From shawn@essential.org Tue Mar 18 19:32:11 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 14:32:11 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] WNBA Petition to Preserve Title IX
Message-ID: <3E77743B.6060006@essential.org>
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League of Fans endorses the WNBA's Petition to President Bush and
Secretary of Education Rod Page requesting the preservation and
enforcement of Title IX.
Please sign the petition at:
http://www.nba.com/wnba/title_IX_petition.jsp#petition
Thank You,
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
--------------------
To: President George Bush and Secretary of Education Roderick Paige
We, the undersigned, respectfully request that you act to preserve and
more strongly enforce current Title IX athletic policies.
Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, the number of women in college
sports has grown dramatically from 32,000 to 163,000 today - a gain of
400%. Girls' participation in high school sports has increased 847%,
from 294,000 to almost 2.8 million.
Even with these advances, discrimination still limits girls' and women's
opportunities in sports. Although women in Division I colleges represent
53% of the student body, they receive only 41% of opportunities to play
sports, 36% of overall athletic operating budgets and 32% of the dollars
spent to recruit new athletes. In high schools, the situation is even
more concerning, with many schools still failing to administer boys' and
girls' programs in an equitable manner.
Title IX is a fair and flexible law. Men's sports opportunities have not
suffered as a result of Title IX; in fact, nationwide, men's
participatory opportunities, numbers of teams and sports budgets have
all grown since Title IX was enacted.
Despite these facts, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics' recent
report proposes a number of recommendations that could weaken Title IX
and limit girls and women's future opportunities in sports. In response,
Commissioners Julie Foudy and Donna de Varona issued a minority report
detailing concerns with the majority report and outlining suggestions
for strengthening enforcement of the current law.
Americans overwhelmingly support Title IX. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll
in January 2003 found that 7 of 10 adults familiar with Title IX think
the law should be strengthened or left alone.
We, the undersigned, urge you to preserve Title IX's mandate of equal
opportunity for all by adopting the minority report and by pushing for
greater enforcement of current Title IX policies.
Val Ackerman, WNBA President
David Stern, NBA Commissioner
Val Ackerman, WNBA President
Russ Granik, NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer
Adam Silver, NBA Entertainment President and Chief Operating Officer
Heidi Ueberroth, Executive Vice President, NBA and WNBA Global Media
Properties and Marketing Partnerships
Paula Hanson, WNBA Chief Operating Officer
Tim Andree, Senior Vice President, NBA and WNBA Communications
Teri Schindler, WNBA Vice President of Broadcasting
Renee Brown, WNBA Vice President of Player Personnel
Bob Lanier, NBA Legend Marlies Askamp, Los Angeles Sparks Center
Tricia Bader Binford, Cleveland Rockers Guard
Missy Bequette, Seattle Storm Director of Operations
Gayle Bibby-Creme, Cleveland Rockers Vice President of Business Operations
Bernie Bickerstaff, Charlotte Sting Vice President and General Manager
Carol Blazejowski, New York Liberty Senior Vice President and General
Manager
Janice Braxton, Cleveand Rockers Assistant Coach
Rushia Brown, Cleveland Rockers Forward
Janell Burse, Minnesota Lynx Center
Van Chancellor, Houston Comets Head Coach
Stacy Clinesmith, Detroit Shock Guard
Michael Cooper, Los Angeles Sparks Head Coach
Nancy Darsch, Minnesota Lynx Assistant Coach
Tamecka Dixon, Los Angeles Sparks Guard
Anne Donovan, Seattle Storm Head Coach
Simone Edwards, Seattle Storm Center
Kelley Gibson, Houston Comets Guard
Judy Holland-Burton, Washington Mystics Senior Vice President
Dan Hughes, Cleveland Rockers Head Coach
Kelly Krauskopf, Indiana Fever Chief Operating Officer
Trudi Lacey, Charlotte Sting Head Coach
Takeisha Lewis, Seattle Storm Forward
Pamela McGhee, Detroit Shock Assistant Coach
Katie Smith, Minnesota Lynx Guard
Dawn Staley, Charlotte Sting Guard
Kate Starbird, Seattle Storm Guard
Steve Swetoha, Charlotte Sting, Senior Vice President for Business
Operations
Sheryl Swoopes, Houston Comets Forward
Ed Tapscott, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, RLJ
Basketball
Tina Thompson, Houston Comets Forward
Penny Toler, Los Angeles Sparks General Manager
Michele Van Gorp, Minnesota Lynx Center
Shawn McCarthy, director of League of Fans
Sign the Petition! http://www.nba.com/wnba/title_IX_petition.jsp#petition
Fans and others have until the start of the WNBA season on May 22, 2003
to sign the petition.
###
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure fan accountability, and encourage the sports industry
to contribute to societal well-being.
Please visit the League of Fans website at: http://www.leagueoffans.org/
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League of Fans endorses the WNBA's Petition to President Bush and Secretary
of Education Rod Page requesting the preservation and enforcement of Title
IX.
Please sign the petition at: http://www.nba.com/wnba/title_IX_petition.jsp#petition
Thank You,
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
--------------------
To: President George Bush and Secretary of Education Roderick Paige
We, the undersigned, respectfully request that you act to preserve and
more strongly enforce current Title IX athletic policies.
Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, the number of women in college
sports has grown dramatically from 32,000 to 163,000 today – a gain of 400%.
Girls’ participation in high school sports has increased 847%, from 294,000
to almost 2.8 million.
Even with these advances, discrimination still limits girls’ and women’s
opportunities in sports. Although women in Division I colleges represent
53% of the student body, they receive only 41% of opportunities to play sports,
36% of overall athletic operating budgets and 32% of the dollars spent to
recruit new athletes. In high schools, the situation is even more concerning,
with many schools still failing to administer boys’ and girls’ programs in
an equitable manner.
Title IX is a fair and flexible law. Men’s sports opportunities have
not suffered as a result of Title IX; in fact, nationwide, men’s participatory
opportunities, numbers of teams and sports budgets have all grown since Title
IX was enacted.
Despite these facts, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics’ recent
report proposes a number of recommendations that could weaken Title IX and
limit girls and women’s future opportunities in sports. In response, Commissioners
Julie Foudy and Donna de Varona issued a minority report detailing concerns
with the majority report and outlining suggestions for strengthening enforcement
of the current law.
Americans overwhelmingly support Title IX. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll
in January 2003 found that 7 of 10 adults familiar with Title IX think the
law should be strengthened or left alone.
We, the undersigned, urge you to preserve Title IX’s mandate of equal
opportunity for all by adopting the minority report and by pushing for greater
enforcement of current Title IX policies.
Val Ackerman, WNBA President
David Stern, NBA Commissioner
Val Ackerman, WNBA President
Russ Granik, NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer
Adam Silver, NBA Entertainment President and Chief Operating Officer
Heidi Ueberroth, Executive Vice President, NBA and WNBA Global Media Properties
and Marketing Partnerships
Paula Hanson, WNBA Chief Operating Officer
Tim Andree, Senior Vice President, NBA and WNBA Communications
Teri Schindler, WNBA Vice President of Broadcasting
Renee Brown, WNBA Vice President of Player Personnel
Bob Lanier, NBA Legend Marlies Askamp, Los Angeles Sparks Center
Tricia Bader Binford, Cleveland Rockers Guard
Missy Bequette, Seattle Storm Director of Operations
Gayle Bibby-Creme, Cleveland Rockers Vice President of Business Operations
Bernie Bickerstaff, Charlotte Sting Vice President and General Manager
Carol Blazejowski, New York Liberty Senior Vice President and General Manager
Janice Braxton, Cleveand Rockers Assistant Coach
Rushia Brown, Cleveland Rockers Forward
Janell Burse, Minnesota Lynx Center
Van Chancellor, Houston Comets Head Coach
Stacy Clinesmith, Detroit Shock Guard
Michael Cooper, Los Angeles Sparks Head Coach
Nancy Darsch, Minnesota Lynx Assistant Coach
Tamecka Dixon, Los Angeles Sparks Guard
Anne Donovan, Seattle Storm Head Coach
Simone Edwards, Seattle Storm Center
Kelley Gibson, Houston Comets Guard
Judy Holland-Burton, Washington Mystics Senior Vice President
Dan Hughes, Cleveland Rockers Head Coach
Kelly Krauskopf, Indiana Fever Chief Operating Officer
Trudi Lacey, Charlotte Sting Head Coach
Takeisha Lewis, Seattle Storm Forward
Pamela McGhee, Detroit Shock Assistant Coach
Katie Smith, Minnesota Lynx Guard
Dawn Staley, Charlotte Sting Guard
Kate Starbird, Seattle Storm Guard
Steve Swetoha, Charlotte Sting, Senior Vice President for Business Operations
Sheryl Swoopes, Houston Comets Forward
Ed Tapscott, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, RLJ Basketball
Tina Thompson, Houston Comets Forward
Penny Toler, Los Angeles Sparks General Manager
Michele Van Gorp, Minnesota Lynx Center
Shawn McCarthy, director of League of Fans
Sign the Petition! http://www.nba.com/wnba/title_IX_petition.jsp#petition
Fans and others have until the start of the WNBA season on May 22, 2003
to sign the petition.
###
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve sports
by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of the industry's
relationship to society, expose irresponsible business practices, ensure
fan accountability, and encourage the sports industry to contribute to societal
well-being.
Please visit the League of Fans website at: http://www.leagueoffans.org/
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From shawn@essential.org Wed Apr 2 23:26:02 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 18:26:02 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] League of Fans' testimony
Message-ID: <3E8B718A.4010803@essential.org>
Below is League of Fans' testimony against a taxpayer-subsidized
baseball stadium in Washington DC:
Testimony of Shawn McCarthy,
Director of League of Fans
Before the Committee on Economic Development,
District of Columbia City Council
April 2, 2003
Chairman Brazil and Members of the Committee my name is Shawn McCarthy,
thank you for the opportunity to speak today regarding the D.C. Sports
and Entertainment Commission.
I work in Ralph Nader's office as director of a project called League of
Fans, an effort designed to increase awareness of the sports industry's
relationship to society and to encourage government institutions to act
responsibly in the interest of their citizens when dealing with the
sports industry.
Along those lines, we feel that the D.C. Sports and Entertainment
Commission is failing the city it represents by concentrating its
efforts on gigantic high-profile projects involving narrowly tailored
subsidies of corporate welfare rather than focusing on improvements,
activities and programs designed to spread benefits broadly and enhance
the well-being of the entire city.
Now, the Sports and Entertainment Commission has entangled itself in a
plan for a new stadium to attract Major League Baseball, an egregious
corporate welfare program that would benefit narrow business interests
at the expense of the taxpayer, and I should add, at the expense of
other important concerns, such as our public education, our housing, our
health care, our libraries, our local democracy and our reputation all
of which are in poor condition in D.C.
Corporate welfare programs for major professional sports leagues and
individual franchise owners do not survive on the merits. Rather, they
become entrenched and continue to grow because strong and well-organized
business interests, with huge monetary concerns at stake, aggressively
work to defend and expand them often hand in hand with Mayors, City
Council members and municipal sports commissions with whom they maintain
mutually advantageous relationships.
As with other forms of corporate welfare, these negotiations with Major
League Baseball are predicated on pitting cities against each other in
bidding contests that are structurally biased in favor of Big Business,
in this case a baseball franchise. It is a race to the bottom that the
District cannot afford to enter and a blackmail in which the Sports and
Entertainment Commission should have no role. By choosing to sell Major
League Baseball's arrogant extortion to the public, the Sports and
Entertainment Commission is choosing to exacerbate D.C.'s disparities of
wealth, influence and power that run counter to a functioning local
political system in which the people rule.
Mr. Chairman, I am a sports fan who has paid close attention to the
stadium deals that have taken place across the country over the past
decade. I have watched professional sports leagues and individual owners
manipulate cities into heavily-subsidizing their part-time corporate
entertainment at the expense of daily human needs and public
necessities. And along with the economic values of greed and
overreaching that Major League Baseball uses to exploit, they also use
our unyielding loyalty as sports fans against the cities where we live.
If I have learned one thing through watching city after city fall to
their knees under the weight of the demands for corporate welfare made
by professional sports leagues and franchise owners, it is that if we
truly are sports fans, we must be fans of our cities first.
A final note before closing. The people here today to testify on the
Sports and Entertainment Commission's role in pushing for a
publicly-subsidized stadium represent the beginning of a consumer -
taxpayer - environmentalist - worker - small business - and sports fan
coalition that is consolidated on this issue and will only grow in
numbers and in power. We are unopposed to a baseball franchise in
Washington D.C. But if Major League Baseball wishes to come in here and
reap the benefits of our giant population, huge media market and loyal
sports fans, it will be on our terms.
We already have a stadium for a baseball team to play in which the
Sports and Entertainment Commission runs. As a venue that works for our
city, I'm inclined to think that the Sports and Entertainment Commission
should do a much better job in defense of RFK Stadium. If Major League
Baseball doesn't think it's good enough, then they can gain our approval
as to what improvements to make or where to build a new stadium with
PRIVATE capital, raised independently, to finance the entire project. No
Tax Dollars. No Exceptions.
It is not in the spirit of sport that Major League Baseball pits cities
against each other for the best taxpayer-squeezing deal, and is
certainly no reason for Mayor Williams and the Sports and Entertainment
Commission to encourage the D.C. Council to dangle our tax dollars in
the faces of some of the country's wealthiest individuals and to
rationalize the neglect of their fundamental responsibilities to the
people of the District.
I'd like to thank the committee again for the opportunity to speak today.
###
From shawn@essential.org Tue Apr 8 19:39:04 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 14:39:04 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Letter to LeBron James regarding sweatshops
Message-ID: <3E931748.4010005@essential.org>
Please distribute widely.
----------
NEWS RELEASE
For Release: April 8, 2003
For More Information Contact: Ralph Nader (202) 387-8030 or Shawn
McCarthy (202) 387-8030 / shawn@essential.org
Ralph Nader and League of Fans Ask LeBron James to Push for
Anti-Sweatshop Provisions in His Upcoming Sneaker Contract
Today, Ralph Nader and the sports industry watchdog League of Fans sent
a letter to high school basketball star LeBron James asking him to
advocate for sweatshop eradication measures in his anticipated
endorsement contract with either Nike or Adidas. The letter follows:
Dear Mr. James:
Congratulations on your outstanding accomplishments as both a student
and an athlete at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.
It is widely assumed that you will be declaring for the NBA draft in the
coming months and are projected by most commentators to be the number
one pick. With all of your potential both on and off the court, some
have even labeled you as the "next Michael Jordan."
While any basketball player would revel in having their playing ability
compared to Michael Jordan's, we would like to take this opportunity to
request that you separate yourself from Michael Jordan in an area where
he has fallen markedly short. Mr. Jordan has always had the chance to
use his influence to do something wonderful for the well-being of human
beings in Nike's sweatshops (overseas factories where workers are
subject to extreme exploitation) whose work has helped make him a
multi-millionaire. He chooses not to support justice for those people.
With your anticipated endorsement contract with either Nike or Adidas,
you have the chance to do what Michael Jordan should have done and use
your cultural status to help make the world a better place by helping to
stop the use of sweatshop labor in the sports shoe and sports apparel
industry.
Nike and Adidas (along with Reebok) are synonymous with sweatshops in
Third-World countries. Their products, typically manufactured by
subcontracted companies, have become symbols of labor rights violations,
paltry wages, forced overtime and abuse for hundreds of thousands of
workers. And despite pressure from around the world, Nike and Adidas
still choose to maximize profits by undermining human rights standards.
It does not matter which of these companies you ultimately choose to
endorse, but we ask that you stand up for the people who will be
manufacturing the products that will make you a wealthy man. If you
demand in your contract, whether it is with Nike or Adidas, that they
improve the conditions of the contracted factories that manufacture
their products and that you have power to influence and review the
working conditions for those who make the products you endorse, it will
pressure the entire sports shoe and apparel industry to change.
Some refer to Michael Jordan as the "king of sweatshops" for being the
world's most successful salesman of sweatshop-made shoes. As New York
Times columnist Harvey Araton wrote in September 2001, "No one has ever
confused you, Michael, with Muhammed Ali or Martina Navratilova or
Arthur Ashe. With your icon leverage you might have helped convert
Nike, the notorious third-world workplace abuser, but you didn't do
causes that were not commercials."
In the coming weeks and months, you will find yourself in a strong
position with the ability to help diminish or even eliminate some
sweatshops. As Nike and Adidas compete for your services, we urge you
to push for inclusion of as many of the following contract conditions as
possible. In their global operations, including those of contractors
and subcontractors, Nike/Adidas must:
1) Ensure the enforcement of workers' rights to organize and bargain
collectively (unionize) without intimidation.
2) Signal to factory owners and governments in supplier countries that
enforcement of labor standards, including increased wages, will not lead
to relocation in search of even cheaper labor.
3) Ensure that workers are paid living wages which are at least adequate
to meet the basic needs of family and allow a small amount of
discretionary income.
4) Ensure that workplaces are safe and healthy, eliminating exposure to
toxic chemicals, providing adequate personal protective equipment and
protecting workers from dangerous machinery.
5) Ensure that workers are not forced or coerced into working
unreasonably long hours and that workers can obtain sick leave.
6) Ensure that workers are free from physical and verbal abuse,
intimidation and sexual harassment.
7) Secure the protection of workers who speak out or blow-the-whistle on
poor factory conditions.
8) Make public the names and locations of all overseas contractors.
9) Work with international unions and human rights organizations to
establish a transparent factory monitoring program that is verified by
credible organizations which are completely independent of the companies
themselves and involve unannounced factory visits. (Such a program was
created by United Students Against Sweatshops, an organization of
college students and community members at over 200 college campuses
across the country. They developed the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)
in 2000 to verify and inspect conditions in factories producing apparel
for colleges and universities and to ensure that the apparel of WRC
member schools (112 and growing) are not made in sweatshops.)
10) Guarantee, with confirmation from an independent organization
through a transparent factory monitoring program, that any product that
uses the "LeBron James" name or likeness meets the conditions negotiated
initially.
If Nike or Adidas were to meet these demands, the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people would be improved immediately. You will have your
greatest leverage to push the companies to meet as many of these
conditions as possible during your contract negotiations with them. It
is then that you can best seek legally binding, written commitments. If
you proceed to advocate for as much of this sweatshop eradication agenda
as possible, you would be respected throughout the world for not just
your ability to play basketball, but for your generosity as a human
being in doing your part to make the world a better place.
This is of course a lot to ask of a young man. But you are on the verge
of choosing to immerse yourself in the world of international commerce,
which inevitably brings with it a wide array of complicated and
difficult challenges and decisions. Moreover, in choosing to leverage
your power to diminish the evils of sweatshops, you can call not just on
the talents of your agent and legal representatives, but a vast array of
experts and activists who have visited sweatshops around the world,
carefully documented conditions in these facilities, lobbied tirelessly
for the major athletic shoe, clothing and equipment makers to respect
basic working conditions, and who have established bona fide and
independent mechanisms to monitor workplace conditions. These experts
and activists, many little older than yourself, would be thrilled to
assist you in the effort to ensure respect for the basic rights of
workers in athletic shoe, clothing and equipment factories around the world.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Shawn McCarthy
Director, League of Fans
###
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and author. He is the founder of
League of Fans.
Shawn McCarthy is the director of League of Fans, based in Washington, DC.
###
The mission of League of Fans is to improve sports by working as a
sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of the industry's
relationship to society, expose irresponsible business practices, ensure
fan accountability, and encourage the sports industry to contribute to
societal well-being. The League of Fans website is at:
www.leagueoffans.org.
From shawn@essential.org Thu May 8 23:18:17 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 18:18:17 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] League of Fans letter to the NCAA and NFHS regarding aluminum bats
Message-ID: <3EBAD7A9.4000102@essential.org>
League of Fans Urges the NCAA and NFHS to Ban All Non-Wood Baseball Bats
that Exceed the Performance of Wood Bats
Advocating a commitment to the safety of student-athletes over the
interests of high-tech bat companies, the sports industry watchdog
League of Fans sent a letter today to the presidents of the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Federation of State
High School Associations (NFHS). The letter urges those governing
bodies to show leadership and protect their student-athletes from the
unreasonable risk of serious injury caused by high-performance aluminum
baseball bats when balls are launched from them during games. The
letter follows:
----------
May 8, 2003
Myles Brand
President, National Collegiate Athletic Association
Scott Blanchard
President, National Federation of State High School Associations
Dear Gentlemen,
As leaders of your respective governing organizations, I hope that you
are not reluctant to take stands on issues of great importance to the
well-being of student-athletes and to the relationship of college and
high school athletics to society as a whole.
I work in Ralph Nader's office on a sports industry watchdog project
called League of Fans. Among the broad range of concerns that we hope
to influence for the better are issues of health and safety in sports.
Along those lines, I am writing to express the concerns of many people
across the country who feel that the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School
Associations (NFHS), as organizations that hold the responsibility of
protecting student-athletes from unreasonable harm within their sports,
are not committed to that function regarding the risks associated with
the high-performance aluminum baseball bats used in college and high
school competition.
To be sure, the bat performance rules and testing standards that are now
in use represent a positive step forward from the scarcely regulated bat
industry of the mid-to-late 1990's. But these regulations still fall
dangerously short of where they should be. Representatives of the NCAA
and NFHS have each stated in the past that they want the performance of
bats to be wood-like, yet neither governing body is willing to either:
1) require bats to be made out of wood; or 2) require bats that are not
made out of wood to not exceed the performance of wood in any way.
Instead of bringing bat performance in line with the "wood standard", a
level of risk associated with wood bats that has been generally accepted
by all associated with the game of baseball as a "reasonable" level of
risk for over a century, the NCAA and NFHS failed to take the necessary
steps to lesson the likelihood for tragedy.
Though the safety hazard of high-performance aluminum bats is difficult
to quantify, it is universally agreed upon that today's aluminum bats
hit the ball harder (traveling faster and farther) and more often than
wood bats. Common sense would declare that, with everything but the bat
being equal, if a ball is hit harder and more often, there is obviously
a greater risk of injury. These high-tech bats are not tools, they are
weapons.
Consider for a moment that today's aluminum bats would never be allowed
in professional baseball. Extraordinary measures would have to be taken
to protect players and fans from being killed or mutilated in such a
situation. For example, a batting practice screen would have to be
placed in front of pitchers during games. Infielders would have to move
into the outfield and fans would either have to be moved well away from
the field, or be protected by a screen surrounding the field.
At the collegiate and high school levels, some experts contend that it
is not your respective governing bodies who are calling the shots on the
bat safety issue at all. They argue that, in effect, it is the major
bat manufacturers who are in charge, along with the college baseball
coaches under contract with those companies for free bats or tens of
thousands of dollars a year for using a certain bat. Representatives of
these bat companies, in displays of denial that would make tobacco
executives proud, repeatedly defend the aluminum bats by saying that
they don't believe those bats are any less safe than wood.
Concerned people throughout the country are beginning to view this
operation as a "fox guarding the henhouse" model where major bat
companies, in knowing production of unsafe products, are left in charge
of student-athlete safety in baseball. When the NCAA approved the more
wood-like 93 mph exit speed regulation (which still ignored the much
larger "sweet spot" of aluminum bats that create a higher percentage of
hard hit balls and dangerous line drives) for bats in 1998, it looked as
though the NCAA was finally making an effort to prevent a health and
safety disaster. But when they caved in to the bat manufacturers'
protests and lawsuits, and undercut the exit speed regulation, it became
clear as to who was actually running the show.
Instead of waiting for the seemingly toothless watchdogs of the NCAA and
NFHS to take appropriate precautions for the safety of their
student-athletes, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association
took it upon themselves to prohibit the use of non-wood bats in the
state high school baseball tournament this spring to be followed by an
entire season of wood-only use in 2004. The country is watching the
situation in Massachusetts with great interest as other states consider
a switch for high school baseball even if the NFHS does nothing.
As the major high-performance bat manufacturers (who also make wood
bats) fight to maintain their profit margins, they argue that aluminum
bats are as safe as wood and that there is no way to prove that the
players who have been injured from balls launched off aluminum bats
would not have been hit if the balls came off wood bats. But as Bill
Thurston, baseball coach at Amherst College and former rules editor of
the NCAA baseball rules committee, told the New York Times, "That's
true. If I have a car accident going 70 mph, I can't prove it wouldn't
have happened if I were going 55 mph. But I would like those chances."
Jack MacKay, a designer of high-performance bats for Hillerich & Bradsby
from 1986 to 1997 resigned out of concern that the bats being designed
and produced were much too dangerous to players. Now a whistleblower,
MacKay works to undo his past work through lobbying for tougher
regulations, providing expert testimony and releasing internal memos
from the bat companies showing their disregard for safety. "Little did
I know when I designed those bats, we would end up with something that
was just lethal," MacKay told the Associated Press. "Bats now act like
tennis rackets."
In MacKay's petition to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
(CPSC) requesting a rule requiring all non-wood baseball bats to perform
like wood bats, he asserted that bat manufacturers violated federal law
by failing to report information to the CPSC about serious injuries
sustained by people injured by their products. The CPSC ultimately
denied the petition claiming a lack of information. But as MacKay told
the News and Observer, "Every time someone gets hit by an impact from an
aluminum bat, they get a fractured skull, it seems like. It doesn't
take a rocket scientist to see what we did was wrong."
The NCAA and NFHS need to show leadership on this critical issue. Your
organizations should not have to wait for a mandate from the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission, or wait for potential tragedies to
become real. Surrendering to the demands of bat manufacturers is
placing student-athletes of high school and college baseball in harms way.
If the bat companies wish to continue producing non-wood baseball bats
for competition, their efforts and technology must be used to design
those bats so they do not exceed the performance attributes of wood,
without exception. Even though it is the responsibility of those
companies to use their technology to ensure the manufacture of safe
products, in the absence of that responsibility it is the obligation of
your respective governing bodies to take action for the safety of
student-athletes.
I look forward to your considered responses on this matter.
Sincerely,
Shawn McCarthy
Director, League of Fans
###
If you agree with League of Fans on this critical issue, please call or
write the presidents of the NCAA and NFHS, tell them how you feel and
encourage them to take action for the safety of their student athletes.
Their contact information is below. Thank You.
Myles Brand
President
National Collegiate Athletic Association
700 W. Washington Street
P.O. Box 6222
Indianapolis, Indiana 46206
Phone: (317) 917-6222
Fax: (317) 917-6888
Scott Blanchard
President
National Federation of State High School Associations
P.O. Box 690
Indianapolis, IN 46206
Phone: (317) 972.6900
Fax: (317) 822.5700
###
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being. League of Fans' website
is at: www.leagueoffans.org.
From shawn@essential.org Mon May 19 22:53:07 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 17:53:07 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Nader Q&A on Sports Issues
Message-ID: <3EC95243.8090907@essential.org>
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CHAT ROOM; Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Sunday May 18, 2003
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/5890041.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Ralph Nader has rooted for the Yankees "since the early days of Joe
DiMaggio," and, though most people don't associate the Green Party's
2000 presidential candidate with sports, he has been active in the
politics of athletics since founding a group known as FANS in the 1970s.
His current venture into that arena is the League of Fans
(www.leagueoffans.org ), a watchdog group
that has protested the officiating in last season's Kings-Lakers NBA
playoff series and taxpayer-financed stadiums for pro teams. Last month,
Nader wrote to high school basketball star LeBron James, urging him to
demand that his shoe-endorsement contract include pledges from the
company to improve wages and conditions for workers in its overseas
factories.
Are you a sports fan? No, I'm not a real big sports fan, but I do read
the sports pages every day. And like everyone else, I get more
interested when the playoffs start in whatever sport is going on.
With all that's going on in the world, why did you make an issue of NBA
officiating? That was in the middle of the corporate-abuse scandals,
when people had their trust betrayed by companies like Enron and
WorldCom. And I thought, you know, if people are going to have to put up
with that kind of thing in business, they ought to at least be able to
get away from it in sports. When you sit down and watch your team, you
want to have confidence everyone is going to get a fair shake. But that
wasn't happening. So I reacted as a fan. And believe me, when I can spot
bad officiating, it's got to be really bad. I mean, I can't see most
fouls, but I could see when [Mike] Bibby got bopped by Kobe, and then
Bibby got called for the foul. The officials cost the Kings the series
and maybe the NBA championship. I tried to explain the importance of
that credibility to [NBA commissioner] David Stern, but I realized when
I talked to him that he just didn't get the message.
Was there a conspiracy? I don't know. Frankly, the fact that they made
the calls all in the direction that would provide greater sales and
revenue for the NBA is not evidence. But if the officials wanted to
ingratiate themselves with the top guys in the league, what better way?
I agree with Mark Cuban that the officiating needs to get better and
needs more accountability. We need more owners like him, people who are
willing to challenge authority.
What would you like LeBron James to do, and what do you think he will
do? Well, we haven't gotten an answer from him, and I suppose we won't.
What do we want him to do? He could ally himself with the broad-based
anti-sweatshop movement that includes a lot of people his age, young
people who understand what is going on and are working to stop it. He
could be a prominent voice on this issue, someone who could bring
attention to the problem. He's in the driver's seat. He's in demand. He
could certainly raise the issue with the shoe companies and at least ask
for one or two of the proposals to be accomplished. He could ask the
companies to provide a public report on the improvements being made.
-- Andy Friedlander
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CHAT ROOM; Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate
Fort Worth
Star-Telegram
Sunday May 18, 2003
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/5890041.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Ralph Nader has rooted for the Yankees "since the early days of Joe DiMaggio,"
and, though most people don't associate the Green Party's 2000 presidential
candidate with sports, he has been active in the politics of athletics since
founding a group known as FANS in the 1970s.
His current venture into that arena is the League of Fans (www.leagueoffans.org), a watchdog
group that has protested the officiating in last season's Kings-Lakers NBA
playoff series and taxpayer-financed stadiums for pro teams. Last month, Nader
wrote to high school basketball star LeBron James, urging him to demand that
his shoe-endorsement contract include pledges from the company to improve
wages and conditions for workers in its overseas factories.
Are you a sports fan? No, I'm not a real big sports fan, but I do read
the sports pages every day. And like everyone else, I get more interested
when the playoffs start in whatever sport is going on.
With all that's going on in the world, why did you make an issue of NBA officiating?
That was in the middle of the corporate-abuse scandals, when people had their
trust betrayed by companies like Enron and WorldCom. And I thought, you know,
if people are going to have to put up with that kind of thing in business,
they ought to at least be able to get away from it in sports. When you sit
down and watch your team, you want to have confidence everyone is going to
get a fair shake. But that wasn't happening. So I reacted as a fan. And believe
me, when I can spot bad officiating, it's got to be really bad. I mean,
I can't see most fouls, but I could see when [Mike] Bibby got bopped by Kobe,
and then Bibby got called for the foul. The officials cost the Kings the
series and maybe the NBA championship. I tried to explain the importance of
that credibility to [NBA commissioner] David Stern, but I realized when I
talked to him that he just didn't get the message.
Was there a conspiracy? I don't know. Frankly, the fact that they made
the calls all in the direction that would provide greater sales and revenue
for the NBA is not evidence. But if the officials wanted to ingratiate themselves
with the top guys in the league, what better way? I agree with Mark Cuban
that the officiating needs to get better and needs more accountability. We
need more owners like him, people who are willing to challenge authority.
What would you like LeBron James to do, and what do you think he will do?
Well, we haven't gotten an answer from him, and I suppose we won't. What do
we want him to do? He could ally himself with the broad-based anti-sweatshop
movement that includes a lot of people his age, young people who understand
what is going on and are working to stop it. He could be a prominent voice
on this issue, someone who could bring attention to the problem. He's in the
driver's seat. He's in demand. He could certainly raise the issue with the
shoe companies and at least ask for one or two of the proposals to be accomplished.
He could ask the companies to provide a public report on the improvements
being made.
-- Andy Friedlander
--------------000801070608010403000009--
From shawn@essential.org Wed May 28 17:08:32 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 12:08:32 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] NY Times on our letter to LeBron James regarding sweatshops
Message-ID: <3ED4DF00.4070409@essential.org>
Should the 'Next Jordan' Strive to Be Unlike Mike?
By HARVEY ARATON
New York Times
May 24, 2003
The day after news of LeBron James's staggering Nike deal worth a
reported $90 million, America's most famous consumer advocate was
wondering what the "next Michael Jordan" was going to give back.
"People say it's unfair to burden an 18-year-old with demands of social
consciousness," Ralph Nader said yesterday from his office in
Washington. "My answer is that he's not getting an 18-year-old's salary.
This contract proves he has enormous bargaining power, a superstar's
physical image."
When Nader and his sports consumer advocacy group, the League of Fans,
wrote James and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, last month, it was a gentle
prodding to bargain for third-world workers, to avoid becoming the next
Michael Jordan.
"You are on the verge of choosing to immerse yourself in the world of
international commerce," Nader wrote of James's negotiations with the
merchandising giants Nike, Reebok and Adidas, "which inevitably brings
with it a wide array of complicated and difficult challenges and
decisions."
Not surprisingly, Nader was widely accused of maladroitly mimicking the
more private mailing, from Martha Burk to Hootie Johnson, on the issue
of female membership at Augusta National Golf Club. Goodwin, the agent,
did not respond to the letter, or to a phone call yesterday for comment
on the fairness of publicly pressuring his prodigy, who has yet to play
his first professional game.
Fairness, Nader argued, applies first and foremost to society's victims,
not its victors. "We live in a celebrity culture," he said. "This is a
strategy based on necessity. There has to be social pressure because the
reality is that the people who work in these horrible conditions could
come here and call a press conference and not get any of the attention
that this kid gets for making $90 million."
After years of being pilloried, Nike has implemented some labor
improvements without Jordan's ever risking a dollar. Frankly, I am of
the mind that activism must ultimately be more of a calling than a
commandment. But beyond the specifics of third-world labor, Nader may
unwittingly be making a wider statement that an attitude adjustment by
the super sports pitchmen would, in itself, be a wise personal investment.
In his letter to James, Nader wrote that Jordan has chosen "not to
support justice" for improved working conditions in third-world
factories that produce products he has richly benefited from. This
doesn't mean Jordan has had no positive impact on the sports and
entertainment culture. He alone cast the mold that now produces the
likes of James, the corporately leveraged soon-to-be Cleveland Cavalier,
inside and outside the lines.
Jordan just never found the motivation to wield his power for causes
social or political. He played it safe, down the commercial center. As
he said when a black Democratic candidate, Harvey Gantt, tried to unseat
Senator Jesse Helms in Jordan's native North Carolina: "Republicans buy
shoes, too."
This was no crime, just his choice. But in that context, the recent
outcries of injustice -- the hint, even, of racism from Jordan's minions
after his firing in Washington -- were downright comical, and cruel,
given the charitable and social record of the Wizards' owner, Abe Pollin.
For once in Jordan's professional life, he did not have the leverage. At
40, five years beyond his last playoff heroism, the bottom line is that
he was cut because he shot air balls from the front office.
If I were adviser to the reigning pitchman, Tiger Woods, or James, the
new Nike pinup, I would be coming to the realization that Jordan's
commercial strategy, while extraordinarily lucrative, has come with
likability term limits. By comparison, who would have thought more than
a decade ago when he retired from the Lakers after contracting the virus
that causes AIDS that there would now be more magic in Earvin Johnson's
public persona than in Jordan's?
Johnson found a corporate calling, in the luring of companies to
inner-city communities, creating commerce and jobs. Even factoring for
inflation, Johnson and even Jordan never made the kind of money James
will earn as a teenager. Given that scale, Nader is right. Most of these
athletes play in luxurious taxpayer-financed arenas and reap every
public benefit. James may be too young to feel the pain of others but he
is not too innocent to be told how lucky he is and how he might help.
"As far as our monitoring of workplaces goes, Nike is not very high on
the human rights list," Marisol Enyart, the California organizer for the
United Students Against Sweatshops, said yesterday.
Blessed with the opportunity to play in Cleveland, a short drive from
the poverty in which he was raised in Akron, James can expect Nader and
the student group to stay on his case. "We're going to keep trying,"
Nader said. "I know they'll say, `He needs to focus on basketball,' that
he doesn't need the controversy, but this is not really a controversy
anymore. Even Phil Knight admits that," he said, referring to Nike's
chief executive. "It's just the right thing to do."
Based on the Jordan model, growing a social conscience, the sooner the
better, may also be the smart thing to do, long term.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
From shawn@essential.org Mon Jun 2 20:37:40 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 15:37:40 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] DC stadium online petition
Message-ID: <3EDBA784.2080609@essential.org>
Friends of the League of Fans:
We, along with many other civic and neighborhood organizations have a
petition circulating in Washington DC in opposition to a
taxpayer-subsidized baseball stadium in the District. I have just
posted an online version for people to sign at http://www.leagueoffans.org/
Although this stadium deal is a local issue, we are encouraging
non-residents of DC to sign on and show Mayor Williams and the DC
Council that it is also a national issue with lots of opposition. There
will be a series of Council committee hearings beginning this month and
we'd really like to bury this thing.
I haven't posted the disclaimer yet, but I promise that your name and
address information will not be used for any purpose other than
collecting valid online signatures for this petition.
Thanks for your support. Please distribute the petition widely and
encourage others to sign.
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
From shawn@essential.org Fri Jun 6 20:03:46 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 15:03:46 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Support "SPARTA"
Message-ID: <3EE0E592.1020106@essential.org>
League of Fans Supports National Legislation Targeting Unethical Sports
Agents
Posted: June 6, 2003
The "Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act" or "SPARTA" protects
student-athletes by prohibiting sports agents from tempting players to
sign or agree to an agency contract by:
- Providing false or misleading information, or making false or
misleading promises or representations;
- Providing anything of value, such as gifts, cash or a loan to the
student-athlete or anyone associated with the athlete;
- Failing to disclose in writing to the student-athlete that he or she
may lose NCAA eligibility after signing an agency contract; or
- Predating or postdating contracts.
SPARTA brings sports agents under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), and considers sports agents who lure student-athletes
with lies and gifts to enter into agency contracts in violation of the
FTC's unfair and deceptive businesses act.
Unethical behavior is already outlawed by the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA) and some states, but jurisdictional issues
and lack of uniformity have stymied meaningful enforcement. Seventeen
states have no laws regulating sports agents. SPARTA has gained broad
national support.
The cosponsors of the House Bill (H.R. 361) are Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN),
and Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE). The legislation passed the House of
Representatives on June 4, 2003.
"All sports agents know it's against NCAA rules for athletes to sign
with them and still compete in college sports," Rep. Gordon said. "But
that doesn't stop unscrupulous agents from disregarding the rules and
aggressively pursuing these kids anyway, possibly ruining a chance to
compete on the college level and get a degree."
"I experienced first-hand the difficulty in trying to keep agents and
their runners from attempting to illegally recruit my players with cash
and gifts. These student-athletes are just trying to reach for their
dreams and too often an unethical sports agent will take advantage of
them and cause them to lose everything," Rep. Osborne said. "This
legislation works to put a stop to unethical sports agents preying upon
hundreds of college athletes on campuses across the U.S."
The legislation must next be approved by the Senate. The Senate's
version of SPARTA (S. 1170) was introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on
June 3, 2003.
League of Fans urges everyone to contact their respective Senators and
urge them to support this important legislation. The tampering by agents
encroaching into amateur sports who wish to feed off of student-athletes
must stop.
Vote for S. 1170! Visit the Senate website to contact your Senator:
http://www.senate.gov/
Or call the US Capitol Switchboard at: (202) 224-3121
###
Access and View the Legislation:
H.R. 361 - http://thomas.loc.gov/ - Sports Agent Responsibility and
Trust Act (type HR 361 for "Bill Number")
S. 1170 - http://thomas.loc.gov/ - Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust
Act (type S 1170 for "Bill Number")
###
More on SPARTA:
Associated Press -
http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/a/w/1153/6-4-2003/20030604124502_36.html
- Bill Targets Unethical Sports Agents (6/4/03)
Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) -
http://gordon.house.gov/NR/exeres/58F9238F-4D24-47E5-AA25-CBC7BF422CAC.htm
- Gordon's Sports Agent Bill Slated For House Consideration (5/21/03)
Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE) -
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ne03_osborne/60403SPARTApass.html -
House Passes Rep. Osborne's SPARTA Legislation (6/4/03)
###
www.leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Thu Jun 26 19:17:05 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 14:17:05 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
Message-ID: <3EFB38A1.9080501@essential.org>
--------------------------------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
League of Fans - June 26, 2003
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
New and very disturbing ground has been broken in the
over-commercialization of sports. It appears the Chicago Bears have
thanked Chicago's taxpayers and fans for the $500 million renovation of
Soldier Field, by changing their name to "Bears football presented by
Bank One."
Dangerous precedent - Bank One to be Bears' presenting sponsor
ESPN.com - June 24, 2003
"They are not just 'da Bears' anymore. They are now 'Bears football
presented by Bank One.' In an unprecedented NFL move, Bank One on Monday
paid an undisclosed amount to be the Chicago Bears' 'presenting partner'
for the next 12 years, Knight-Ridder reported."...
http://espn.go.com/sportsbusiness/news/2003/0624/1572282.html
Meanwhile the stadium naming rights beat goes on.
What's in a name? At U.S. ballparks, big bucks
Reuters - June 23, 2003
..."'The victory in San Francisco last year was huge. Candlestick was
the first pro stadium to return to its popular name,' said Gary Ruskin,
executive director of Commercial Alert, a group opposed to excessive
commercial advertising. 'It showed the tremendous hatred that sports
fans have for these naming rights deals.'"...
http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2003/06/23/rtr1007645.html
Talks to open over naming rights to Lambeau Field
ESPN.com - June 19, 2003
..."For the Packers, selling the naming rights is at odds with what the
redevelopment plan is supposed to be about: preserving the legacy of
city-owned Lambeau Field. An agreement between the Packers and the City
of Green Bay says the two sides must work together to sell the naming
rights. The naming rights, if they were to be sold, would only be for
the name of the stadium."...
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0619/1570576.html
Bank it: Naming rights sold for Phillies' new ballpark
Associated Press - June 17, 2003
"The Philadelphia Phillies' new ballpark will be named Citizens Bank
Park. Citizens Bank bought the naming rights and an advertising package
from the team for $95 million, a bank spokeswoman said Tuesday."...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0617/1569181.html
Ralph Nader and League of Fans release "Selling Out the Fans and
Taxpayers: A summary of current stadium and arena naming rights deals"
(10/10/02). http://www.leagueoffans.org/namingrights.html
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
In the world of Major League Baseball's extortion for corporate welfare
program, there has been encouraging news recently in the fight against
the use of taxpayer dollars to finance a new baseball stadium in
Washington D.C.
D.C. finance holds up ballpark bill
Washington Times - June 24, 2003
..."The [D.C. Council Finance Committee] chairman, Jack Evans, expressed
frustration with the slow-moving and secretive deliberations on the
relocation of the Montreal Expos by MLB. He already was upset by the
demands of baseball executives for as much public stadium financing as
possible. 'I'm not moving anything relative to this out of my committee
without a commitment from baseball,' Evans said. 'There is no purpose
moving this ahead, raising taxes and so forth, and then have baseball
say, 'Never mind.''"...
http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20030624-120641-3294r.htm
Williams Eases Push On Stadium Financing
Washington Post - June 25, 2003
"Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that he will stop pushing the
D.C. Council to approve his $339 million stadium financing package until
Major League Baseball announces plans to move a team to Washington. The
mayor's comments signal a retreat from his position several months ago,
when Williams (D) hoped to have the entire package of stadium financing
approved before baseball officials met in July to consider moving the
ailing Montreal Expos."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28113-2003Jun24.html?nav=hptop_tb
D.C., Va. stadium battles continue
FoS News - June 14, 2003
..."D.C. mayor Anthony Williams' $339 million stadium plan has been
battered from all sides, with the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute issuing a
report that stadiums are bad investments for cities; D.C. chief
financial officer warning that the financing plan could face a $2
million a year shortfall if the team plays too poorly to sell enough
tickets; and both Republican opponents and community groups say the
district should restore other budget cuts before building a stadium."...
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/000167.html
What are we willing to trade for baseball in District?
Washington Times - June 13, 2003
..."D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams - searching for higher ground for a
legacy beyond ethical errors for his suspect administration - would
trade a public hospital, a public university, a public treatment
facility, parcels of choice city-owned land and anything else he could
get his greedy gloves on to bring baseball back to the District."...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20030612-112137-5147r.htm
Ballpark bill faces opposition
Washington Times - June 13, 2003
"'This council is not terribly receptive to the core idea of raising
taxes [for baseball],' said Democrat Jack Evans, chairman of the
council's finance committee. 'There is great support locally for
baseball and not great support for public financing for baseball.
Therein lies the dilemma the council wrestles with.'"...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/20030613-124522-5516r.htm
Mayor Giveaway
Washington Times - June 11, 2003
..."After reviewing the facts, lawmakers will reach but one conclusion:
No, a public financed baseball stadium will not pay off for D.C."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20030610-094631-7600r.htm
Financing In Doubt For Stadium
Washington Post - June 8, 2003
"Mayor Anthony A. Williams's $339 million financing plan for a ballpark
has run into serious opposition with the D.C. Council and Congress, as
lawmakers have balked at his proposals to impose new taxes on businesses
and the salaries of baseball players."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29896-2003Jun7.html
League of Fans' testimony against a taxpayer-subsidized baseball stadium
in Washington D.C. (6/12/03).
http://www.leagueoffans.org/2dcstadiumtestimony.html
Sign the petition opposing a taxpayer-subsidized stadium in DC!
http://www.leagueoffans.org/petition/
------------------------- ### -------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS is an email bulletin of recent news items
regarding specific pressing issues in the world of sports. It goes out
semi-regularly to League of Fans "Alerts" listserv subscribers.
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. If you would
like to add yourself to the "Alerts" list, sign up at
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org.
From shawn@essential.org Tue Jul 8 23:46:58 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 18:46:58 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS (7/8/03)
Message-ID: <3F0B49E2.40508@essential.org>
--------------------------------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
League of Fans - July 8, 2003
--------------------------------------------------
1. Stadium Naming Rights
2. Gender-biased Pay
3. Title IX
4. Performance-enhancing Drugs
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
Positive news from San Francisco regarding stadium naming rights. The
San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently blocked the sale of naming
rights for Candlestick Park (Again!).
No 'Stick shift - 49er's renaming plan stymied
San Francisco Chronicle - June 27, 2003
"Stick with the 'Stick. At least that's the official policy in San
Francisco now, as the name Candlestick Park won another reprieve
Thursday -- perhaps only temporarily -- when supervisors rejected plans
to award the 49ers football team the naming rights to the city-owned
stadium, arguing that they don't want to attach a corporate name to the
public facility."...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/06/27/BA264203.DTL
What you can do to help:
Thank San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez for his
opposition to selling naming rights for Candlestick Park. His email
address is Matt.Gonzalez@sfgov.org.
Ralph Nader and League of Fans release "Selling Out the Fans and
Taxpayers: A summary of current stadium and arena naming rights deals"
(10/10/02). http://www.leagueoffans.org/namingrights.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
Gender equity is lagging behind at Wimbledon. Even when the women's
singles tournament is more popular (with higher TV ratings) than the
men's, the women can't get equal pay. Serena Williams, the women's
champion, took home $66,800 (7%) less than men's champion Roger Federer.
Less pay for more popular play
CNN/Money - June 20, 2003
"When it comes to professional tennis, the women are beating the
stuffing out of the men in the match that counts -- television ratings
-- but you would never know it from their paychecks."...
http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/20/commentary/column_sportsbiz/sportsbiz/index.htm
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
Speaking of gender equity in sports, there was good news last month as a
federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the National Wrestling
Association and four other athletic groups claiming that Title IX
promoted women's collegiate sports programs at the expense of male
athletic teams.
Lawsuit Against Title IX Dismissed
Washington Post - June 12, 2003
"A federal judge in Washington yesterday dismissed a lawsuit challenging
the enforcement of Title IX, rejecting a claim that the law promoted
women's collegiate sports programs at the expense of male athletic
teams."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46935-2003Jun11.html
League of Fans joins with over 100 other organizations in urging
Congress to reject efforts to roll-back 30 years of progress for women
and girls in sports (5/21/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/2titleixletter.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
Unfortunately, very little has been done to combat the use of
performance-enhancing drugs within Major League Baseball in the
aftermath of the Spring Training death of Baltimore Orioles' pitcher
Steve Bechler that resulted from the use of an ephedra-containing
product. Now come reports from the Dominican Republic, the source of
almost a quarter of players signed by Major League teams, of the rampant
use of performance-enhancing substances designed for animals by teenage
Dominican baseball prospects.
Injecting Hope -- and Risk: Dominican Prospects Turn to Supplements
Designed for Animals
Washington Post - June 23, 2003
..."Many Dominican players appear to have little idea what they are
injecting -- only that it can make them stronger. Lino Ortiz, for
example, told his father just before he died that he had injected a drug
called Caballin into his left arm, though family and friends believe he
was referring to the substance's street name and really meant Diamino."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21456-2003Jun22.html
Bechler's parents to sue Cytodyne, makers of the ephedra product
Xenadrine RFA-1
Associated Press - June 2, 2003
..."Ephedrine use is banned by the NCAA, the International Olympic
Committee and the NFL, but not major league baseball. Last week,
Illinois became the first state to ban the substance."...
http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0602/1562240.html
A deadly game of politics
ESPN The Magazine - March 18, 2003
..."Right now, one of the only people working the room on behalf of
sports is Ralph Nader, with his group, League of Fans. Nader's League
has called for a ban on ephedra and a total overhaul of the DSHEA. 'Our
citizens should never be used as guinea pigs for dietary supplements
with no guarantee of product safety,' Nader says. 'How many more
ephedra-related seizures, strokes, heart attacks and deaths have to
occur before our leaders take action?'"...
http://espn.go.com/magazine/cyphers_20030318.html
Ralph Nader and League of Fans urge leaders to take real action against
ephedra and dietary supplement law (3/11/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/ephedrarelease.html
------------------------- ### -------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS is an email bulletin of recent news items
regarding issues in the world of sports. It goes out regularly to
League of Fans "Alerts" listserv subscribers.
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. If you would
like to add yourself to the "Alerts" list, sign up at
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org.
From shawn@essential.org Sun Jul 13 15:27:22 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 10:27:22 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Nader's Washington Post op-ed: Baseball's Stadium Shakedown
Message-ID: <3F116C4A.201@essential.org>
--------------040904030600080108060400
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Baseball's Stadium Shakedown
By Ralph Nader
Sunday, July 13, 2003; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46072-2003Jul11.html?nav=hptoc_eo
Though it has hit a few bumps in the road recently, Major League
Baseball still expects to shake down the District of Columbia. Many in
the city want a team -- but we don't have to give in to baseball's
demands to get it.
Major League Baseball, made up of 29 individual owners or ownership
groups, owns the Montreal Expos collectively. The league plans to move
the Expos to a more lucrative market, sell the team to new owners for a
considerable profit and stick taxpayers with the tab for a new stadium.
The Washington metro area, by far the largest in the nation without a
team, is preferred by baseball as a place to relocate the Expos. But
Major League Baseball is demanding tribute before it will do what is in
its own interest. No locale can become the Expos' new home, baseball's
titans have decreed, unless the public pays for most of the cost of a
new stadium.
The result: Washington, its Northern Virginia suburbs and Portland,
Ore., are engaged in a race to the bottom that would limit resources for
other pressing public services to subsidize a stadium for wealthy owners.
Look no farther for the success of baseball's squeeze than the District:
Mayor Anthony Williams offering $200 million, then $275 million, then
$300 million, then $339 million in corporate welfare to big-league baseball.
Fortunately, Jack Evans, chairman of the D.C. Council's finance
committee, where the stadium bill now sits, has jumped in front of the
mayor's runaway gravy train. Evans has gained widespread support
throughout the city by calling baseball's bluff and promising that no
stadium bill will go through his committee until baseball commits to the
District. "Anything short of that, we've got nothing here," Evans said.
Evans's action is certainly a step in the right direction, but he isn't
challenging the core concept of a stadium subsidy. Even if baseball
commits to come to the city, the stadium bill will still be grossly
inappropriate.
Williams claims that because a stadium would be financed by bonds and
repaid through taxes outside the general fund, it wouldn't take money
from schools, libraries, parks, police, health care, housing, drinking
water, public transit, children's programs and other city-funded services.
But there is no free money; Williams should leave the Enron accounting
to Arthur Andersen. Floating bonds might defer the day of reckoning, but
if the city chooses to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a
stadium, that money will eventually come at the expense of the city's
taxpayers, allocated either to reduced city services or increased taxes.
The only other alternative is that the investment will generate growth
that raises overall tax revenue. But a wealth of experience makes clear
that won't occur.
As Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist wrote this year, "There are
very few fields of economic research that produce unanimous agreement.
Yet every independent economic analysis of the impact of stadiums has
found no predictable positive effect on output or employment. Some
studies have even concluded that there is a possible negative impact."
One such study, by Robert Baade of Lake Forest College, examined 30
cities over 30 years and found that 27 experienced no significant impact
from new stadiums, while three experienced a negative economic impact.
One segment of society does benefit from stadium subsidies. Team owners
enjoy windfall profits when they turn around and sell. The favored
ownership group for the District is the Washington Baseball Club, a team
of investors reportedly worth $3 billion and headed by Fred Malek. A
veteran of these conversions, Malek formerly owned the Texas Rangers,
with George W. Bush among others. In 1991 Malek's group demanded that
Arlington, Tex., taxpayers provide $135 million for a new stadium. The
group threatened to move the team if the ransom wasn't paid. After the
stadium was built and the Rangers' value had tripled as a result of the
taxpayer subsidies, Malek's group sold the team.
There is an alternative to the baseball shakedown. The District,
Northern Virginia and Portland should all tell baseball that they are
ready to bid based on fan enthusiasm, transportation lines and other
such factors, but not on the size of the public subsidy for a stadium.
They should tell baseball that there will be no subsidy, especially in
this time of extreme financial hardship for city and state governments.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball should sell the Expos to new local
owners for the amount it paid for the team -- $120 million, not the $250
million or more it will demand. The savings could be used by the private
owners to build a new stadium or renovate an existing one, such as RFK,
covering part of what baseball is now trying to squeeze from taxpayers.
Entertainment should be given the first privilege of surviving the tests
of a free market.
###
The writer is a consumer advocate and author. He is the founder of
League of Fans, a sports industry watchdog project.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.leagueoffans.org/
--------------040904030600080108060400
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Baseball's Stadium Shakedown
By Ralph Nader
Sunday, July 13, 2003; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46072-2003Jul11.html?nav=hptoc_eo
Though it has hit a few bumps in the road recently, Major League Baseball
still expects to shake down the District of Columbia. Many in the city want
a team -- but we don't have to give in to baseball's demands to get it.
Major League Baseball, made up of 29 individual owners or ownership groups,
owns the Montreal Expos collectively. The league plans to move the Expos
to a more lucrative market, sell the team to new owners for a considerable
profit and stick taxpayers with the tab for a new stadium.
The Washington metro area, by far the largest in the nation without a
team, is preferred by baseball as a place to relocate the Expos. But Major
League Baseball is demanding tribute before it will do what is in its own
interest. No locale can become the Expos' new home, baseball's titans have
decreed, unless the public pays for most of the cost of a new stadium.
The result: Washington, its Northern Virginia suburbs and Portland, Ore.,
are engaged in a race to the bottom that would limit resources for other
pressing public services to subsidize a stadium for wealthy owners.
Look no farther for the success of baseball's squeeze than the District:
Mayor Anthony Williams offering $200 million, then $275 million, then $300
million, then $339 million in corporate welfare to big-league baseball.
Fortunately, Jack Evans, chairman of the D.C. Council's finance committee,
where the stadium bill now sits, has jumped in front of the mayor's runaway
gravy train. Evans has gained widespread support throughout the city by calling
baseball's bluff and promising that no stadium bill will go through his committee
until baseball commits to the District. "Anything short of that, we've got
nothing here," Evans said.
Evans's action is certainly a step in the right direction, but he isn't
challenging the core concept of a stadium subsidy. Even if baseball commits
to come to the city, the stadium bill will still be grossly inappropriate.
Williams claims that because a stadium would be financed by bonds and
repaid through taxes outside the general fund, it wouldn't take money from
schools, libraries, parks, police, health care, housing, drinking water,
public transit, children's programs and other city-funded services.
But there is no free money; Williams should leave the Enron accounting
to Arthur Andersen. Floating bonds might defer the day of reckoning, but
if the city chooses to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium,
that money will eventually come at the expense of the city's taxpayers, allocated
either to reduced city services or increased taxes. The only other alternative
is that the investment will generate growth that raises overall tax revenue.
But a wealth of experience makes clear that won't occur.
As Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist wrote this year, "There are
very few fields of economic research that produce unanimous agreement. Yet
every independent economic analysis of the impact of stadiums has found no
predictable positive effect on output or employment. Some studies have even
concluded that there is a possible negative impact."
One such study, by Robert Baade of Lake Forest College, examined 30 cities
over 30 years and found that 27 experienced no significant impact from new
stadiums, while three experienced a negative economic impact.
One segment of society does benefit from stadium subsidies. Team owners
enjoy windfall profits when they turn around and sell. The favored ownership
group for the District is the Washington Baseball Club, a team of investors
reportedly worth $3 billion and headed by Fred Malek. A veteran of these
conversions, Malek formerly owned the Texas Rangers, with George W. Bush
among others. In 1991 Malek's group demanded that Arlington, Tex., taxpayers
provide $135 million for a new stadium. The group threatened to move the
team if the ransom wasn't paid. After the stadium was built and the Rangers'
value had tripled as a result of the taxpayer subsidies, Malek's group sold
the team.
There is an alternative to the baseball shakedown. The District, Northern
Virginia and Portland should all tell baseball that they are ready to bid
based on fan enthusiasm, transportation lines and other such factors, but
not on the size of the public subsidy for a stadium. They should tell baseball
that there will be no subsidy, especially in this time of extreme financial
hardship for city and state governments.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball should sell the Expos to new local owners
for the amount it paid for the team -- $120 million, not the $250 million
or more it will demand. The savings could be used by the private owners to
build a new stadium or renovate an existing one, such as RFK, covering part
of what baseball is now trying to squeeze from taxpayers.
Entertainment should be given the first privilege of surviving the tests
of a free market.
###
The writer is a consumer advocate and author. He is the founder of
League of Fans, a sports industry watchdog project.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
http://www.leagueoffans.org/
--------------040904030600080108060400--
From shawn@essential.org Mon Jul 14 23:37:41 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 18:37:41 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Victory for Title IX!
Message-ID: <3F1330B5.9070102@essential.org>
VICTORY! - League of Fans applauds decision to preserve Title IX
athletic policies
Posted: July 14, 2003
On Friday, July 11, the Department of Education released a three-page
letter upholding Title IX's standards of compliance now in use.
Title IX, one of the most important and successful civil rights laws in
U.S. history, bars sex discrimination in any educational program or
activity that receives federal funding, including athletics.
This action puts to rest a year long review of Title IX that included
the appointment, by President Bush, of a blue-ribbon commission that
energized millions of supporters of the 30-year-old law. It was widely
believed that the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics was a vehicle
to push a pre-determined Bush Administration agenda to weaken Title IX.
League of Fans would like to thank everyone who took the time to voice
their support for Title IX. We encourage your continued support for this
vital law by asking the Department of Education to fully enforce Title IX.
Until women have the same opportunities as men to enjoy the
psychological, physiological and sociological benefits that sports
participation can provide, we must push to preserve and vigorously
strengthen the enforcement of Title IX.
###
More on the battle to preserve Title IX:
Sex Bias Ban Upheld For School Athletics
Washington Post - July 12, 2003
..."Analysts said the administration's final decision on the sensitive
issue appears to be the result of a combination of factors, including
the popularity of Title IX a year before the 2004 presidential election,
division over reform within the commission and a growing realization
that the law is, in large measure, working."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44864-2003Jul11.html
A Huge Win for American Girls and Women - Statement by the National
Womens Law Center (7/11/03)
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=1582§ion=newsroom
Dear Colleague letter on Title IX from Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights Gerald Reynolds (7/11/03)
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/title9guidanceFinal.html
League of Fans joins with over 100 other organizations in urging
Congress to reject efforts to roll-back 30 years of progress for women
and girls in sports (5/21/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/2titleixletter.html
Senate resolution urging Department of Education to maintain current
Title IX regulations: S.Res. 153 - PDF file (5/22/03)
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:sr153is.txt.pdf
Myles Brand, NCAA president, speaks out in support of Title IX (4/28/03)
http://www.ncaa.org/gender_equity/general_info/20030428speech.html
Ralph Nader and League of Fans' letter to Secretary of Education Rod
Paige opposing changes that would undermine Title IX (3/5/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/titleixletter.html
Minority Report of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics - PDF file
(2/03)
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/binary-data/WSF_ARTICLE/pdf_file/944.pdf
Ralph Nader's "In the Public Interest" column on protecting and
enforcing Title IX (1/29/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/titleixcolumn.html
Take Action!
http://www.leagueoffans.org/titleixaction.html
Download Save Title IX Window Stickers
http://www.northnet.org/nysaauw/savettl9.htm
###
http://www.leagueoffans.org/index.html
From shawn@essential.org Wed Aug 6 18:38:31 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2003 13:38:31 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS (8/6/03)
Message-ID: <3F313D17.1000806@essential.org>
--------------------------------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
League of Fans - August 6, 2003
--------------------------------------------------
1. Title IX
2. Problems at the Eagles' new stadium
3. End to the Eagles' "hoagie ban"
4. Redskins and racism
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
Great news in the fight to preserve Title IX athletic policies. On
Friday, July 11, the Department of Education released a three-page
letter upholding Title IX's standards of compliance now in use.
Title IX, one of the most important and successful civil rights laws in
U.S. history, bars sex discrimination in any educational program or
activity that receives federal funding, including athletics.
This action puts to rest a year long review of Title IX that included
the appointment, by President Bush, of a blue-ribbon commission that
energized millions of supporters of the 30-year-old law. It was widely
believed that the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics was a vehicle
to push a pre-determined Bush Administration agenda to weaken Title IX.
League of Fans would like to thank everyone who took the time to voice
their support for Title IX. We encourage your continued support for this
vital law by asking the Department of Education to fully enforce Title IX.
Until women have the same opportunities as men to enjoy the
psychological, physiological and sociological benefits that sports
participation can provide, we must push to preserve and vigorously
strengthen the enforcement of Title IX.
Sex Bias Ban Upheld For School Athletics
Washington Post - July 12, 2003
..."Analysts said the administration's final decision on the sensitive
issue appears to be the result of a combination of factors, including
the popularity of Title IX a year before the 2004 presidential election,
division over reform within the commission and a growing realization
that the law is, in large measure, working."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44864-2003Jul11.html
Statement by NCAA President Myles Brand on Title IX (7/11/03)
http://www.ncaa.org/releases/miscellaneous/2003071101ms.htm
A Huge Win for American Girls and Women - Statement by the National
Women's Law Center (7/11/03)
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=1582§ion=newsroom
Dear Colleague letter on Title IX from Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights Gerald Reynolds (7/11/03)
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/title9guidanceFinal.html
League of Fans joins with over 100 other organizations in urging
Congress to reject efforts to roll-back 30 years of progress for women
and girls in sports (5/21/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/2titleixletter.html
Senate resolution urging Department of Education to maintain current
Title IX regulations: S.Res. 153 - PDF file (5/22/03)
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:sr153is.txt.pdf
Myles Brand, NCAA president, speaks out in support of Title IX (4/28/03)
http://www.ncaa.org/gender_equity/general_info/20030428speech.html
Ralph Nader and League of Fans' letter to Secretary of Education Rod
Paige opposing changes that would undermine Title IX (3/5/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/titleixletter.html
Minority Views on the Report of the Commission on Opportunity in
Athletics - PDF file (2/03)
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/binary-data/WSF_ARTICLE/pdf_file/944.pdf
Ralph Nader's "In the Public Interest" column on protecting and
enforcing Title IX (1/29/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/titleixcolumn.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
The Philadelphia Eagles' brand new taxpayer funded football stadium,
Lincoln Financial Field, isn't exactly producing the ink the Eagles
expected surrounding its opening. The corporation that purchased naming
rights is slashing jobs, drinking fountains for fans in the stadium are
nonexistent, and the Eagles banned food from being brought in by fans at
Eagles' games (a policy which has since been overturned as you will see
below under "GOOD SPORTS").
Lincoln Financial: Job cuts not tied to stadium naming deal
Philadelphia Daily News - August 5, 2003
"This is not the way Lincoln Financial Group wanted to be in the
headlines this week. The Philadelphia-based financial-services company
said yesterday it will cut 800 to 1,000 jobs, mostly in Hartford, Conn.,
and Fort Wayne, Ind. That news came one day after the successful opening
of Lincoln Financial Field. Lincoln has agreed to pay $140 million over
20 years to have the new, luxe Eagles stadium bear its name."...
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/6459897.htm
Dry run has Eagles scrambling for a fix
Philadelphia Inquirer - July 31, 2003
"During the open houses at Lincoln Financial Field last weekend, Eagles
officials became painfully aware of one basic amenity the new stadium
lacks. Drinking fountains. In the main concourses, upper and lower
levels, there aren't any. The only ones available to fans are in the
club lounges, which are off-limits to all but premium ticket holders."...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6422358.htm
Eagles fans boo ban on bringing food into stadium
Associated Press - July 17, 2003
..."In a city that loves its food and its professional football team in
equal measure, Eagles fans are reacting with outrage to the team's
announcement that they will not be allowed to bring their own food into
Lincoln Financial Field, the new stadium set to open next month."...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/6326095.htm
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
The Philadelphia Eagles' fans, and some government officials, expressed
outrage and rose up against the Eagles' new food policy. They were
especially angered that the Eagles used the post-Sept. 11 environment
and security measures as the excuse for the ban instead of admitting
they were just seeking higher concessions profit. The fans have
succeeded in overturning the ban.
Fans Win Food Fight
Philadelphia Inquirer - August 1, 2003
"The Eagles yesterday made a one-word change in the list of items fans
can't bring to the new Lincoln Financial Field. They dropped the word
‘food.' And so the much-criticized "hoagie ban" was history without ever
going into effect."...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6431360.htm
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
The Washington Redskins are appealing a 1999 ruling that revoked the
franchise's federal trademark protection for their racist team name.
Here's hoping that ruling is upheld, and that team owner Dan Snyder
decides to show Native Americans the respect and dignity they deserve by
dropping the "Redskins" nickname that has supported and maintained
stereotypes of a race of people for too long.
Redskins, American Indians continue fight over name
Associated Press - July 23, 2003
"The Washington Redskins, again facing off against American Indians who
find the team's name offensive, asked a judge to overturn a ruling that
revoked the team's federal trademark protection."...
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0723/1584779.html
------------------------- ### -------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS is an email bulletin of recent news items
regarding issues in the world of sports. It goes out regularly to League
of Fans "Alerts" listserv subscribers.
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. If you would like
to add yourself to the "Alerts" list, sign up at
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org.
From shawn@essential.org Thu Aug 21 19:32:37 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 14:32:37 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Letter to D.C. Mayor regarding Sports Commission
Message-ID: <3F451045.402@essential.org>
Ralph Nader, League of Fans Urge D.C. Mayor to Ask for Resignation of
Sports Commission President and Redefine Goals of the Agency
Today, Ralph Nader and the sports industry watchdog League of Fans sent
a letter to District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams urging him to
take action regarding the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission due
to wasteful spending with public money and highly questionable
activities. The letter requests that Mayor Williams ask for the
resignation of the commission's president and executive director Robert
Goldwater and to focus the agency on activities and programs designed to
spread benefits broadly and enhance the well-being of the entire city of
D.C. The letter follows:
--------------------
August 21, 2003
The Honorable Anthony A. Williams, Mayor
District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Mr. Mayor:
Your leadership is needed regarding the troubling practices and wasteful
spending by the highest-paid employee of the District government, Robert
Goldwater, and the agency for which he is president and executive
director, the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission (DCSEC).
Don't you think it is time to end your practice of giving the DCSEC a
free pass with public money? We urge you to ask for the immediate
resignation of Mr. Goldwater. You must send a strong message to this
agency that taking liberties with the public's money will not be
tolerated. Additionally, we ask that you support a revised mission for
the DCSEC that focuses not on the wants of wealthy developers and sports
moguls, but on the recreational needs of D.C. residents.
Your leadership regarding the DCSEC is long overdue:
" The DCSEC, in its current form, is your product. You gave the agency a
mandate to turn D.C. into an entertainment complex by attracting
high-profile events, such as the Olympic Games, the Grand Prix and Major
League Baseball. Responsibility for the DCSEC's fiscal mismanagement,
questionable activities, secrecy and refusal to seek community input on
projects has to rest eventually on the shoulders of the Mayor. Moreover,
your preference for attracting "world-class" sporting events by dumping
public funds into the laps of private businesses in the name of economic
development no doubt added fuel to the DCSEC's wasteful spending and
arrogance toward heartfelt community dissent.
" The June appointment of a "Blue Ribbon Panel on Sports Commissions" in
response to reports of serious and ongoing problems at the DCSEC is
worthless to the District. Dominated by business leaders and corporate
welfare pushers, how can anyone expect the panel to provide significant
recommendations for improving how the DCSEC operates? The commission is
already concentrating its efforts on projects involving narrowly
tailored corporate subsidies. A panel without such conflicts of interest
would encourage the DCSEC to focus on expenditure reforms, audits and
activities and programs designed to spread benefits broadly and enhance
the well-being of the entire city.
" In depleting its cash reserves from $18 million to $3 million since
Mr. Goldwater was hired in late 2000, there has been a dramatic increase
in DCSEC expenses. Much of the increase is reportedly attributed to
excessive costs for travel, dining, lodging and entertainment, as well
as questionable expenses for legal services and consultants.
" The DCSEC has worked, largely without input from D.C. residents or the
City Council, centering negotiations around backroom meetings with Major
League Baseball and the Washington Baseball Club, promoters of the Grand
Prix, the U.S. Olympic Committee and D.C. United owner Philip Anschutz
for new sports venues. In so doing, the commission has entangled itself
in proposed corporate welfare schemes designed to benefit narrow
business interests at the expense of D.C. taxpayers and neglected
District employment-generating programs and services.
As Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist wrote this year, "There are
very few fields of economic research that produce unanimous agreement.
Yet every independent economic analysis of the impact of stadiums has
found no predictable positive effect on output or employment. Some
studies have even concluded that there is a possible negative impact."
Subsidy and employment figures from your baseball stadium proposal were
used by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute to estimate that the public
cost for each (mostly seasonal, part-time, low-paying, low-benefit) job
filled by a D.C. resident would be $900,000. D.C.-based Good Jobs First
estimates that anything over $35,000 per quality (full-time, with wage
and benefit standards) job is excessive for economic development subsidies.
" Of the major high-profile sports projects and events that the DCSEC
has attempted to secure, only the Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington,
D.C. has taken place. A complete disaster from start to finish, the
DCSEC cut ties with the promoter of the race after one year, terminating
a ten-year contract that likely leaves the District holding the bag for
$5.1 million in race track construction costs.
From the beginning, the DCSEC ignored the Kingman Park neighborhood
residents who overwhelmingly opposed the race that ran within 50 yards
of some homes and brought with it high levels of noise and pollution,
kept important information on event financing from the public and the
D.C. Council, and failed to conduct the needed environmental impact
studies prior to the race.
" The company hired by the DCSEC to organize the D.C. Marathon canceled
this past spring's event just days before it was to take place. Citing
security concerns due to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the marathon was
canceled without consulting city officials. More than 6,800 runners from
50 states and 14 countries had trained to participate and paid between
$65 and $95 to register for the race but were not accorded refunds.
Despite this recklessness, the running community of the D.C. area,
including a broadbased coalition of organizers, running clubs and
sponsors, conducted a remarkable all-volunteer "Unofficial Washington DC
Marathon" on the same day and nearly the same course that the canceled
event was to be held (though run on sidewalks, without the benefit of
having streets closed off). Complete with registration, recycled race
numbers, safety instructions, water stops, timekeepers, fans, and
refreshments from generous sponsors, the event was organized in just 72
hours with 371 registered runners and hundreds of volunteers. Why are
Mr. Goldwater, the DCSEC and the firms hired by them to organize events
unable to come anywhere close to this coordination and prudence?
" The DCSEC has neglected to defend the stadium for which it is
responsible, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. Instead of encouraging
more excess and waste by pushing for new taxpayer funded venues, the
commission should be working to make a strong case for the versatile RFK
hosting baseball, soccer and numerous other events.
If Major League Baseball or the Anschutz Entertainment Group want a
major renovation of RFK to increase revenue streams, they can pay for it
themselves. If they don't think RFK is good enough for them, they can
invest their own capital, without eminent domain, in a new stadium if
they see market opportunities. It should not be the role of Mr.
Goldwater and the DCSEC to decide that RFK is not good enough for
wealthy sports owners.
In a May 16 letter, five members of the D.C. Council requested that the
Board of Directors of the DCSEC not renew the contract of Mr. Goldwater
due to "a pattern of failed events, fiscal mismanagement, and highly
questionable activities by the Commission under his leadership." Other
recent D.C. Council comments regarding the DCSEC, published in the
Washington Post include:
Council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4):
"The commission is operating like Fortune 500 businessmen, but they are
doing it with public dollars. This is absolute abuse of the public trust
and of the positions they've been approved to hold."
"The Sports and Entertainment Commission has been one of the most
mismanaged and wasteful agencies we have in the District of Columbia
government."
"We have to show the residents of the District of Columbia that we are
holding someone accountable for this blatant waste."
Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2):
"Goldwater was hired at a salary of $275,000 a year for his supposed
expertise, and then to turn around and spend all this money on
consultants makes no sense."
Council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6):
"What is the payoff of all these expenditures? Where is it leading? We
are not getting a whole lot of events at RFK or the Armory, as far as I
can tell. If their cash is down to around $3 million, what kind of
marketing does that allow us to do for the District of Columbia?"
Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1):
"This is Marie Antoinette spending. It shocks the conscience to hear of
this type of lavishness, particularly at a time when we are cutting
programs for children, families and poor people. They have displayed
such poor judgement that I don't know how we can continue to have trust
and confidence in their leadership."
Former Council member Bill Lightfoot, sponsor of legislation that
created the DCSEC in 1994: "This is perversion and corruption of the
original vision for a sports commission. Goldwater and all the
commission ought to be fired. Get rid of them. You have to send a
message that selfish, self-aggrandizing conduct will not be tolerated
with public money."
Mayor Williams, your experiment with the DCSEC has failed. The internal
audit of the commission by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer
confirms that the current mission of DCSEC cannot be sustained. There is
no excuse for the succession of controversies and embarrassments to the
city associated with Mr. Goldwater and the DCSEC. It is time for you to
take a lead role in redefining the leadership and goals of the commission.
In addition to running and maintaining RFK Stadium and the Armory, the
major goal of a redefined DCSEC should require a dramatic effort to
rebuild and maintain D.C.'s decrepit neighborhood and youth sports,
recreation and entertainment facilities. Such public assets may not
appear in personal financial portfolios, but you should not doubt the
profound effect they have on the lives of the people and children of the
District. This would help to make D.C. a more attractive place to live,
especially for families, thus serving to help reverse the District's
past residential exodus to the suburbs and to make your goal of 100,000
new residents more attainable. It is making D.C. a better place for
everyone that will bring people back, not making the city a place for
corporate welfare kings to easily extract public funds away from real
life and displaced neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
From shawn@essential.org Thu Aug 28 21:16:44 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 16:16:44 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Nader, League of Fans letter to DC Council regarding baseball stadium
Message-ID: <3F4E632C.8080307@essential.org>
August 28, 2003
Ralph Nader, League of Fans Urge D.C. Council to Use Savings from
Convention Center Refinancing for Public Needs Not a Baseball Stadium
Today, Ralph Nader and the sports industry watchdog League of Fans sent
a letter to each member of the District of Columbia City Council
opposing the use of savings from the refinancing of the new convention
center and profit from a future hotel as a way to pay for a new baseball
stadium. The letter requests that, if the convention center is
refinanced, the savings instead be used to fund the many pressing needs
of the people and children of the District. The letter follows:
--------------------
The Honorable Linda W. Cropp (At Large)
Chair, Council of the District of Columbia
Dear Ms. Cropp:
Before any member of the D.C. Council officially proposes that the
District use the savings from the refinancing of the new convention
center and profit from a future hotel as a way to pay for a new baseball
stadium, we would like to express our strong opposition to such a concept.
While supporters of the "Ballpark Revenue Amendment Act of 2003" failed
to back up claims that city-funded programs and services would not be
harmed since bonds would be repaid through taxes outside the general
fund, the idea of using savings from refinancing and hotel proceeds
would even more clearly put a baseball stadium squarely against the
pressing needs of D.C. that depend on the general fund.
Will this proposal, like the one Mayor Williams put forward, be
presented in a way to try and make D.C. residents believe that it's
"free money" and that they're not paying for a ballpark for wealthy
owners? And will this proposal for public subsidies for a stadium be
referred to as "economic development" that will "generate growth" for
D.C. when a wealth of experience makes clear that won't occur?
As Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist wrote this year, "There are
very few fields of economic research that produce unanimous agreement.
Yet every independent economic analysis of the impact of stadiums has
found no predictable positive effect on output or employment. Some
studies have even concluded that there is a possible negative impact."
One such study by Robert Baade of Lake Forest College examined 30 cities
over 30 years and found that 27 experienced no significant impact from
new stadiums, while three cities experienced a negative economic impact.
The principled questioning in the Finance and Revenue Committee by
several council members concerning the "Ballpark Revenue Amendment Act
of 2003" in June and the promise thereafter that no stadium bill would
go through that committee without a commitment to D.C. by Major League
Baseball, were positive steps for the District. It is therefore
worrisome that a few of those same council members would sooner pay for
the wants of sports moguls and developers through refinancing than fund,
by the same means, the many needs of the people and children of the
District.
Even if Major League Baseball commits to come to D.C., public funding
for a stadium will still be grossly inappropriate, especially in this
time of extreme financial hardship for the city. During the economic
boom of the 90's, and in the middle of the corporate welfare stadium
bonanza, the San Francisco Giants failed to gain taxpayer subsidies for
a new baseball stadium through public referendum on three separate
occasions even while threatening to move the team elsewhere. Despite
this, the Giants ownership decided to raise the funds privately (with 5%
of the total stadium cost coming from the public) to build a new
baseball stadium, and now reap the benefits of a successful
privately-financed ballpark that isn't a constant drain on San
Francisco's city-funded programs and services.
Baseball owners can invest their own capital in a new stadium if they
see market opportunities. We ask that you show courage and exercise
leadership by ending the practice of turning D.C. into an entertainment
complex by dumping public funds into the laps of private businesses in
an attempt to attract "world-class" sporting events. Will you instead
focus on putting the District back together so it can be a better place
for everyone to live, work and recreate? That is true economic development.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
cc:
Councilmember Harold Brazil (At Large)
Councilmember Carol Schwartz (At Large)
Councilmember David A. Catania (At Large)
Councilmember Phil Mendelson (At Large)
Councilmember Jim Graham (Ward 1)
Councilmember Jack Evans (Ward 2)
Councilmember Kathleen Patterson (Ward 3)
Councilmember Adrian Fenty (Ward 4)
Councilmember Vincent B. Orange, Sr. (Ward 5)
Councilmember Sharon Ambrose (Ward 6)
Councilmember Kevin P. Chavous (Ward 7)
Councilmember Sandra Allen (Ward 8)
###
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and author. He is the founder of
League of Fans.
Shawn McCarthy is director of League of Fans, based in Washington, DC.
###
The mission of League of Fans is to improve sports by working as a
sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of the industry's
relationship to society, expose irresponsible business practices, ensure
accountability to fans, and encourage the sports industry to contribute
to societal well-being.
www.leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Fri Sep 5 19:53:21 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 14:53:21 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] Nader and League of Fans' letter to NJ Gov. McGreevey on subsidies
Message-ID: <3F58DBA1.4060602@essential.org>
Ralph Nader, League of Fans Praise New Jersey Governor James McGreevey
for Ruling Out New Subsidies for Nets and Devils
Today, Ralph Nader and the sports industry watchdog League of Fans sent
a letter to New Jersey Governor James McGreevey praising his August 26
announcement that there will be no new state subsidies for current or
future owners of the New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils. In the face
of a $5 billion state budget deficit, the owners of the two teams and
their potential buyers, have been actively seeking public subsidies for
a new arena in downtown Newark and have threatened to move across the
Hudson River to New York City if New Jersey refuses to pay for most of
the cost. The letter follows:
--------------------
September 5, 2003
The Honorable James E. McGreevey
Governor of New Jersey
Dear Governor McGreevey:
We would like to commend you for your courage and leadership in ruling
out any new state subsidies for current or future owners of the New
Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils.
It is encouraging to know that there is a principled Governor who
refuses to broadside citizens by dropping the burden of increasing
profits for wealthy team owners on the backs of taxpayers. Too often,
that is not the case. Following more than a decade of irresponsible
choices by elected state and city leaders across the country regarding
the allocation of taxpayer subsidies where there are sports owners
concerned, the deficiencies in funding for pressing real life needs have
worsened.
As you are aware, despite the economic boom of the 90's, we witnessed
how the public assets of our states and cities were neglected and left
to fail while the profits of the economy overwhelmingly reached those at
the top. This was due in no small part to an attitude in state and local
government that was reflected in the flood of sweetheart deals our
elected leaders provided for sports franchise owners. All the while
strapping our state and local governments with large amounts of debt and
neglected public works, government officials fattened the wallets of
team owners by building them new stadiums and arenas, giving them all
revenues generated in and around those facilities, and providing them
with tax breaks that no average citizen enjoys.
Now in a period of fiscal uncertainty and in the face of threats that
the Nets and Devils could move to New York, you have come forward to
proclaim that "There is simply no justification for state dollars being
used to guarantee the profits of team owners. . . . in New Jersey, those
days are over."
Gov. McGreevey, other elected leaders should follow your example and
remember that their first duty is to the people they represent, not to
super-wealthy sports moguls or their phony contention that public
subsidies are needed for their teams to compete. Please hold to this
conviction and see leagueoffans.org for more information about
taxpayer-subsidized stadiums and arenas.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
###
If you'd like to help, League of Fans asks supporters to thank Governor
McGreevey for his leadership and encourage him to keep his word
regarding subsidies for the Nets and Devils. His contact information
follows:
The Honorable James E. McGreevey
Governor of New Jersey
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
tel (609) 292-6000
fax (609) 292-3454
Use this page to email the Governor:
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html
Please distribute widely, especially to friends in New Jersey.
###
www.leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Fri Sep 26 22:00:03 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 17:00:03 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] League of Fans to Cavs' owner: Don't abandon Rockers!
Message-ID: <3F74A8D3.8020103@essential.org>
http://www.leagueoffans.org/gundletter.html
Today, League of Fans sent a letter to Gordon Gund, owner of the NBA's
Cleveland Cavaliers and WNBA's Cleveland Rockers, urging him to
reconsider last week's decision to suspend operations of the Rockers.
The announcement comes as another blow to women's professional sports
which are struggling to secure the needed financial support to promote
growth, and are undergoing cuts in operations. It is unclear at this
point whether the Rockers will fold, be purchased by a new owner that
will keep them in Cleveland, or purchased by a new owner and relocated.
The letter follows:
--------------------
September 26, 2003
Gordon Gund
Owner and Chairperson
Cavs / Gund Arena Company
1 Center Court
Cleveland, OH 44115
Dear Mr. Gund,
The Sept. 19 announcement confirming the rumors that you are suspending
operations of the Cleveland Rockers of the Women's National Basketball
Association is disheartening and League of Fans urges you to reconsider.
League of Fans is a sports industry watchdog project founded by Ralph
Nader. Among the broad range of issues in sports that we work to
influence for the better are eliminating obstacles that prevent girls
and women, whether youth, amateur or professional, from reaching their
full potential in opportunity, participation and respect in sports.
Along those lines, we are writing to express the sentiments of many
people across the country who are concerned with the recent lack of
investment in women's professional sports. There is a general sense that
the only real financial backing of women's sports takes place when there
is short-term private gain. This makes your abandonment of the Rockers
very painful for many who have worked so hard and expected so little in
return to help the growth of women's professional sports.
At a time when you are fortunate enough to have drafted and signed
LeBron James to play for the Cavaliers thereby increasing the turnout
and ensuring the revenue windfall that you've been dreaming of, you have
decided to turn your back on the many enthusiastic fans in greater
Cleveland who have supported the Rockers over the last seven years.
We will not argue with your contention that the Rockers failed to
increase your bottom line, but was short-term profitability really the
only reason you owned the team in the first place? Whatever losses
you've incurred from owning and operating the Rockers are surely a drop
in the bucket in comparison with your investment in the Cavs, and is
certainly worth continuing your support for the pioneering players of
the Rockers who have had such an important relationship as role models
to countless young girls in Northeastern Ohio.
When making this decision, you should not have forgotten what the public
has done for you financially. The corporate welfare you received from
area taxpayers that met your demands and subsidized the cost of the new
arena in Cleveland that displays your name, and your sweetheart lease
deal and the loopholes which allow you to charge Cleveland for some of
the arena maintenance expenses that you rightfully (if not legally) owe.
Despite the heavy public cost for Gund Arena that allows it to meet your
exclusive business needs and excesses, in turn causing the arena to
become a drain on Cleveland's general fund and public schools, you
ignore the generosity of the public as if you deserve this special
treatment.
The Cavs suddenly have a national buzz and have become a high-demand
ticket. Why would you abandon the Rockers when Cleveland has this kind
of basketball excitement? In addition to the loyal fan base already
established for women's professional basketball in Cleveland (a largely
untapped source of revenue for you prior to the Rockers), you could
advertise the Rockers at sold out Cavs games and increase sales of
Rockers' apparel at those sellouts as well. The team would also get a
boost from basketball-hungry fans who can't get a ticket for a Cavs game
or from fans who appreciate the Rockers as a less expensive alternative
to which they can take their families during a different season.
Mr. Gund, now is the time to increase and expand your support of the
Cleveland Rockers, not eliminate them. However, if you remain determined
to sever your ties with the WNBA and the women's professional basketball
fans of the Cleveland area, will you at the very least work to make the
environment smooth for a new owner for the Rockers in Cleveland and
resist the urge to block or profit from such a transaction?
If indeed the Rockers are not retained by you, hopefully new ownership
would be more passionate and committed to the strong grassroots
marketing needed to supplement the Rockers talented players who have
been so committed to selling their league to the public and promoting
the many benefits of sports participation, both professional and
amateur, to Cleveland area girls and women.
Sincerely,
Shawn McCarthy
Director, League of Fans
cc:
Val Ackerman, President, Women's National Basketball Association
###
If you'd like to help, please sign the "Save the Cleveland Rockers!"
petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/25rock14/
Also, please contact the management of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the
President of the WNBA to tell them how you feel:
Gordon Gund
Owner and Chairperson
Cavs / Gund Arena Company
1 Center Court
Cleveland, OH 44115
tel (216) 420-2000
fax (216) 420-2101
Len Komoroski
President
Cavs / Gund Arena Company
1 Center Court
Cleveland, OH 44115
tel (216) 420-2000
fax (216) 420-2101
Val Ackerman
President
WNBA
Olympic Tower, 645 5th Ave.
New York, NY 10022
tel (212) 688-9622
fax (212) 750-9622
http://www.wnba.com/contact_us/contact_wnba.html
###
*Announcement*
There has been a Corp. formed with the intent of keeping the Rockers
franchise in Cleveland. They have been in touch with the WNBA and are
working on putting together the several million dollar commitment and
experienced sports management team that will be required. Any help in
these areas would be appreciated. If anyone has connections to possible
major investors or sponsors, relevant
management people or has skills that could help, contact Bill at:
marebill@adelphia.net
###
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
www.leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Tue Oct 7 21:39:50 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 16:39:50 -0400
Subject: [Alerts] GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS (10/7/03)
Message-ID: <3F832496.7060300@essential.org>
--------------------------------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
League of Fans - October 7, 2003
--------------------------------------------------
1. Sportswriter comes out
2. Nike unscathed in sweatshop case
3. MLB and the Dominican Republic
4. Redskins and racism
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
Sportswriter comes out
It's a tough environment in the macho sports world for anyone who
happens to be gay. But last week, Boston Herald sportswriter Ed Gray
wrote a column appearing on the front page of the sports section
declaring that he is gay.
Coming out shouldn't have to be such a big deal, but we all know it is,
especially in sports. As Gray wrote in his column, "The gay community is
the one minority that is still very much fair game for overt displays of
prejudice in the world of sports. While inroads toward achieving
equality are slowly being made in the real world, a gay man is still
expected to bear the burden of shame in the sports world."
Out and proud
By Ed Gray - Boston Herald - September 30, 2003
..."I'm out because I no longer, in good conscience, choose to ignore
the unabashed homophobia that is so cavalierly tolerated within the
world of sports. I'm out, because the silence of a closeted gay man only
serves to give his implicit approval to bigotry. I'm out, because I
refuse to continue hiding from the truth that an openly gay man has as
much right as a straight man to play sports or report on them."...
http://sports.bostonherald.com/otherSports/otherSports.bg?articleid=2
Boston Herald's Ed Gray Says Time Was Right
Outsports.com - September 30, 2003
..."In the column, Gray takes on the contention that openly gay people
can't function in the macho sports world. He writes: 'In the cases of
both a gay athlete and a gay sportswriter, homophobic athletes always
come up with the same sorry excuse to justify the perpetuation of
prejudice on the basis of sexual orientation -- the locker room.'"...
http://www.outsports.com/local/2003/0930edgray.htm
* Take Action! *
1) Write to Ed Gray and show your support and encouragement:
Ed Gray
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 2096
Boston, MA 02106
2) Contact your favorite major pro sports teams and urge them to reach
out to the gay community as a few are beginning to do:
Contact info for MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL franchises:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/profranchises.html
Texas Rangers to hold Gay Day
Dallas Voice - September 10, 2003
"If gay community leaders meet their goal, a human gay pride flag will
be seen in the stands of the Ballpark in Arlington on Sept. 14 when the
Rangers host the Oakland A's. Gay Day at the Ballpark will be the first
time a major professional athletic team has reached out to the gay
community and offered to help organize such an event."...
http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=3256
3) Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper on the story and
encourage dialog in your community on homophobia in sports.
4) Visit League of Fans' "Sports and the Gay Community" page for more
information and resources on homophobia in sports:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/socialissues/gaycommunity.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
Nike unscathed in sweatshop case
Kasky v. Nike, a lawsuit that began with a false advertising claim and
went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court case that explored a
corporation's claim to a constitutional right to lie, has concluded with
a settlement.
While the outcome is in some ways a victory for labor rights, the
settlement stipulates that Nike pay $1.5 million (pocket change for a
company with $10.7 billion in annual sales) to the Fair Labor
Association (FLA). FLA is a factory monitor controlled by the apparel
industry, including Nike. That small settlement should have at least
gone straight to the workers or to an independent monitoring
organization such as the Worker Rights Consortium
(http://www.workersrights.org/).
Foot Fault
The American Prospect - September 23, 2003
"The media portrayed Nike's recent out-of-court settlement in a
sweatshop case as a victory for human rights and a defeat for free
speech. They got it wrong."...
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/09/dreier-p-09-23.html
Nike settles suit for $1.5 million - Shoe giant accused of lying about
workers' treatment
San Francisco Chronicle - September 13, 2003
..."Jeff Ballinger, founder of a worker and consumer advocacy group
called Press for Change, said the [Fair Labor Association] is 'totally
in the pocket of business.' Rather than going to that group, he said,
the settlement money should have gone to workers paid starvation wages
in overseas factories. Ballinger is a former director of an AFL-CIO
office in Indonesia and author of critical reports on Nike labor
practices in the early 1990s."...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/13/BU47505.DTL&type=business
* Take Action! *
1) James Nussbaumer, a student at the University of Southern California
suggested the following course of action:
"Anyone who would like to voice concerns regarding the paltry settlement
that was recently announced in the Kasky v. Nike lawsuit may contact the
lawyers below. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court which,
surprisingly, allowed the case to go to trial in California. Most
activists had expected and hoped for this to happen as the discovery
process would most likely have proved very embarrassing to Nike.
Instead, a $1.5 million settlement has been announced that will go --
not to workers -- but to the Fair Labor Association.
Law Office of Bushnell, Caplan and Fielding LLP
(415) 217-3800
bcflawyers@aol.com
You can ask for: Paul Hoeber, Alan Caplan, Philip Neumark, or Roderick
Bushnell
-or-
Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes and Lerach, LLP
1-800-449-4900
You can ask for: Patrick Coughlin, Al Meyerhoff, William Lerach, Frank
Janecek or Patrick Daniels.
2) Write a letter to a major pro sports star who has or will have a
contract to endorse a shoe/apparel company known to use sweatshop labor
and urge them to use their celebrity to effect changes in company
policies toward labor.
Here is the April, 2003 letter Ralph Nader and League of Fans sent to
LeBron James requesting that he push for anti-sweatshop provisions in
shoe contract:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/lebronletter.html
3) Contact the company that makes the sporting goods and apparel you buy
and request information explaining under what working conditions those
items are made:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/sportinggoods.html
4) Visit League of Fans' "Sweatshops and Labor Rights" page for
resources on sweatshops:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/socialissues/sweatshops.html
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
MLB and the Dominican Republic
It looks like Major League Baseball is finally beginning to take steps
to address the extensive exploitation of young players by agents
(buscones) in the Dominican Republic. From reports of cheating young
players out of money, to pushing the use of performance-enhancing
supplements and steroids designed for animals to get an edge, its time
for Baseball to do what it can to regulate these reckless agents.
MLB Looks To Regulate Dominican Agents
Washington Post - September 17, 2003
"For the first time, Major League Baseball and authorities in the
Dominican Republic are exploring ways to regulate street agents whose
soaring growth has led to a variety of abuses in the largest market for
players outside the United States."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21055-2003Sep16.html
MLB Plans To Drug Test In Latin America
Washington Post - September 3, 2003
"Major League Baseball plans to implement random drug testing for
hundreds of signed players in Latin America next season following
reports that many prospects in the Dominican Republic inject cheap
veterinary substances to boost performance, a high-ranking baseball
official said yesterday."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16991-2003Sep2.html
Washington Post's past reports on the abuses in the Dominican Republic:
Many Dominican prospects are turning to supplements designed for animals
for an edge. (June 22, 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21456-2003Jun22.html
Baseball does little to regulate the system of recruiting players in
Latin America. (Oct. 26, 2001)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53152-2001Oct25.html
In the baseball- mad Dominican, "buscones" often train players from
puberty for a shot at the majors. Some, though, have cheated players out
of thousands of dollars. (June 17, 2001)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10070-2001Jun16.html
* Take Action! *
1) Write to Major League Baseball and tell them you support the
regulation of the "buscones" that continue to exploit young Dominican
players.
Allan H. (Bud) Selig
245 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10167
tel (212) 931-7800
fax (212) 949-8636
2) Tell Major League Baseball and the Player's Union to get steroids and
other dangerous performance-enhancing supplements out of their league.
Supplement companies are changing the culture of sports, and creating a
public health menace all the way down to the junior high athletes who
easily purchase and fill their lockers with unregulated supplements and
performance-enhancers so they can be like the pros.
Allan H. (Bud) Selig
Commissioner, Major League Baseball
245 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10167
tel (212) 931-7800
fax (212) 949-8636
Donald M. Fehr
Director, Major League Baseball Players Association
12 E. 49th St., 24th Fl.
New York, NY 10017
tel (212) 826-0808
fax (212) 752-4378
3) Visit League of Fans' "Performance-Enhancing Drugs" page for more
information on the use of steroids and performance-enhancing supplements
in sports:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/socialissues/drugs.html
Also see:
Ralph Nader and League of Fans urge leaders to take real action against
ephedra and dietary supplement law (3/11/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/ephedrarelease.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
Redskins and racism
The Washington Redskins have won their appeal of a 1999 ruling that
revoked the franchise's federal trademark protection for their racist
team name.
Judge: Insufficient evidence name is offensive
Associated Press - October 1, 2003
..."If the team had lost, it could have been stripped of the exclusive
rights to market the Redskins name and sell team merchandise worth
millions. Harjo has said she hoped a victory might lead Snyder to change
the team's name. He had pledged not to regardless of the outcome.... The
lawsuit began in 1992 when Harjo asked the trademark office to cancel
six Redskin trademarks under the federal Lanham Act, which prohibits
registering names if they are "disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or
disreputable." The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed to cancel the
trademark. Its decision did not take effect pending appeal."...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1628425
* Take Action! *
1) Write a letter to franchise owner Dan Snyder asking him to show
Native Americans the respect and dignity they deserve by dropping the
"Redskins" nickname that has supported and maintained stereotypes of a
race of people for too long.
Daniel M. Snyder
Owner and CEO
Washington Redskins
21300 Redskins Park Dr.
Ashburn, VA 20147
tel (703) 726-7000
fax (703) 726-7086
2) Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper on the topic of
racist team names and images and encourage dialog in your community on
the issue.
3) Visit League of Fans' "Race and Sports" page for more information and
resources on Racism in sports:
http://www.leagueoffans.org/socialissues/raceandsports.html
------------------------- ### -------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS is an email bulletin of recent news items and
suggested actions regarding issues in the world of sports. It goes out
regularly to League of Fans "Alerts" listserv subscribers.
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. If you would like
to add yourself to the "Alerts" list, sign up at
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Tue Nov 4 15:59:50 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 10:59:50 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] League of Fans to NFL and Packers: Save the 'Lambeau Field' Name!
Message-ID: <3FA7CCF6.6050608@essential.org>
Ralph Nader and League of Fans Urge the Green Bay Packers and the NFL to
Contribute Financially to Save Lambeau Field from Naming Rights Deal
The naming rights to pro football's most cherished shrine are up for
sale. The City of Green Bay is being pressured by a referendum to sell
the naming rights to Lambeau Field to shorten the length of the sales
tax that paid for the stadium's renovation. Yesterday, Ralph Nader and
the sports watchdog League of Fans sent a letter to Green Bay Packers
President Bob Harlan and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue requesting that
their organizations contribute financially toward preserving the
"Lambeau Field" name and reducing taxpayers' stadium renovation debt.
The letter follows.
----------
November 3, 2003
Robert E. Harlan
President and CEO
The Green Bay Packers, Inc.
1265 Lombardi Avenue
Green Bay, WI 54304
Paul J. Tagliabue
Commissioner
National Football League Inc.
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Dear Gentlemen:
Your respective nonprofit corporations have a public service opportunity
in which we feel you should both enthusiastically participate.
An innovative citizens' grass-roots campaign is underway, called "Save
Lambeau," to raise money to help taxpayers of Green Bay and Brown County
shorten the length of the sales tax that is paying for the Lambeau Field
renovation and thereby reducing the pressure to sell the stadium's
naming rights. The project urges corporations to get involved, and
asserts that "By contributing via the 'Save Lambeau' campaign, your name
will not be in lights on the stadium. However, your company will forever
be known to sports fans around the globe as the company who helped save
'Lambeau Field.'"
For fans of the Packers and pro football, and for fans of community,
identity, pride and history, saving the "Lambeau Field" name is
important and a worthwhile cause for action. There are two corporations
(whose names are already on the stadium) that come immediately to mind
as those that should willingly contribute millions of dollars to the
cause of preserving the name while helping to pay down taxpayers'
stadium renovation debt: The Green Bay Packers, Inc. and the National
Football League Inc.
We're certain that you both agree that Lambeau Field should always be
Lambeau Field. But beyond your preferences, nothing is being done by the
Packers or the NFL to help relieve the large debt burden placed on Green
Bay and Brown County taxpayers for generously funding the Lambeau
renovation and thereby pressuring the City of Green Bay to convert into
a corporate advertising vehicle by actively soliciting companies to
plaster their name on the city-owned stadium.
In the renovation plan's so-called "public/private partnership,"
taxpayers were required to pay $169.1 million, with most of the rest
coming straight from fans who were subjected to a $1,400-per-seat PSL.
As with other NFL franchises who have done this, the Packers were able
to get away with claiming the $92.5 million total from the sale of PSL's
as part of their "private" contribution toward renovation.
The Packers have also drained some of the tradition and purity from
Lambeau already as fans now enter through turnstiles at "Verizon
Wireless Gate," "Miller Brewing Company Gate" and "Associated Bank
Gate," with all revenue from those sales going, not to taxpayers, but
straight to the Packers.
But the Packers aren't alone in failing to exert leadership to preserve
the Lambeau name. The NFL could have and should have shouldered much
more of the Lambeau renovation cost. The NFL's G-3 loan program has
generally provided $50-$100 million toward stadium construction and
renovation (paid back through the visiting team's cut of club-seat
money) in other cities where public subsidies have been extracted. But
the league managed to cough-up only $13 million for Lambeau financing.
That is offensive to the taxpayers and fans on whose backs the NFL and
the Packers are allowed to flourish.
The Chicago Bears (or to use their new ridiculous title, "Bears football
presented by Bank One"), received a $100 million loan from the NFL for
the Soldier Field renovation. Realizing there are differences in the
amount put forth by the NFL due to market size and amount of the private
contribution toward the project, why only $13 million for Lambeau?
Gentlemen, you should not forget what taxpayers and fans have done for
the Packers and the NFL financially by paying for the new and renovated
pro football stadiums across the country which allow your organizations
to meet their exclusive business needs and excesses. Although neither
the Packers nor the NFL are legally obligated to make concessions to
preserve the Lambeau Field name and in turn help to reduce the tax
burden on citizens, giving back under these circumstances is the right
thing to do.
The Packers should contribute because of the extraordinary relationship
between the team, the community and Lambeau Field that is so special and
makes them beloved throughout the sports world. And the NFL should
contribute because it is Lambeau Field, pro football's most cherished
shrine, that maintains a link with the league's history and a connection
with every fan of pro football past, present and future.
If naming rights for Lambeau Field are sold, the deal would drain the
civic spirit of the Green Bay region, destroy a significant part of what
makes the Packers special and betray the history and devoted fans of the
NFL, hence completing the reduction of the league to the constant
pursuit of commercialized profit.
From the days of Vince Lombardi to today, Packers fans have watched
historic games at Lambeau and collected memories that will stay with
them forever. They've witnessed the months of December and January like
few other fans have. For almost a half century they've strolled through
the gates of the "Frozen Tundra." Lambeau itself exists as a major actor
in the NFL's mythology. And now the possibility exists that fans could
be forced to watch the Packers play at "Coca-Cola Lambeau Field," or
some similar degradation.
We ask that your respective organizations help by either setting up a
fund together to preserve the "Lambeau Field" name while assisting Brown
County taxpayers as they struggle to pay down stadium renovation debt,
or by heavily contributing to the "Save Lambeau" campaign that is
already underway. We have provided the project's contact information below.
We look forward to your considered response.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
###
Save Lambeau
Contact: Scott Crevier
tel (920) 983-8300, or (877) LAMBEAU (toll-free)
email: savelambeau@southendzone.com
website: www.southendzone.com/savelambeau/
petition: www.southendzone.com/savelambeau/petition/
###
Interested readers may wish to get involved by writing to the Green Bay
Packers or the National Football League, and/or by expressing their
interest to the 'Save Lambeau' organization:
Robert E. Harlan
President and CEO
The Green Bay Packers, Inc.
1265 Lombardi Avenue
Green Bay, WI 54304
tel (920) 496-5700
fax (920) 496-5712
Paul J. Tagliabue
Commissioner
National Football League Inc.
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
tel (212) 450-2000
fax (212) 681-7599
Save Lambeau
Contact: Scott Crevier
tel (920) 983-8300, or (877) LAMBEAU (toll-free)
email: savelambeau@southendzone.com
website: www.southendzone.com/savelambeau/
petition: www.southendzone.com/savelambeau/petition/
###
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. To add yourself
to League of Fans' "Alerts" list, please visit
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts.
The mission of League of Fans is to improve sports by working as a
sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of the industry's
relationship to society and culture, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
www.leagueoffans.org
###
Nader, group urge Packers to contribute to retain Lambeau name
Associated Press - November 4, 2003
"Consumer advocate Ralph Nader and his League of Fans organization have
urged the Green Bay Packers and the National Football League to
contribute financially to retaining the name Lambeau Field for the
stadium where the team plays."...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/7178393.htm
Nader to Packers, NFL: Pay up
Green Bay News-Chronicle - November 4, 2003
..."The letter, issued by a Nader group called League of Fans, asks both
the team and league, as "nonprofit organizations," to contribute toward
keeping the name of the stadium as Lambeau Field."...
http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=122868
Nader joins Save Lambeau campaign
Green Bay Press-Gazette - November 4, 2003
..."'A naming rights deal would certainly be undercutting what the
community did to save the actual stadium in the first place,' said Shawn
McCarthy, director of the League of Fans. 'I think that the name Lambeau
Field means so much to so many people, I like what the Save Lambeau
organization is doing. Theyre fans that dont want to see the Lambeau
name go.'"
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_13043719.shtml
From shawn@essential.org Wed Nov 19 20:21:36 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 15:21:36 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS (11/19/03)
Message-ID: <3FBBD0D0.2050809@essential.org>
--------------------------------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS
League of Fans - November 19, 2003
--------------------------------------------------
1. Performance-enhancing drugs and supplements
2. Performance-enhancer prevention
3. BCS (Big Cash Scheme)
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
Performance-enhancing drugs and supplements
The discovery and possible widespread use of the steroid
tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) has unleashed another round of skepticism as
to the credibility of spectator sports in the United States, as well as
concerns over the public health implications of abuse.
The use of steroids and other drugs and dietary supplements to enhance
performance in sports not only puts the health of athletes (or guinea
pigs) in professional, collegiate and Olympic sports in danger, but also
the health of the many teenagers in high school and even middle school
sports who emulate those athletic role models through pill-popping and
injections. In addition, the use of performance-enhancers shatters the
public trust and boils down to one important word that nobody in the
sports world, at any level, wants to hear: CHEATING.
Dope and glory
SI.com - October 29, 2003
..."Doping is to sport very much like terrorism is to nations. It is
insidious. OK, there's a lot of bad stuff that's always gone on in
sports. But, at the core, we are always drawn to the physical majesty of
the young men and women who do wondrous things with their bodies. Sport
is art, aesthetics -- tabulated. We are outraged at games that are
fixed. Drugs fix bodies. It's the same thing, and we know it."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/frank_deford/10/29/viewpoint/index.html
Athletics Chief Does Not Expect THG Epidemic
Reuters - November 5, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031105/athleticsdiackdc.html
Four U.S. Athletes Test Positive for Steroid THG
Reuters - October 22, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031022/dopingusdc.html
Doping watchdog finds huge steroid conspiracy
ESPN the Magazine - October 16, 2003
http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2003/1016/1639608.html
A deadly game of politics
ESPN The Magazine - March 18, 2003
http://espn.go.com/magazine/cyphers_20030318.html
--------------------------------------------------
* GOOD SPORTS *
Performance-enhancer prevention
The frenzied press coverage, federal investigation and concern among
communities across the country about the use of the steroid THG,
designed to be undetectable in drug tests, has prompted quick action
among governing bodies and government agencies. This is encouraging, but
much more needs to be done.
A national and community effort must aim to eliminate
performance-enhancing drugs and supplements from sports. From
professional, collegiate and Olympic athletes taking unregulated
performance-enhancers and trying to beat testing systems, to the
teen-aged athletes in middle school and high school sports putting their
health at risk to be like the pros and gain an edge, the misuse of drugs
to enhance sports performance is a growing concern in this country.
Along with carrying the risk of serious health problems and the risk of
injury, the use of performance-enhancing drugs and supplements is
against everything sports stand for. Their use breaks the code of fair
play as well as the laws of sports and society.
Bonds Defends Trainer, Himself in Steroid Scandal
Reuters - November 19, 2003
"Anderson is a target of the federal grand jury investigating BALCO, a
Bay Area laboratory believed to be at the heart of a scandal around the
new designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone). For three years BALCO
provided Bonds with nutritional supplements. 'I can't answer any
questions about Greg Anderson, I don't know what a person does after he
leaves me,' Bonds said."...
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031119/nlbondsdopingdc.html
A Chemistry Test For Team Players
Washington Post - November 18, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54182-2003Nov17.html
THG Creates Tense Present
Washington Post - November 18, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54529-2003Nov17.html
Baseball Set for Automatic Steroid Tests
Washington Post - November 14, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37359-2003Nov13.html
Steroids plan lacks punch
SI.com - November 13, 2003
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/tom_verducci/11/13/steroids_qa/index.html
NCAA to Test for New Designer Steroid
Reuters - November 12, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031113/dopingncaadc.html
Bans Could Be Reduced For Doping Information
News Services - November 11, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24368-2003Nov10.html
Doping: Green Light Given for THG Re-Test
Reuters - November 10, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031110/trackdopingdc.html
Bonds Willing to Be Tested for New Steroid
Reuters - November 7, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031107/dopingbondsdc.html
New York becomes second state to ban ephedra
Associated Press - November 3, 2003
http://www.sportsline.com/general/story/6802896
WADA Calls on All Sports to Test for New Designer Drug
Reuters - October 24, 2003
http://news.findlaw.com/sports/s/20031024/dopingwadadc.html
Ephedra-based supplement company bankrupt
Associated Press - October 22, 2003
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1644242
Giambi, Bonds subpoenaed by federal grand jury
ESPN.com - October 20, 2003
http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2003/1020/1642261.html
* Take Action! *
1) Unlike drug products that must be proven by the FDA to be safe and
effective for their intended use before marketing, the Dietary
Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) frees any product that
calls itself a dietary supplement, like ephedra, from federal regulation
before they reach the consumer and does not require manufacturers and
distributors to record, investigate or forward to the FDA any reports
they receive of injuries or illnesses that may be related to the use of
their products.
"Congress must repeal the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of
1994," said Ralph Nader. "Public health and safety needs to come before
the interests of the powerful and well-funded supplement industry that
showers congressional Republicans and Democrats with political
contributions."
Urge Congress to take real action against the Dietary Supplement Health
& Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).
Contact your senators:
http://www.senate.gov/
Contact your representative:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard to be connected with your senators' or
representative's office:
(202) 224-3121
2) Tell Major League Baseball and the Player's Union to get steroids and
performance-enhancing supplements out of their league. Their current
testing policy is a joke. Supplement companies are changing the culture
of sports, and creating a public health menace all the way down to the
junior high athletes who easily purchase and fill their lockers with
unregulated supplements and performance-enhancers so they can be like
the pros.
Allan H. (Bud) Selig
Commissioner, Major League Baseball
245 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10167
tel (212) 931-7800
fax (212) 949-8636
Donald M. Fehr
Director, Major League Baseball Players Association
12 E. 49th St., 24th Fl.
New York, NY 10017
tel (212) 826-0808
fax (212) 752-4378
3) Emphasize participation over winning in your own household and
community. The pressure of a sports environment that has a "win at all
costs" attitude jeopardizes health and safety and increases the
potential for injury. Our current sports culture fuels the use of
performance-enhancing substances at almost all levels of competition and
age groups, as well as in most sports. Putting the health and safety of
players at risk just to win should have no place in sports. For players,
sports should be about safe participation and enjoyment, never winning
at all costs.
4) Visit League of Fans' "Performance-Enhancing Drugs" page for more
information on the use of steroids and performance-enhancing supplements
in sports.
http://www.leagueoffans.org/drugs.html
Also see:
Ralph Nader and League of Fans Urge Leaders to Take Real Action Against
Ephedra and Dietary Supplement Law (3/11/03)
http://www.leagueoffans.org/ephedrarelease.html
--------------------------------------------------
* BAD SPORTS *
BCS (Big Cash Scheme)
As long as the BCS v. non-BCS (or haves v. have-nots) issue in college
football is dominated by money, and by the conferences, networks and
sponsors that are part of the Bowl Championship Series, nothing will
change to improve the system, to get rid of the favoritism and
corruption, or to make college football more about football and fair
competition. Instead, it will only get worse.
The six major conferences and Notre Dame have access to the BCS (which
was invented by them as a way to line their own pockets) bowl games and
all the money that goes with them, while the rest of Division I-A
schools do not. Unfortunately, the non-BCS schools are arguing for the
wrong things. They are becoming part of the problem by only trying to
get a bigger piece of the money-pie rather than focusing on breaking up
the elite Bowl Championship that allows only two schools to compete for
the National Championship, closes out non-BCS schools altogether,
removes any chance for a fair playoff system and encourages the
professionalization of college football.
It's easy to get fed up with BCS schools, but don't expect changes
SI.com - November 5, 2003
"I love college presidents when it comes to sports. Most of them know
very well how athletics make a mockery of academia . . . well, of
course, at everybody else's college. Athletic departments pretty much
operate as wholly owned independent subsidiaries of the Corporation of
Alumni Amusement."...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/frank_deford/11/05/viewpoint/index.html
Instead of BCS progress, fans get absolutely nothing
SportsLine.com - November 16, 2003
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/6838941
BCS will not change significantly
Associated Press - November 16, 2003
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1663323
Antitrust investigation planned in BCS dispute?
Associated Press - November 15, 2003
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1662374
* Take Action! *
1) Write to NCAA President Myles Brand and ask that he take a lead role
in reversing the professionalization and reliance on cash in college
athletics. For Division I-A college football, we suggest that he work to
dissolve the BCS, decrease the reliance of major college football
programs on bowl game pay-outs, and institute a fair college football
playoff.
Myles Brand
President
National Collegiate Athletic Association
P.O. Box 6222
Indianapolis, IN 46206
tel (317) 917-6222
fax (317) 917-6888
Email Dennis L. Poppe, of the NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee
and send your thoughts and suggestions concerning the BCS.
http://www.ncaa.org/cgi-bin/staffmailform2.pl?id=dpoppe@ncaa.org&name=Dennis+L.+Poppe
------------------------- ### -------------------------
GOOD SPORTS / BAD SPORTS is an email bulletin of recent news items and
suggested actions regarding issues in the world of sports. It goes out
regularly to League of Fans "Alerts" listserv subscribers.
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
join the growing movement of people who are fed up with what the sports
industry has become and want to do something about it. If you would like
to add yourself to the "Alerts" list, sign up at
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/alerts
Founded by Ralph Nader, the mission of League of Fans is to improve
sports by working as a sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of
the industry's relationship to society, expose irresponsible business
practices, ensure accountability to fans, and encourage the sports
industry to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Thu Dec 4 22:09:36 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 17:09:36 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] Nader asks LeBron James to support workers' rights in Nike factories
Message-ID: <3FCFB0A0.2060804@essential.org>
Ralph Nader and League of Fans Ask LeBron James to Support Workers'
Rights in Nike Factories
Today, Ralph Nader and the sports watchdog League of Fans sent a letter
to NBA star rookie LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers asking him to
help improve conditions for the workers who make the Nike products he
endorses. In addition, the letter invites James to learn about Nike's
labor practices by attending an upcoming presentation in Cleveland
called "Sweatshops and Social Justice: Nike in Indonesia - A Case
Study." The letter follows.
http://www.leagueoffans.org/2lebronletter.html
--------------------
December 4, 2003
Mr. LeBron James
c/o Alexandria Johnson Boone
GAP Communications Group
5000 Euclid Avenue, Suite 400
Cleveland, Ohio 44103
Dear Mr. James:
Congratulations on the amazing start to your professional basketball
career, handling the pressure with maturity beyond your years and
exceeding the expectations of virtually everyone.
Since our last letter on April 8, 2003 requesting that you negotiate
anti-sweatshop provisions in your shoe contract, you signed with Nike
for a reported $90 million over 7 years. Now, with your first line of
Nike shoes due for sale in time for the holiday season on December 20 at
an estimated cost of $110 a pair, our hope is that the workers who make
those shoes receive the respect and dignity they deserve.
Though the inclusion of anti-sweatshop provisions in your original
contract with Nike would have been a remarkable display of awareness and
character for a young man, you are now a professional and have a greater
opportunity to use your influence to do something wonderful for the
human beings in Nike's sweatshops whose work has helped make you a very
wealthy man. Since the signing of your contract with Nike in May, you
are linked to the well-being of the workers in Nike's contracted
factories. We ask that you support justice for them.
As we expressed in our previous letter, Nike products are synonymous
with sweatshops in the Third-World and have become symbols of labor
rights violations, paltry wages, forced overtime and abuse for hundreds
of thousands of workers. Despite pressure from around the world, Nike
still chooses to maximize profits by undermining human rights standards.
As the leader in the sports shoe and apparel industry, Nike has a
responsibility to set an industry standard where labor, environmental
and human rights are respected. Nike originally led the push into
low-wage countries with poor human rights records for the purpose of
profitable exploitation. Nike's use of sweatshop factories has led every
major company in the sportswear industry, and most of the rest of the
clothing and apparel industry, to profit from them. As the world's
number one shoemaker, with annual sales over $10 billion, Nike could
easily afford to reverse this practice and ensure decent pay and
conditions in its factories and thereby pressure other companies to
follow their lead.
Mr. James, you are in a unique position to stand up for the people who
make the products you endorse and to make the world a better place in
the process. You can improve their working conditions in the contracted
factories and pressure the entire sports shoe and apparel industry to
change.
We urge you to let Nike know that you support human rights and the
workers' three demands of:
- a living wage that allows workers to meet their basic needs;
- independent unions to be recognized and for factory management to
collectively bargain with these unions in good faith; and
- a program of factory monitoring through international unions and human
rights organizations that are credible and completely independent of the
company.
In addition, we ask that you demand from Nike a guarantee, with
confirmation from an independent organization through a transparent
factory monitoring program, that any product which uses the "LeBron
James" name or likeness meet the three demands of workers listed above.
If you feel that you are not yet in a position to make an informed
decision on whether to leverage your power to diminish the evils of
sweatshops, let us recommend that you call on the talents of a vast
array of experts and activists, some little older than yourself, in the
fight for improved workplace conditions who would be pleased to assist
you in learning about sweatshops and Nike's role in taking advantage of
them.
Though on fairly short notice, you have a great opportunity to educate
yourself on Nike's labor practices next week in Cleveland.
On Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 9:45am, Educating for Justice (EFJ) will
present "Sweatshops and Social Justice: Nike in Indonesia - A Case
Study" at St. Ignatius High School in an event sponsored by the
Cleveland Catholic High School Students for Peace.
The two-hour interactive multi-media presentation will include slide
shows, role-playing, powerful video footage, and a question-answer
period. EFJ directors Leslie Kretzu and Jim Keady will introduce the
audience to the issue of sweatshops through the lens of social justice
by using an easily understandable case study: Nike's labor and
environmental practices in Indonesia.
The presentation will detail the month Leslie and Jim spent in an
Indonesian factory workers' slum living on $1.25 a day, a typical wage
paid to Nike's subcontracted workers. Along with personal accounts of
lived solidarity, the presentation will include the latest information
on Nike's labor and environmental practices that EFJ researched in
Indonesia in 2001 and 2002.
There will be an encore presentation that evening at 7:30pm at the
Doland Center for Science and Technology on the campus of John Carroll
University, which we realize you can not attend since you will be
playing a game at Gund Arena during that time. We ask that if you have
prior obligations on the morning of December 9 and can not attend
personally, to please extend your invitation to someone who can attend
one of the presentations on your behalf. If you prefer, we're certain
that a private presentation could also be arranged.
You have a chance for respect around the world for not just your
basketball playing ability, but for your generosity as a human being in
improving working conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers. This
is a respect that Michael Jordan, the "king of sweatshops," never
achieved as the world's most successful salesman of sweatshop-made
shoes. You can achieve more than that just by helping to improve the
conditions for those who make the products you endorse.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 19312
Washington, DC 20036
Shawn McCarthy
League of Fans
P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036
###
What: Sweatshops and Social Justice: Nike in Indonesia - A Case Study
When: Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 9:45am
Where: St. Ignatius High School, 1911 W. 30th Street, Cleveland, Oh 44113
Who: Presentation by Educating for Justice, and sponsored by Cleveland
Catholic High School Students for Peace
If you would like more information on the event, please contact Jim
Keady at (732) 988-7322 or JWkeady@aol.com.
###
Nader urges LeBron to pressure Nike
CNN/Money - December 4, 2003
http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/04/news/companies/lebron_nader/index.htm
April 8, 2003 - Ralph Nader and League of Fans' first letter to LeBron
James requesting that he push for anti-sweatshop provisions in his shoe
contract can be accessed here: http://www.leagueoffans.org/lebronletter.html
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The mission of League of Fans is to improve sports by working as a
sports industry watchdog to increase awareness of the industry's
relationship to society, expose irresponsible business practices, ensure
accountability to fans, and encourage the sports industry to contribute
to societal well-being.
www.leagueoffans.org
From shawn@essential.org Fri Dec 19 19:18:42 2003
From: shawn@essential.org (Shawn McCarthy)
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 14:18:42 -0500
Subject: [Alerts] The BCS Boondoggle and Proposal for Reform
Message-ID: <3FE34F12.8000706@essential.org>
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The BCS Boondoggle and Proposal for Reform
League of Fans - December 19, 2003
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Read the full proposal and take action: http://www.leagueoffans.org/bcs.html
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Summary
While no system for Division I-A college football could be perfect for
determining a national champion while protecting all interests of
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions,
student-athletes, bowl games and consumers (fans), the current system is
an absolute debacle. It is the position of League of Fans that the Bowl
Championship Series (BCS) be terminated and replaced with a 16-team
tournament for deciding a national champion, among other changes, that
would best account for the needs of everyone.
Div. I-A college football needs a system overhaul and a change toward
values that aren't solely based on money and greed. In short, League of
Fans favors: eliminating the BCS; shortening the regular season to 11
games; ending conference championship games; instituting an NCAA
sanctioned 16-team tournament, separate from the bowl system, with
inclusive provisions for the traditionally strong conferences as well as
the traditionally overlooked conferences; giving home field advantage to
higher ranked teams in the rounds of 16, 8 and 4; choosing a neutral
site for the championship game, with a January bowl game as an option;
inviting deserving teams not playing in the tournament to play in the
bowl games; and distributing all revenues from the tournament and bowl
games fairly and equally to all Div. I-A institutions.
Some of the benefits to such a system would be: an undisputed national
champion decided on the field of play through a fair and inclusive
tournament; the opportunity for fans and media to follow possible
"Cinderella" teams; fewer games overall, benefiting the "student" aspect
of student-athlete; even distribution of money; less reliance on bowl
game pay-outs; less discrimination against what are currently non-BCS
schools; a system under the control of the NCAA rather than a
self-serving cartel; a greater value placed on winning one's conference;
deterrents toward excessive head coaching salaries and football "arms
race" spending; and less professionalization and over-commercialization
of college football.
Details of our concerns with the BCS and our preference for a 16-team
tournament are explained in the following proposal.
http://www.leagueoffans.org/bcs.html
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Founded by Ralph Nader, League of Fans is a sports reform project
working to improve sports by increasing awareness of the sports
industry's relationship to society, exposing irresponsible business
practices, ensuring accountability to fans, and encouraging the industry
to contribute to societal well-being.
To find out more about League of Fans, visit www.leagueoffans.org or
write to info@leagueoffans.org.