Australian accent and good looks were good enough to supplement Buck’s weaknesses. 

Unfortunately, Greg Norman seemed as uncomfortable in the television booth as he sounded on the air to the viewers at home.

During a tune-up golf tournament several months prior to Fox Sports’ first US Open coverage in 2015, Joe Buck acknowledge...

It’s July 1, 2020.  We are now halfway through the weirdest year during my blessed, lengthy and medically out-of-warranty lifetime.

When you think about this year, it feels like we’ve already had two of them.  We had “2020 Pre-March 15” and now are stuck in the “2020 Post-March 15” world. 

Before March 15, there was a Super Bowl played (won by Kansas City, I believe…if I can remember back that far), and we were on the verge of playing the NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments for both the men and women. 

After the pandemic and virus shutdown nearly everything for at least a couple of months, many of us have spent time on countless yard projects (should’ve bought some Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart stocks back in January!) while dreaming and hoping for a summertime end to this pandemic madness.

Instead, we celebrate today as the official midpoint of this uber-depressing year 2020.  The sports landscape has shown a few signs of life of late.  And, sadly, it seems a bit premature to celebrate a return to sports normalcy anytime soon.

Though professional golf (sans fans) has helped me pass the time on a few recent weekends, there was always the hope that fall would once again bring back football and even allow baseball to play an October swan song (in whatever location that may occur). 

Instead, America continues to watch the Great Coronavirus Scoreboard to see how many new cases are added every day.  It’s nothing to joke about, but I personally enjoy watching just about anything except the news and sports channels during 2020.

We really need a sense of humor to return to America again, too!  So, what better way to celebrate today (July 1) as the celebration of Bobby Bonilla Day!

Since 2011 and continuing every July 1 for a total of 25 years, the New York Mets must write a check for $1,193,248.20 to former major league outfielder, Bobby Bonilla. 

Today will marks the tenth year (with 15 more to go!) where this very sharp baseball player gets paid his nearly $1.2 million from one of Major League Baseball’s perennially bad teams. 

How did this happen?

In the year 2000, the Mets wanted to buy-out the remaining $5.9 on Bonilla’s then-expensive contract.  In lieu of a pricey immediate payout, the Mets checked with their financial consultant.  He advised the club that they could invest the money with him for the next ten years, and the Mets would have enough money to pay Bonilla nearly $1.2 million per year for 25 years if he was willing to wait ten years to start collecting it. 

Would you believe that the New York Mets financial consultant at the time was some guy named Bernie Madoff?  Yes, THAT Bernie Madoff.   He is the man who is still in prison serving 150 years for the world’s largest “Ponzi” scheme. Madoff paid his current investors’ some incredibly high interest rates by virtue of utilizing fresh investment money received from brand new investors who wanted the same great deal. It worked swell…until somebody figured out his scam.

Yes, the New York Mets had so much confidence in Madoff that they believed the team would be able to earn a minimum of 10% interest on their $5.9 million owed to Bobby Bonilla. After ten years of fabulous investment returns, the Mets would have enough money to pay Bonilla for his entire 25-year annuity (with 8% annua...

They’re ba-a-a-ck!  The boys of summer are (perhaps) going to trot back onto the grassy green diamonds at the end of July and play an abbreviated 60-game regular season with an October playoff schedule.

Major League Baseball has proven to be the most dysfunctional major sports league during this pandemic year of 2020.   The spring training camps were shut-down prior to the start of the lengthy 162-game regular season. 

While the regular seasons for the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League were nearly completed, the professional baseball campaign never even made it first base this year.   When the team owners and the players union met to delay the start of the baseball season, the interim agreement for 2020 offered the players a pro rata share of their annual salaries based on the actual number of games to be played this year.

However, the owners bungled by not factoring that an abbreviated season might be played without paying fans in the stands.   According to some reports, the average major league baseball team earns about $650,000 per home game from ticket sales, concessions, merchandise, and the like.  Oops.

Over the lengthy delay, the owners realized this mistake and came back to the players asking them to share in the loss of stadium revenues.  The players said, “No, thanks” and stood firm on the original “deal” which would pay them their usual salaries based on the actual number of games played.

Usually, it’s the sports team owners who claim, “A deal is a deal” and the players get riled.  This time, the owners were the ones who goofed, and the players are holding their feet to the fire. 

For over a month, the two sides agreed to disagree.  A number of options were put on the table by the team owners, but, this week, the owners finally capitulated.  A 60-game regular season will start in late July with a full-scale sprint to the finish line in 2020. 

Major League Baseball games in 2020 are expected to be played at “safe” locations (to be determined) without fans in the stands.   It is entirely possible that October’s post-season games and World Series will be played in empty stadiums, too.

What else would you expect in 2020?

If you haven’t already heard, the MLB Players Association must comply with significant changes in the way 2020’s season is traditionally played.  Baseball players must follow an Operating Manual containing the health and safety protocols necessary during this pandemic mini-season.

Let’s be more specific on some of these agreed-to changes:

* No spitting allowed!  That includes smokeless tobacco, sunflower seeds and shells. Fortunately, chewing gun will be permitted.  This one rule will be the most fun to watch on television.  What is the penalty for spitting?  Will violators be sent into Spitting Rehab for this? * No Bat boys or girls allowed!  Players will actually have to go pick-up their bats after flinging them down the baselines after striking out.  Same for chasing down foul balls, too.  Outfielders will be quite busy this year!* All physical contact is prohibited.  That means high-fiving, fist bumping, and, gasp, on-field fighting, too.  Will players be permitted to fling bats (socially-distanced, of course) at opposing pitchers after being beaned in the helmet by a fastball?  This bears watching.* Showering at the ballparks after the game will be “discouraged”.

In case you missed last week’s return to action on the professional golf tour, much of the talk coming out of Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth centered on one particular golfer.

No, not the winner!  Though Daniel Berger survived a playoff to win his third PGA event, the BIG talk of the weekend was about the guy who finished tied for third place.

The focus of the week seemed to be in providing significant coverage to the PGA Tour’s new cartoon character.

Meet Bryson “Bluto” DeChambeau!

The 26-year old golfer has been quite successful over his four years on the PGA Tour.  He already has collected five wins on the big stage and has played for the United States in both the 2018 Ryder Cup and the 2019 President’s Cup.   That’s a terrific start for a young golfer.

Bryson DeChambeau already had no problem in becoming one of the most recognizable golfers on the men’s tour.  A physics major while at Southern Methodist University, Bryson tinkered with his golf clubs and swing in college.  Taking a unique scientific approach, he decided that it made more sense that all of the irons in his golf bag should be the same length (a 6-iron in his case) instead of having clubs of slightly increasing length that have always been considered standard.

When standing over the golf ball, you cannot tell whether DeChambeau is hitting a wedge to the green or a 4-iron.  His stance and set-up are identical.

I tried a set of those irons (made by Cobra) at a local golf store.  Though it feels very comfortable hitting long-irons (4, 5, and 6) with a shorter shaft, the opposite is true when you’re now hitting a wedge, 9-iron, 8-iron, and 7-iron with a longer-than-normal shaft. 

While at SMU, young Bryson DeChambeau put his unique set of “one-length-fits-all” irons to the test.  He had an incredibly successful career as a college golfer in winning both the NCAA individual title and the US Amateur as a senior in 2015.  That’s a feat which had only been accomplished by four other golfers – Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Ryan Moore. 

That’s pretty good company, indeed!

DeChambeau has worn a unique “Ben Hogan” styled golf cap ever since high school.  Remember that another famous golfer who played at SMU wore a similar styled cap – the late Payne Stewart. 

So as he entered the PGA Tour in 2016, Bryson DeChambeau, with his unique golf clubs and knowledge of mathematics and physics, had one of the most unusual resumes on the PGA Tour. 

Unfortunately, his overly analytical reasoning on the golf course have led to allegations of slow play.   His initial success on the men’s golf tour may have helped to grow his popularity, but his continued slow play has been called-out by many of his fellow PGA tour professional golfers. 

In addition to his unique set of one-length golf irons, Bryson DeChambeau has also tinkered with his putting stroke over the years, too.  When he came on the PGA Tour in 2016, he putted standing aside from the ball.  This “side saddle” approach was utilized by PGA legend, Sam Snead, toward the end of his lengthy career. 

Unfortunately, DeChambeau’s inability to sink enough putts early in his professional career led him into another change.   He changed his putting stroke to a very uncomfortable looking one where his left and right arms extend nearly straight from his left shoulder to the ground.

As I write this article, Major League Baseball players and ownership remain unable to come to an agreement to start their season by, perhaps, the end of July.  The 2020 season would last for no more than half of its traditional (and overly long) 162-game slog.

Why haven’t they reached a deal yet?  The players want to be paid on a prorated basis based on the number of games they play.  So, your $10 million shortstop who hit a paltry .235 last year would still make $5 million in 2020 for playing half the normal number of regular season games. 

The owners of Major League Baseball teams, though, have responded by offering the players a percentage of their pro rata salaries to account for losses at the gate and to cover team personnel costs as the 2020 baseball season will likely be played without fans in the stands due to the 2020 C-virus pandemic.

Though it seems quite logical to me as a sports fan but apparently not to the players, MLB teams are admitting that they actually do make more money when fans show up at their home ballparks!   According to one source, the average baseball team will lose about $640,000 per home game if the MLB teams choose to play in empty stadiums in 2020. 

The baseball players apparently don’t appear to care if the owners take a loss by playing games in empty stadiums this year.  They just want their prorated salary based on the number of games they eventually decide to play. 

This dispute between the players and the management of MLB teams seems petty, but it points out something very important which is occurring in the year 2020. 

Do fans in the stands really matter anymore in professional sports?  

You bet we do! 

The NBA is getting ready to find out soon.  After announcing that the basketball league will resume its season in late July in a “bubble” location at Walt Disney World, the games will all be played without fans in the stands. 

As you and I watch an NBA game via television later this summer, it will become painfully obvious that NBA games played in an empty gym may be about as entertaining as watching a competitive pick-up game played at your local YMCA.   

Sure, there will be referees and, who knows, maybe even an organist will be there to play those same silly songs every single time the home team has the basketball. 

C’mon, you KNOW that you miss hearing these tunes at the ball games!

Let’s hope that the NBA will not provide uncensored courtside audio during these games.  No, I am not talking about some pleasantry such as, “Hey, Joe.  I believe that your shoe laces are untied!” 

The NBA might want to strongly consider posting a “Colorful Language Warning” on the television screen during games if live microphones are placed close to the action in an empty gymnasium.  The real sounds heard on the floor of an NBA basketball game aren’t rated PG (even by today’s standards).  Most basketball fans are tuning in for 3-point bombs and not F-bombs.

Unlike Major League Baseball, the NBA is a revenue sharing sports league.  That means that losses incurred during the 2020 Disney World basketball conclusion will be borne proportionately by the owners and the players.   Since the already high prices for NBA tickets usually double in cost during the playoff season, the league and its players will lose a significant amount of ticket revenue during the 2020 playoffs.

As we know, television is the biggest revenue driver for most professional sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball.