There are a few things that have happened lately in the sports world that have conjured up some thoughts in this scribe's mind. I have learned through my studies and real life experiences with the Mavericks that the sports industry is a very unique one. There are highly educated and creative people that make just enough to cut down their Ramen noodle dinners to 3-4 per week. All the while there are the inter-connected, less-educated, and totally less creative people that make more than they ever would in any other industry (and I'm not talking about the players... yet).
The sports industry has an odd dilemma on it's hands. Sports are cool, sports are fun, therefore sports teams and all the vendors that associate with the sports teams have no shortage of eager fresh faced 22 year olds coming out of college to take entry level jobs and "work their way up". This huge pool of talent provides teams the ability to decrease their pay rates because, "hey we'll just give their job to someone else". Now it seems as though this is a good business decision right? Keep your costs low and lose only an incremental amount of experience in the process, great let's do it!
Unfortunately there are some flaws to the process that creates only upper class and lower class incomes. Take a nations economy for example (other topic I know something about -- I'm an Economist), look at the top economies or the most stable economies in the world and you will quickly discover a trend. You will notice that those countries have stronger middle classes than the rest of the less stable economies in the world. When you create a workplace with low paid people who are intelligent and then hire only a handful of high paid people who have acquired their jobs due only to tenure, and have them oversee the operation, there are corporate mutinies, mental looting, and mind riots that take place in the battlegrounds known as Cube Farm USA. I decided (as have many other people who I have a lot of respect for their abilities) to leave the sports industry --hopefully to come back at a later date - for an industry that pays it's people for their direct worth to the company.
Now that you have a basic knowledge of how a sports franchise operates I will finally get to my point. Two weeks ago 9 people whom I call friends and several who I call close friends, were laid off by those same Mavericks that I worked for for 2 and a half years. Working in the staffing industry I know all to well that companies are cutting back, so I can understand the need to cut back on budget and all that good stuff. But yesterday the Mavericks decided to sign a 37 year old (ancient in professional sports years) Jason Kidd to a 3 year 25 million dollar contract. He will be 40 years old at the end of his contract. To put that in perspective the players drafted in his last year will probably have been born during his NBA career.
Three points of note on the signing of Jason Kidd:
1. Okay I understand that we don't want JJ Barea running the point 48 minutes a night, so keeping Kidd on the roster in light of not acquiring a point guard is not too bad of a move.
2. The Mavs have put themselves in this position due to waiting too long to break up a unit that hasn't and probably never will win a championship. They've done this with the outrageous contract of Erick Dampier and the buddy buddy relationships Mark Cuban creates with players preventing him from making basketball decisions and throwing emotion into the mix (only speculating on the later accusation).
3. Even with all this said why couldn't they have signed Kidd to a 3 year 24.5 million dollar contract and kept the front office staff they depend on so much to put on "the show" as Cuban calls it? Remember how I said that sports industry job didn't pay too well? Well I would bet a whole bunch on the fact that the $500,000 savings from that slight contract adjustment would be MORE than enough to cover the 9 salaries "saved" on two weeks ago.
It is a shame that in times of trouble and economic turmoil that we turn not to growing our business and finding ways to increase value to everyone around us but rather cut people who worked their hearts out, and give more money to someone who has more money than those 9 may ever see. I would hope that when and if I am in a position with a company as successful and popular as the Dallas Mavericks that I can call to my employees and fill them with a mission that they feel passionately about and in return offer them my loyalty as an employer. A loyalty not based on straight dollars but in value added to the lives that surround me and my organization.
Disclaimer: I am not fully aware of the contract negotiations with Jason Kidd nor the rules the Mavericks had to follow to make that contract. I know the Mavericks are over the alloted salary cap and they may have had to sign him for a certain dollar value to not violate any collective bargaining rules. If $25 million is the lowest they could have signed him for (and I'm not joking here, that's a possibility) I will come slightly closer to understanding the signing.
