2007-02-13 05:42:58 · 7 answers · asked by Sharoof 2 in Sports ➔ Basketball
They're not monopolies. They simply have no competition. There is no law prohibiting anyone from starting their own league, but the cost is tremendous, and the odds of it catching on are slim.
2007-02-13 05:49:53 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Excellent "lobbying" of the Supreme Court back in the twenties. Supposedly, professional sports are a game, not a for-profit business. What a lark. In the seventies, the Supreme Court acknowledged as much, but basically said that, since we've been doing it that way for so long, there's no sense a court changing it. So now, every once in a while, Congress threatens to take away their anti-trust exemption status, usually during steroid or gambling scandals....
-Regards
Quote from a letter from US Sen Arlen Specter (R-Pa) to US Sen Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, August 29, 2002.
It is plain that Congress has the authority to revoke the anti-trust exemption. In a 1922 decision in the case of Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 259 U.S. 200, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that Baseball was exempt from the anti-trust laws because it was a sport, not a business. When the matter next came before the Court in 1972 in the case of Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258, Justice Blackmun wrote that Baseball was a business and would be subject to the anti-trust laws but left it to the Congress since Baseball had enjoyed the anti-trust exemption for so many years.
2007-02-13 13:53:47 · answer #2 · answered by dishnivels 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The professional teams can usually dominate the pool of players available and that is how they survive. There are many professional teams in those sports but they end up being minor leagues to the major leagues. There have been attempts to start other top leagues but the free economy ends with the successful teams merging with the more dominate teams. This happened in the NBA and the NFL. There is an American Hockey League with teams in mid major cities that is very successful but they player arrangements with the NHL. They are not formal monopolies but end up being near that. Good question.
2007-02-13 13:52:34 · answer #3 · answered by Tom W 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They aren't. Actually the MLB is the only legal one among sports. The utilites tend to be LEGAL MONOPOLIES. As to baseball don't ask me HOW they got the Govt to give them a pass on the Anti-Trust Agreement but somehow they did. There are other Football leagues. Think of things like the Arena league.
2007-02-13 13:52:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are not at all monopolies...
there was the ABA...a bunch of other basketball leagues...they just died out...the NBA emerged as the best and no one has a problem with it. The XFL attempted to compete with the NFL but it died out too...this question is like asking why a certain show is a monopoly on that specific type of show...its just entertainment...
2007-02-13 13:49:01 · answer #5 · answered by gPearce82 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You're not taking into consideration governmental monopolies, such as the water, mail, rail, phone, or public transport systems.
2007-02-13 13:53:04 · answer #6 · answered by Kilroy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
did you forget Microsoft and
AT&T/Cingular/Bellsouth?
2007-02-13 13:52:55 · answer #7 · answered by Nicnac 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋