I read this today...
Iowa decided to forgo hiring a head coach in 1895 to save money. The plan backfired, as the Hawkeyes limped to a 2-5 record. Iowa football would never again go without a head coach
I thought that was funny since this year we doubled the salary of thier head coach to 2.84 MILLION DOLLARS A FRIGGIN YEAR (plus other perks) and their conference record was 2-6. And if they had actually won a few games he would have made much more. I think he wound up making 3.6 MILLION.
And while this is going on they make it so folks that I know can't afford tickets anymore. They have to make a donation ( a.k.a. extortion) in order to buy the tickets that they have had for many years or even decades. These folks bought tickets and filled the seats even when they sucked ass. But now that we have dumped 80 kazillion dollars into rebuilding the stadium (which really does look nice) instead of moving it away from the hospital so that people don't have to die trying to get to the hospital in an ambulance during game traffic. We double the salary of the coach. Guess what? They still suck. Money well spent.
But the good news is that they will still probably go to a bowl game. Not because they are good, but because of fan support. Fan support means lots of Iowan's love football and lots of them will jump on a plane to go somewhere warm in the middle of an Iowa winter to watch their team get their butts handed to them. They will fill the stands and dump lots of cash in the city. The team will make lots of money for being on TV but they will spend almost all of it sending everyone on the planet, their kids, and babysitters for their kids to the game.
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9 comments:
Show me the money!
On the other hand, even though they had an off year, we have gone to January bowl games the last several years. I don't think we have much to complain about in that regards. We are still Iowa. We're not going to contend for the national title, probably ever again. We can't draw the very best playesr. The best we can hope for is to remain in the top tier of 'very good' teams.
Yep, Kirk makes a buttload of $$. But if you look at the economics of the thing...the stadium is still sold out...and will be again next year even though they pretty much sucked this year. It's market forces at work. There are a bunch of people out there that can afford that crap. Not me.
Any dolt understands the economics of big-time football.
It's the irony of sucking and still being rewarded. Just because some idiots are willing to sit on a hard seat in freezing weather to watch a bunch of men throw a ball around is fine for them but why should the *leader* of these men in tights be rewarded in such an extravagant way. F**k 'market forces', right across the street from Kinnick men and women are earning a minute fraction of Ferentz's salary keeping people alive. Day in and day out they keep the hospital going. What does Ferentz do? Nothing, he adds no social value to the University.
You can argue 'market forces' all day long but at the end of the day it's those that add real value to the University that are taken for granted.
Football is a game, medicine is a real, life or death, service.
You can shove your market forces up your ass.
"You can shove your market forces up your ass."
Wow.
That's thoughtful.
What other system would you suggest? How bout this...YOU decide how much money everyone makes. Sound good? So, how much money am I worth? I work in a factory telling people how much and what time of a certain product to make? What's that worth to society?
Surely you have it all figured out...and can make these decisions better than everyone in the country can by 'voting with their dollars. With your superior intellect, I'm sure you can figure out a way to pay, let's say, teachers, a worthy group, what they are worth. Say, what, about $100G a year? You tell me. Then figure out where that money comes from. Go ahead, let us know. Then tell all those professional athletes that they ain't worth even $40,000 a year. Hell, they don't contibute to society, do they?
People bitch and moan a lot about capitalism, but it is a great equalizer. People can decide for themselves how much of their time/fruits of their labor (read MONEY) that they can trade for something of value to them.
I realize that Ferentz is paid by the university and that's a public entity and out dumber than usual regents have to decide what is the cost/benefit ration. But something has to pay for the women's field hockey program, that generates no income, the swimming program that generates no income, the baseball and softball teams that lose money each year and so on. Putting butts in seats in Kinnick pays for all that crap. If they have to pay to have a quality coach here to insure that, well, that's life.
Name another system that works as well.
I'm waiting.
And do let me know how much you think I should make, too. And how much my sister should make...she's a nurse. She'd like to know. Then tell us how much Kirk Ferentz should make too.
Don't confuse Capitalism with reality. That's the first pitfall of most people.
A rant against the insanity of salary versus social value is just pissing in the wind. Take it at face value. Pardon the pun.
My main point is the 'upside down' insanity of the coach of a dumbass game making exponentially more than health care professionals that actually have a viable social value in society.
Capitalism rewards those that create captial not those that create social value. That's the insane inequity in the system but one that is never going to be addressed since moral choice has been surrendered to the abstract absolute bullshit nonsense of 'free markets' and 'market forces' whatever the hell those phrases are supposed to mean.
Jessica Simpson makes more then any of them. :-)
I don't just have a problem with Iowa over paying a coach. I have a problem with a system that makes it necessary to pay a coach 10x more (or whatever) then the president of the univerity.
As far as justifying his salary by saying that we go to bowl games, this is a really bad year to try to use that. They sucked ass and are still going to decent bowl because Iowa people dump cash in warm places during the winter and cities want some of it. End of story. It has nothing to do with records or coaches.
And why don't you think we can ever contend for a national title, or draw the best players. For what they are paying in coaches salarirs and stadium renovation, I think we should just expect those things to happen.
EDIT above: Why don't you think we _can't_ contend
Because we live in Iowa. Non-sexy. Not enough high-profile alum to bend the rules and pay players. Too much morality, I guess!!!
re: above
Capitalism is our reality.
I would be afraid of any other system that tried to 'legislate' moral values and reward decisions such as who gets paid what based upon their 'viable social value'. Afraid of who would get to make the decision. Today, we all do.
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