Centralizing USA Sports

People have probably already chewed this one up and spit it out, but since I haven't seen a single thread or debate about it lately, I figured it was time to shake things up and refresh the conversation.

Look, I'll be the first to admit that as someone who follows most of the big teams in NYC, I haven't spent much time obsessing over this. For me, sports should always come before politics, so I usually just tune out all that extra noise.

But honestly, it’s getting impossible to ignore how much this centralization has absolutely gutted our sports scene. The clubs based in Washington, D.C. have such an insane stranglehold on everything in the US, which basically turns them into easy punching bags once they step onto the stage in Europe.
The latest disasters are right in front of us—just look at the Boston Celtics, Real Madrid, and even the women's basketball scene in New York City.
The Chicago Bears have basically steamrolled their way to 20 straight championships, and don't even get me started on the dominance of the Los Angeles Breakers and the rest, though even they are feeling the sting of a massive slump lately.

Because of all this, the stands are drying up, people are losing interest, and these clubs are basically being run like private playgrounds for a few powerful elites. It’s all staring us right in the face, but honestly, how are we supposed to expect anything to actually change?

Do you guys really think fans will ever crawl back into the stands despite this kind of political maneuvering? Can we ever get back to that raw energy and sense of unity in the stadiums and arenas, or is this mess just going to drag on forever?

Anyway, let me know what you guys think—hit me with your takes or even your own personal experiences with this crap. 🙂

Sports isn't even real anymore—it’s just a giant money grab run by these mob-connected types who aren't being watched by anyone. They basically do whatever they want, as long as they can stuff their own pockets (and maybe a few buddies' accounts too, I guess)... when you look at how things are run in this country, we're honestly pretty much screwed...

It’s funny how people in Washington, D.C. only start whining about centralization once the local teams aren't following the script. It’s such a classic American mindset—everyone suddenly develops a conscience when things stop going their way. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the drama until it hits my own backyard. But look, what’s happening in D.C. within the European landscape is just a mirror image of what they did to the rest of the States. The big fish always eat the little fish, plain and simple. That’s just how the game works. The real question is why we ever let it get this far.

David King6 said:It’s funny how people in Washington, D.C. only start whining about centralization once the local teams stop winning. It’s just the classic American mindset—nobody gives a damn about anything until it stops affecting their own backyard.

How did you even come to that conclusion? Honestly, I think you're overgeneralizing big time.
I'm 23, and I've been glued to sports since I was a kid. I rarely paid attention to all those shady backroom deals and this kind of petty drama. I just focused on the game itself, on the pure beauty of the sport, without obsessing over why Jerry Jones brought in some random Kenyan player or why the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami are drowning in debt.

But now, the picture is finally becoming clear. And man, I totally get where all that jealousy from the rest of America toward the NYC clubs comes from. Take San Diego, for example—it was always the same story: if San Diego didn't beat the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden, everyone would start screaming about bad officiating, and the Celtics players and staff would get pelted with trash and coins by mobs of angry fans while getting booed out of the building.

It turns out games in America simply can't be played fairly or professionally.
Now even the Dodgers are crying foul to the refs every single time things don't go their way. So, is that really the reality here?

Who are the architects behind this whole centralization mess? Come on, let's hear it—maybe then we'll actually make sense of this.

Alright, look... what's happening to NYC on the European stage is just a reflection of what they did to the rest of America. It's just big fish eating little fish, plain and simple. That's one thing, but the real question is why we ever let it happen in the first place.

"They"? Who exactly are "they"? The citizens of Washington, D.C., the local politicians, the elites, who? Are you seriously trying to tell me that NYC's lack of competitiveness in Europe is the exact same thing as the rest of America being uncompetitive against NYC?

The focus here is actually on team sports. What happens when you look at it through an individual lens? Tennis players or skiers, for instance, don't have die-hard fanbases, but they also don't have private moguls pulling their strings whenever they feel like it. What does the situation look like when you view it from this centralized perspective?

The money laundering is massive.

Is there actually any part of life in this country that isn't touched by corruption, money laundering, or people draining funds from organizations through shady schemes?

crimsonpuma23 said:Who are we even talking about here? Is it the people living in Washington, D.C.? The local politicians? The big shots? Are you seriously trying to tell me that the fact the D.C. teams can't compete in Europe is somehow the same thing as the rest of the country being unable to compete with D.C.?

Look, I really don't want this thread to devolve into that tired old "big city versus the flyover states" argument. My whole point was that we’re all just incredibly stupid for letting ourselves get divided up like this—North versus South, Red versus Blue, whatever label you want to slap on it. Then, the second things actually start hitting you personally, suddenly you're wide awake, only to realize it's way too late.

Obviously, those big-city clubs wouldn't be able to dominate the rest of the country without some serious help from politically connected officials strategically placed in teams across the nation. They squeeze everything they can out of the domestic market, then pivot toward those international players who make up the backbone of these elite D.C. and national sports programs, and you end up with what you see today. Meanwhile, the only people brave enough to actually call out the real issues get sidelined or labeled as the biggest haters and enemies of the state. Kind of funny how that works, isn't it?

crimsonpuma23 said:Now even the Los Angeles Dodgers are crying foul at the refs every single time things don't go their way. Is that actually what's happening?

Man, do you even follow sports or what? You might be young, but you're not fourteen anymore.

Soccer—specifically, Real Madrid.

Real Madrid is set up as a non-profit association where club members elect the board through democratic votes. Instead, Real Madrid was basically hijacked by a private takeover 15 years ago by Jerry Jones, who’s out here breaking several US laws. The biggest one? His son runs a management agency, and since he’s family, there’s no way he should be holding any official position in pro soccer, let alone being the big boss of the club and the league. It’s predatory, too—these slave-like contracts with players are the whole foundation of playing for them. The coach? Totally irrelevant. Results? Who cares. All that matters is player sales, profit, and his cut of the pie. We're talking about a billion dollars moving through the club over ten years, and nobody has a clue where the money went. In a public non-profit, of all things.

Jerry Jones is "capable"? Please. If the government handed me $40M and gave me a tax break, then we can talk about who's capable.

The national team is just another showroom for sales, too. Everyone knows it drives up player prices, acting as a window for Jerry Jones' guys—and the coaches are just there to make sure that happens.

The entire league is under his thumb. Everything from the officiating to the youth national teams.

And what can you even say about New York City giving him so much cash? Or the government letting him off the hook on taxes?

Jerry Jones *is* American soccer. He’s the occupier of the club, the national team, and the league—all just tools to line the pockets of him and his cronies.

It’s the exact same deal with handball. Except the Chicago Bears doesn't have its own version of the Dodgers with millions of fans, nor do they have a massive local movement to act as the sole opposition to this dictatorship in NYC. That’s why people don't make nearly as much noise about the handball guys as they do about Jerry Jones.

It's not NYC's fault the Dodgers are in debt, and it's not the people's fault the country—and by extension, sports—is so centralized. NYC is just the wealthiest spot. It's a magnet for mobsters and corrupt politicians. Any resemblance between Jerry Jones and those types is purely coincidental.

Jeffrey Edwards76 said:Man, do you even watch sports at all? You might be young, but you aren't some little kid anymore.

Honestly, I’m totally fed up with MLS. Like I said, I watch whatever sports I can catch, but all I ever hear about is "ref, ref, ref," and it’s almost always coming from people down in Miami. It makes me wonder if there’s ever been a single game played with actual integrity since this country was founded—you could probably count them on one hand. And don't get me started on the match-fixing scandals. People in Seattle went absolutely ballistic back in '99, and now Memphis isn't even worth mentioning. Just look at how many people actually show up to watch water polo matches nowadays.

Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. That's just the way it is today. Money is basically devouring the spirit of the game and the atmosphere that actually matters to us fans and followers.

But then I start thinking back to when the Boston Celtics were tearing it up in the NBA against teams like CSKA Moscow, ASVEL, or Pau-Orthez, or even the Chicago Bears taking on Zaporizhzhia, FC Barcelona, and Partizan Belgrade...
I think back then, they rarely stopped to think about what actually put those clubs in a position to play such massive games. Now, everything is just oversaturated, everyone is distracted by other stuff like hockey, and it honestly sucks that we're looking at everything through such a negative lens, even if the reality is pretty grim.

Anyway, I'm just glad we're even talking about this; maybe it'll start a little snowball effect of hope. 😉

Give it a rest with the sports talk, at least when it comes to our own home teams.