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Post by bulkey on Mar 6, 2024 1:05:47 GMT -5
I don't know whether to laugh or cry that Dartmouth's MCBB team just voted to unionize. It's covered extensively at the NY Times, but that may be behind a paywall for some, so here's a free link to Dartmouth's student newspaper: www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/03/we-are-very-happy-mens-basketball-players-union-leader-discuss-historic-voteDartmouth must have lost a great deal of money on its athletic teams (almost all colleges do). Dartmouth officially says that it made and spent the exact same to the dollar (a bit more than $34M), but the "profits" certainly must include massive alumni donations. Average attendance at MCBB games was under 700 (free admission for students; all others pay $5). Average attendance at Dartmouth home football games was 3000 (top prices for tickets for non-students was $20). That program bleeds red, not green (sorry for the double pun: green for money and for Dartmouth). Why are sports different from (say) college orchestras, which give concerts and perform, gratis, at university events? Why shouldn't every student organization with a public face (newspaper, theatre groups, community service groups, etc) demand a salary or some other form of compensation? I'd love to hear arguments to the contrary since I haven't read anything about what the players deserve beyond their right to unionize. |
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Post by meyers7 on Mar 6, 2024 9:09:38 GMT -5
This would be a weird one. Basically they would be asking the student body (which they are part of) to pay them. The school is just going to raise tuition/fees to cover it. They'd be basically screwing over the student body. If I was a part of the student body, I would oppose it. They are already getting a scholarship which I can't get, and making me pay to go to games, and then they are going to raise my tuition/fees to pay them on top of that???
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Post by swash on Mar 6, 2024 13:38:59 GMT -5
This would be a weird one. Basically they would be asking the student body (which they are part of) to pay them. The school is just going to raise tuition/fees to cover it. They'd be basically screwing over the student body. If I was a part of the student body, I would oppose it. They are already getting a scholarship which I can't get, and making me pay to go to games, and then they are going to raise my tuition/fees to pay them on top of that??? Ultimately, the path could lead to ... professional athletes. Paid by contract. Unlimited free agency. A handful of teams pay outlandishly for players. Schools no longer think of it as viable financially or fair in competition. The money will still rule. Most players will be worse off. A few will become wealthy. But even that is a house of cards, because the real goal for those players is to make it to the NBA, who can simply add a new tier ... already funded (even test marketed currently by someone else) ... and corner the market. So the top ... hundred or two ... players skip college and whatever education may or may not have been available. Almost nobody who doesn't make that cut will ever get a shot, because there will be no benchmark for them to show their capabilities. That's thousands of players every year who might never have the chance to play post HS, because those avenues will have cratered. OR Maybe the union will focus on specific and fixable items pertaining to quality of life. Speaking with one voice can be helpful in those areas.... =Rules about days off after traveling, or focused upon better tools or better resources to help kids complete their classwork. =Better "insurance" in both meanings ... coverage for injuries, etc AND considerations following an end to that particular career path. =Some reasonable adjustments that make accessing NIL easier ... or even more profitable. =Maybe they will fight for more electronic activity from the school/program/team ... something UConn has done for a while, but others may omit altogether or perhaps do it better. =A good union would hopefully weed out some of the despicable behavior we have seen from a few bad apple coaches Dartmouth, though? I hope their arguments for doing this are centered on establishing a new groundbreaking norm, not raising grievances. |
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Post by vtcwbuff on Mar 6, 2024 15:10:02 GMT -5
Or maybe a union would focus on what unions do best - make money for the union bosses.
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Post by bulkey on Mar 6, 2024 18:59:07 GMT -5
This would be a weird one. Basically they would be asking the student body (which they are part of) to pay them. The school is just going to raise tuition/fees to cover it. They'd be basically screwing over the student body. If I was a part of the student body, I would oppose it. They are already getting a scholarship which I can't get, and making me pay to go to games, and then they are going to raise my tuition/fees to pay them on top of that??? Ultimately, the path could lead to ... professional athletes. Paid by contract. Unlimited free agency. A handful of teams pay outlandishly for players. Schools no longer think of it as viable financially or fair in competition. The money will still rule. Most players will be worse off. A few will become wealthy. But even that is a house of cards, because the real goal for those players is to make it to the NBA, who can simply add a new tier ... already funded (even test marketed currently by someone else) ... and corner the market. So the top ... hundred or two ... players skip college and whatever education may or may not have been available. Almost nobody who doesn't make that cut will ever get a shot, because there will be no benchmark for them to show their capabilities. That's thousands of players every year who might never have the chance to play post HS, because those avenues will have cratered. OR Maybe the union will focus on specific and fixable items pertaining to quality of life. Speaking with one voice can be helpful in those areas.... =Rules about days off after traveling, or focused upon better tools or better resources to help kids complete their classwork. =Better "insurance" in both meanings ... coverage for injuries, etc AND considerations following an end to that particular career path. =Some reasonable adjustments that make accessing NIL easier ... or even more profitable. =Maybe they will fight for more electronic activity from the school/program/team ... something UConn has done for a while, but others may omit altogether or perhaps do it better. =A good union would hopefully weed out some of the despicable behavior we have seen from a few bad apple coaches Dartmouth, though? I hope their arguments for doing this are centered on establishing a new groundbreaking norm, not raising grievances. Like you, swash, I'm perplexed. A lot of what you suggest above are the kinds of things that in a small, wealthy community that Ivy schools are, most "grievances" are addressed through conversation. Dartmouth has a large endowment, given its obligations (just a med and business school), and can pretty much cover any reasonable athletic needs. The only hook I can see is that Ivy League does not offer merit (academic or athletic) scholarships. All financial aid is need-based. So, wealthier families (I don't know what the level is at Dartmouth, but I'd bet it's income of more than ~$200k/year) may be paying partially for their kids' education. I just don't see what kind of leverage the Dartmouth MCBB team has. They lose a lot of money and finished last in the league (as they often do)! Of course, if Dartmouth doesn't field teams, Dartmouth is no longer part of the Ivy League (which is only an athletic conference), and losing that cache would really hurt Dartmouth's brand. So, threats of forfeiting would carry weight. |
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