Conference 7.286::sports_90

    Ticket prices are not increasing as fast as salaries.  Revenue from
    tickets sales is far exceed by that from Television and advertising.

The 90's will be seen as the beginning of the decline of American professional
sports.   First to fall will be the NBA in the post-Bird and Magic era.  Next
will be MLB, when expansion diminishes the talent pool further and overexposure
on television take their effects.

I predict the 90's will see an entire season of either the NBA or MLB
wiped out by a strike over revenues, especially in the coming years when
oxerexposure causes a decline in tv viewers.   Advertisers won't pay.
Networks will offer less to the leagues. Owners will not pay for free agents.
There will be a division between those players who got the biggest bucks
when the time was ripe and those who don't get it.

Actually, I think pro football will become the sport of the 90's... but only
if the NFL follows through with a major realignment of divisions after
expansion.


I also predict the 90's will see:

	* a superstar athlete killed by a fan 
	* an entire team wiped out by an airplane crash
	* a crash in the sports card/autograph/memorabilia market
	* the first player-owner {Michael Jordan}
	* Pete Rose and Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame

Doug while I may agree with your baseball asumptions I think you're way off
base with the NBA. The popularity of the league has never been higher. The
Athletes just keep getting better and you have the international appeal as
well. Also the owners and the players have a great working relationship.
A good drug program, a salary cap, more tv exposure and a fast pace for
the faster pace we know live at. Football will still rule but NBA may 
become #2 and MLB slip to #3. Sure Magic and Bird got the ball rolling 
but guys like Michael, Akeem, Ewing etc will keep it rolling....

mike

    	Doug, while I agree with most of what you say, I took the
    Nostradamus moniker months ago.  It's MINE!  MINE, MINE MINE!!
    
    				/Nostradamus

    /don, look again.  Doug didn't use "Nostradamus".

    	It's a cleverly disguised lookalike BigMac.  I know I would
    win in court!
    
    				/Don  

	
I saw a guy on Lettermen stop a fan with his tounque .  Big fan too.

mc

    If I interrupt with a note on the topic, (:-)
    
    I've believed for quite a while that games will NOT be played in front
    of live, on-site fans in the next millenium (century, or decade :-)...
    
    If anyone does provide live input, it will be through telecommunication
    somehow.  Why?  'Cuz with the advances in TV (pick your own camera
    angle up in Canada, e.g.), and the cost, time and effort it takes to
    physically visit a stadium, being there is HALF the fun...
    
    Also, as ticket sales become a smaller and smaller portion of revenue,
    there will be little to no incentive for owners to fill the seats...  I
    predict that some upstart league will be created that, to cut costs,
    plays in {fields, arenas, parks} with no seating...   And, seeing the
    success of this sport, will be duplicated by the big four.
    
    I also predict that all sports will become international, basketball
    the first to offer a true professional world championship, followed by 
    baseball, sometime before 2020. 
    
    Salaries will continue to escalate, which has to result in player
    ownership (i.e. salary will be shares of stock).   I'd also be
    surprised if some sort of percentage salaries aren't tried soon (give
    Gretsky 5% of the outstanding stock, plus 1% of the team's gross over
    the next 5 years).
    
    I also have wondered why an entire team has never been taken out in an
    airplane accident, and wondered why sports organizations have not
    adopted any rules to cover this eventuality, nor, to my knowledge, have
    owners taken out insurance policies....  law of large numbers will
    result in this happening EVENTUALLY...  THEN every league will plan for
    it...
    
    I've also wondered why, with all the freakin' lunatics in this world,
    (present company excluded) why some moron hasn't taken a pot shot at
    his favorite teams arch rival (why does the name Lamebrain pop into my
    head now? :-), and I also believe it will happen in the 21st century.
    
    'Course, the other possibility is that the infamous Worldwide Depression 
    and Nuclear Holocaust of 1992 makes radiation-rock hurlin' the Olympic
    sport of the next century...
    
    Have a nice day!
    
    ML

    Check out the predictions in the Book of the Revelation some day.  I
    don't think that's too far off considering the state of the world...
    
    -- dg

    ML,
    
    Most professional leagues do have an emergency drafting plan in place
    in case of a disaster similar to what you mention.  In the cases I know
    of, it involves an immediate draft of players from other teams to
    rebuild the rosters.
    
    There was a plane crash involving the Minneapolis Lakers in either 1958
    or 1959.  Their plane crashed in a cornfield in Iowa somewhere between
    Minneapolis and St Louis.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  That's the only
    such incident on the professional level I know of though there are at
    least 3 plane crashes on the college level - Evansville basketball,
    Marshall football and Wichita State football.
    
    John

The NFL will go down the tubes while the NBA and MLB will flourish....

Why??? I'm starting to lose interest in NFL football while the NBA and MLB
still hold interest for me. Since I am the center of the universe, these events 
will occur ;-)

Bruce

    
    ML,
       Thanks for that upbeat note :^>  BTW...performing in front of
    cameras and no audience. Sounds like professional wrestling to me.
    
    REK, feel free to add you comments on the WWF :^>
    
    Bull~
    

Not only professional wrasslin, but boxing as well.

At least wrasslin calls itself sports enterainment.  Boxing still
masquerades under the assumption that its outcome is not predetermined...

'Saw

	The NFL will finally realize that the only interest left in
their league is a gambling interest.  Tagliabue will be fired and
Jimmy The Greek will be made NFL comissioner.  The NFL will move it's 
offices to Las Vegas and playoff slots will be awarded to teams on the
basis of how they did against the spread.  Gambling will be legalized
nationally and the national debt will be wiped out in three years.

				/Don