Friday, June 20, 2008
Is congress ready to regulate racing?
I've followed the decline of horse racing for years, and it is clear to me that a poor system of governance is part of the problem. The sport has a dim future and competing factions with sharply opposed short term interests. This limits the potential for self-generated governance. But it is not clear what the solution is. A national regulatory authority was proposed at yesterday's Congressional hearing on horse racing. But patchwork state regulation has also been an enormous burden on the industry, literally choking the life out of it and short circuiting the potential for adaptation and change.
This is a tough problem. But it's one with plenty of talking points, so I expect yesterday's hearing won't be the last.
This is a tough problem. But it's one with plenty of talking points, so I expect yesterday's hearing won't be the last.
Labels: governance, horse racing, regulation
Friday, November 02, 2007
England's "Minister of Sport"
In England, there is a government "ministry" that administers .... err, make that meddles with commercial sport. The mere existence of this agency is as fine an example of government bloat as one could imagine. For further evidence, FT.com gives us some quotes from the head honcho:
Gerry Sutcliffe, the sports minister, on Thursday prompted a furious response from Chelsea after singling the club out in remarks about football’s highest earners being paid “obscene” wages by teams losing touch with economic reality and their working class roots.Neither, apparently, does Mr Sutcliffe. The article continues: 'Mr Sutcliffe said there was a balance to be struck in sport between commercialism and governance, “and it’s going too far down the commercial route”.' Ah yes, a government minister making the case for "more governance." As I was saying...
He singled out John Terry, the England captain who commands a salary from Chelsea of more than £130,000 a week, making him the Premier League’s highest wage-earner. Speaking at an FT sports industry conference, Mr Sutcliffe said: “It’s obscene. To be paid [about] £150,000 a week, in relation to the ordinary man in the street – people can’t understand that.” While accepting that professional sportsmen had a relatively short career, the minister said it was unsustainable for clubs such as Chelsea to be heavily in the red. “That’s not living in the real world, in my view. Fans move away from that. Fans can’t understand that level of funding.”
Labels: governance, government
