Unbridled greed is one of the main reasons the NCAA ‘s system of collusion to hold down compensation for its revenue-generating labor is slowly falling apart. It was easier to sell the farce of amateurism for the players, market-based pay for everyone else when the revenue wasn’t billions upon billions of dollars.
Maybe Little League Baseball, Inc. will learn what the NCAA never did: It’s better to share a slice of the pie now. Don’t want the labor to get the idea in their heads that perhaps they should get a lot more of that pie, seeing as how they are most responsible for making it, and then go the courts for remedy.
The recent decision in O’Bannon vs. NCAA, which held that players should be compensated for the use of their images and likenesses, was the first crack in the façade of sham amateurism. It appears Little League Inc. CEO Steve Keener is slowly getting the message because, after years of sprouting the same propaganda as the NCAA, he says he’s at least open to considering fairly compensating the players.
"I've always felt we need to be as progressive an organization as we can," Keener told Yahoo Sports. "We don't know what's coming. If at some point in time that would be deemed to be appropriate, we'll consider it. At the moment, I don't see the necessity and don't think we should be compensating kids right now.
"Whether at some point down the road any funds could be put aside to help them with college I don't know. Down the road that's something we might take a look at even if it's feasible."
Oh, it’s feasible, all right.
If you've seen the ever-increasing television coverage of Little League World Series games on ESPN, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that Little League is big business. ESPN will pay Little League, Inc., $76 million in television rights fees over the next eight years.
Keener made more than $430,000 in salary and benefits and six other Little League Inc. employees made six figures. Little League gets not only the television rights money but also cash from corporate sponsorships: the “nonprofit” organization paid a company nearly $500,000 for a “corporate sponsor search,” according to Yahoo Sports, which tells you how much that's potentially worth.
As for the players, they get compensated for transportation, meals, lodging, uniforms and equipment. That’s it.
Well, Keener says they get something else, too.
"The experience we're providing them,” Keener said.
Get the flip out of here. I’m sure the kids would have a great experience without Little League Inc. doing everything it can to monetize it.
If you know anything about the NCAA’s campaign against paying players, you’ll recognize Keener’s transparently dishonest rhetoric. Like the NCAA, he’s just trying to protect a system in which the vast majority of the revenue generated by its marketable players trickles up to the top.
There's a reason ESPN will pay $76 million to televise Little League World Series games. A game featuring Chicago's Little League team beat the Cubs and White Sox in the local ratings. A game between Nevada and Pennsylvania last week earned ESPN's largest audience for any baseball game in seven years and any NBA game since 2002.
Yes, more people (nearly 5 million) tuned in to watch the kids play than the pros during that span. That was in large part because of Mo'ne Davis, the 13-year old girl whose strong pitching and sunny personality earned her millions of fans.
Davis' autographed balls were fetching $500 on eBay. Brandon Steiner, the owner of a New York memorabilia company, told USA Today he'd be willing to pay Davis at least $25,000 and as much as $100,000 to sign items.
Well, he would be willing to do it if not for Davis' interest in playing college basketball one day.
"I wouldn't want to get in the way of that, those being the rules," Steiner said.
See what’s wrong with this picture?
Maybe you are worried that kids would become corrupt if Little League paid them. That was one of the NCAA's laughable arguments in defense of amateurism--funny how the idea of market-based compensation is automatically corrupting for athletes but not for the people colluding to keep more money for themselves.
But Little Leaguers are kids, so maybe corruption-through-pay is a more legitimate concern with them (or maybe the concern is more about the adults around them) . Fine: Put the money in a trust the kids can access when they are 18.
It took decades for people to notice or care that NCAA schools were making exponentially more money from the labor and marketability of their players while colluding to limit their compensation. It won’t take nearly as long for people who aren’t low-information reactionaries or gullible sentimentalists to see the same thing is happening with Little League. The courts seem more willing than ever to rule that these arrangements are illegal.
Keener, the Little League Inc. CEO, knows all of this. That's why he's changed his tune, ever-so slightly, on the possibility of paying players.
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