The Wasteland

I get a lot of grief from people for being "negative." I'm too "cynical" and "depressing." Please. . .

 

Most of these comments come from my candid and honest observations concerning the field of romance. Folks, I just quote the facts. 50% of all marriages end in divorce. 50 to 60% of women report cheating on their husbands. 60 to 70% of men report cheating on their wives. These figures are most likely underreported since few people are proud of being unfaithful.

 

The bottom line is that love is a crock of shit. If I ever doubt this, all I have to do is look at a relative going through a divorce or look at a coworker who cheats on his spouse. Love is a wasteland of shattered hopes and broken hearts. I didn't make it this way. I just report what I see.

 

The people who are critical of me come in two varieties. The first is usually a woman hoping to be lucky in love and sees me as someone pissing on her dreams of finding the right man. The second is a man who has just married and is happy as hell. Both dismiss me as being a cynic, but the truth always comes out.

 

Am I happy about all of this? Heck no. I feel bad for people especially myself. Love hurts. It is a scam and a lie. I've been burned, so it's not like I'm speaking from atop some lofty perch unscathed.

 

So, what's a person supposed to do? I don't know. My immediate advice is to never get married. Beyond that, I can't really add anything except to say that it is foolish to find your happiness in another person. I don't think anyone can ever deliver on such a promise as that, and it is a bit unfair to except others to make you happy. People are never satisfied.

 

For me, I find my happiness in my work. I confess to being a workaholic. It is what sustains me. When I lost a friend to suicide, it was work that carried me through. I learned a lesson from that time, and I have carried it with me ever since. Hollywood likes to make movies about the driven workaholic who finds that he needs people in his life especially some woman. What Hollywood doesn't tell you is how six months later that woman wonders where all the money went that came from all that workaholism. This brings us to the other sad fact I must report. The number one cause of divorce is money matters. But I digress. . .

 

I will not deny that I avoid intimacy in favor of work. No woman has ever made me happy, and I know that no woman ever will. But I am happy at work. I even have a little poem I wrote and like to repeat ad nauseam:

 

Never be afraid to bite off more than you can chew.

Happiness is always having something to do.

 

I always have something to do. I'm too busy to be lonely. Fuck the wasteland.

 

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Law Schools with Sports Law Profs, 2006-2007

Last spring, I posted a list of law schools with self-identified "Sports Law Professors." Subject to the disclaimers made in that post, here is an updated list (schools new to the list, or with additional faculty members, are indicated in bold):

Akron; Alabama; Arkansas (2 profs); Baltimore; Baylor; Berkeley; Boston College; Boston University; BYU; California Western; UCLA; Capital; Chapman; Cincinnati; Cooley; Connecticut; University of Detroit (2 profs); Duke (2 profs); Florida (2 profs); Florida A & M; Florida Coastal (3 profs); Florida State; Georgia; Georgia State; George Washington; Gonzaga; Harvard; Houston; Idaho; Indiana; Indiana-Indianapolis; Lewis & Clark (2 profs); Loyola – LA; Marquette (3 profs); Miami (2 profs); Michigan; Michigan State (2 profs); Minnesota; Mississippi College; Missouri (2 profs); Missouri-Kansas City; New England; New Mexico; New York University; North Dakota; Nova Southastern; Nebraska; Northeastern; Northern Kentucky (2 profs); Notre Dame; Ohio Northern; Ohio State; Oklahoma; Pepperdine; Penn State-Dickinson; Puerto Rico; Richmond; St. John’s; Saint Louis; Seton Hall; Southern; Southern Illinois; Southwestern; Stanford; Stetson; Suffolk; Syracuse; Temple; Texas; Texas Southern; Texas Tech; Toledo (2 profs); Tulane (2 profs); Tulsa; Valparaiso; Vanderbilt (2 profs); Villanova; Virginia; Wake Forest; Washburn (2 profs); Western New England; West Virginia; Whittier; Widener (2 profs); William & Mary; Willamette (2 profs); Yale

While it's nice to see some new additions to this list, a number of schools appear to have lost their sports law faculty members: Barry, DePaul, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, and St. Thomas (MN).

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Graduation Gap Bowl

Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe has compiled his annual Graduation Gap Bowl. It compares the Associated Press Top 25 college football teams with how those teams would rank by the graduation rates of their players:

AP Top 25 College Football Team (1st-place votes) Record 1. Ohio State (65) 12-0 2. Florida 12-1 3. Michigan 11-1 4. LSU 10-2 5. Louisville 11-1 6. Wisconsin 11-1 7. Oklahoma 11-2 8. USC 10-2 9. Boise State 12-0 10. Auburn 10-2 11. Notre Dame 10-2 12. Arkansas 10-3 13. West Virginia 10-2 14. Virginia Tech 10-2 15. Wake Forest 11-2 16. Rutgers 10-2 17. Tennessee 9-3 18. Texas 9-3 19. BYU 10-2 20. California 9-3 21. Texas A&M 9-3 22. Nebraska 9-4 23. Boston College 9-3 24. Oregon State 9-4 25. TCU 10-2 Others receiving votes: Georgia 57, Georgia Tech 53, Hawaii 25, Houston 21, Penn State 9, Maryland 6, South Florida 6, Navy 4, South Carolina 3, UCLA 2.

Top 25 Graduation Rates Team Players' graduation % 1. Navy 98 2. Boston College 96 3. Notre Dame 95 4. Wake Forest 93 5. Nebraska 88 6. Florida 80 7. Penn State 80 8. Texas Christian 78 9. Virginia Tech 74 10. Michigan 71 11. South Florida 66 12. Boise State 65 13. Maryland 64 14. South Carolina 64 15. Auburn 63 16. Texas A&M 63 17. West Virginia 63 18. Wisconsin 62 19. Oregon State 60 20. UCLA 59 21. Rutgers 58 22. Tennessee 58 23. Arkansas 55 24. Georgia Tech 55 25. OSU and USC 55 Barely passing graduation rates in the AP rankings: Brigham Young 53, Louisville 53, Oklahoma 52, Houston 51. Teams that should be dropped from bowls on overall graduation success rates: Hawaii 49, LSU 49, California 44, Georgia 41, Texas 40.

Say what you want about Notre Dame football and its fans, but the team's graduation rate is impressive. As to my friends from the University of Texas, ahh . . .

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The Economics of the (Curious) MLB Posting System

Some of the problems associated with baseball's system have been discussed by Rick here, and our friend The Sports Law Professor, here. Now, some of these concerns are confirmed by economist Duane Rockerbie in a new essay posted on SSRN: Peculiarities of the Major Leage Baseball Posting System, which can be downloaded free of charge. The piece contains very little jargon (and no math) and adds texture to the problems associated with the posting system. For example, the author discusses the danger of "foreclosure," under which "one bidder prevents all other bidders from obtaining the rights to negotiate with the Japanese player, even though the winning bidder has no intention of signing the player to a contract." Because Japanese clubs must decide whether or not to accept a bid before learning the identity of the bidder, they are unable to avoid accepting a bid by a club suspected of opportunistic and disingenuous foreclosure bidding. The author describes a possible alternative, the European transfer method for soccer players, but suggests that it would not be an appropriate model for Japanese players moving to MLB because of the relatively few Japanese-MLB transitions each year.

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Weekend Recap

I've been working in Charlotte for a month and getting back on the weekends. During this time, I have been fighting one form of sickness after another. I can't remember what it feels like to be healthy. Right now, I am down to a cough, but my ribs and abs hurt from all of the hacking.

Saturday was my 36th birthday. My friend Tiffany made me a cake which is one of the nicest things anybody has ever done for me.

My nephew celebrated his first birthday over the weekend as well. The party went well except for the homeowner association nazi who came by to rip my brother's ass for parking on the grass. This is the price for living in Mt. Pleasant. You have to put up with a bunch of busybody yankees who come down here to retire. I wish to Christ they would go back to where they came from.

The rest of my weekend was spent resting and recovering from being so damn sick. I'm fixing to go suck down some DayQuil, so stay tuned to the blog here. I'm back from the Queen City, and I have a full spleen to vent.

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New Sports Law Scholarship

New this week:

Herb Smith II, Comment, More a warning than a victory (Clarett v. Nat’l Football League), 7 FORIDA COASTAL LAW REVIEW 745 (2006)

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Patriots Sue StubHub

Just before Thanksgiving, the New England Patriots sued online ticket reseller StubHub.com, a former season ticket holder and former wait list member and other season ticket holders for reselling their tickets online.

The Complaint alleges that StubHub and the sellers interfere with the Patriots' advantageous relations with its fan base, misappropriate the Patriots' name and violate Massachusetts law. The complaint recites in great detail the various aspects of the team's goodwill. Through its season ticket program, the Patriots reward loyal fans by providing access to games at below market rates. Through the team-facilitated TeamExchange ticket exchange, the team provides season ticket holders and wait list members the ability to purchase tickets at face value plus a transaction cost, from season ticket holders who cannot attend certain games. This also benefits the selling season ticket holders by providing them a way to legally recoup the cost of tickets for games they can't attend.

The team argues that StubHub's online resale activities tarnish its goodwill. By controlling access to the stadium, the team provides a secure, fan-friendly experience. The team voids the season tickets of those who behave in an unacceptable manner. It appears from the complaint that many of those with voided season tickets have resold their voided tickets on StubHub. StubHub buyers then show up at the stadium and are denied access. When irate unknowing buyers are denied entry at the stadium, the team's goodwill is compromised and its resources are expended by having to deal with the defrauded buyers.

Lastly and most obviously, StubHub and the resellers who use its service violate Massachusetts law, which prohibits the resale of tickets by anyone who is not licensed and limits resale price to two dollars above face value plus a transaction cost. The exorbitant pure market prices on StubHub far exceed legal limits. It also represents a source of revenue based directly on the Patriots product, yet the Patriots have no share in it.

The suit seeks money damages and injunctive relief. It will be interesting to see how StubHub and the individual defendants respond. While the Patriots' arguments are strong, there are more violators to be dealt with than StubHub. This may be the first move by the typically aggressive franchise.

The complaint itself is accessible for those with access to the Massachusetts Superior Court's website www.ma-trialcourts.org. It is docket number 06-4874 BLS. For those interested, I can email a pdf of the complaint.

My prediction about further action proved true. Sunday's Boston Globe business section features a story about the Patriots rescinding 38 season tickets held by former player Fred Smerlas, who along with radio personality Glen Ordway run www.Patriotstailgate.com, a business featuring access to pre-game tailgates and game tickets. Although Smerlas claims that the tickets are sold at face value within the packages he sells, the team has revoked his tickets for violation of "team policy."

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