<story><title>Olympic executives cash in on a ‘Movement’ that keeps athletes poor</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/olympic-executives-cash-in-on-a-movement-that-keeps-athletes-poor/2016/07/30/ed18c206-5346-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LanceH</author><text>The IOC gets the money because they bring the value to the table.  All these same athletes are competing all year, every year.  Which event does everyone watch?&lt;p&gt;A javelin thrower isn&amp;#x27;t making much money?  I&amp;#x27;m sorry, but I have all the javelin throwers in my life that I need.  Not that I would have seen him on tv anyway since it isn&amp;#x27;t gymnastics, swimming, men&amp;#x27;s basketball or a track final with an American contending for gold.&lt;p&gt;Sure this level of performance is amazing, it&amp;#x27;s just not valuable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Bartweiss</author><text>This is more than a bit unconvincing.&lt;p&gt;I have all the basketball forwards I need, but Channing Frye isn&amp;#x27;t living on food stamps.  He&amp;#x27;s not the one people come to see, but he helps keep a competitive organization running so that there&amp;#x27;s a platform for LeBron (who people &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; come to see).  Your personal interest in a mid-range competitor doesn&amp;#x27;t determine their value, because they&amp;#x27;re helping to enable the higher-profit performers.&lt;p&gt;If the Olympic competition isn&amp;#x27;t a value generator, then the coaches and functionaries enabling the athletes are even less valuable than the athletes themselves.  God knows the spectacle and ceremony part of the Olympics isn&amp;#x27;t a money-maker, that&amp;#x27;s why cities aggressively resist having it come to town.&lt;p&gt;The assumption that any of this is a function of market forces is funny to me.  Sponsorships are probably the only free-market aspect of the whole program (or they would be if they weren&amp;#x27;t exclusive and determined above the athlete level) - the IOC operates as a &amp;#x27;charity&amp;#x27; drawing money from national governments.  As a result they&amp;#x27;re completely un-accountable to market forces, and athletes can&amp;#x27;t make any effort to collect their value.  The highest-profile competition in the world is funded by donations, and they can&amp;#x27;t escape it.&lt;p&gt;Jack Warner and his ilk at FIFA weren&amp;#x27;t making a fortune because they were so efficient and talented, they were making money because principal-agent problems and regulatory capture are real.  If the people raising player funding are also deciding how to spend it, they&amp;#x27;re likely to declare themselves invaluable and keep it all at the top.</text></comment>
<story><title>Olympic executives cash in on a ‘Movement’ that keeps athletes poor</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/olympic-executives-cash-in-on-a-movement-that-keeps-athletes-poor/2016/07/30/ed18c206-5346-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LanceH</author><text>The IOC gets the money because they bring the value to the table.  All these same athletes are competing all year, every year.  Which event does everyone watch?&lt;p&gt;A javelin thrower isn&amp;#x27;t making much money?  I&amp;#x27;m sorry, but I have all the javelin throwers in my life that I need.  Not that I would have seen him on tv anyway since it isn&amp;#x27;t gymnastics, swimming, men&amp;#x27;s basketball or a track final with an American contending for gold.&lt;p&gt;Sure this level of performance is amazing, it&amp;#x27;s just not valuable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ProAm</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s fine, but the IOC should allow the athlete&amp;#x27;s wear their own sponsorship&amp;#x27;s at the games then..  Let the athlete&amp;#x27;s earn their own money.</text></comment>