The Red Sox have opened Pandora's Box...

[ThaSaltCracka]

yeah I didn't understand that either. It seems to me that it has led to more elite leagues, which are outside of the traditional domestic leagues.

[J.R.]

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting reading JR. Thanks for posting it, I'll definately pick up the book when I have the chance.

Just to clarify:

" Rather than stable competition within the top professional leagues, therefore, European football has seen the increasing dominance of the richest clubs, which has led to continuous talk (and actual implementation) of breakaway elite leagues.

link

The EPL is such a league.
"

Actually it isn't. The breakaway elite leagues that have been discussed are those like the thing you quoted below. Top teams from several countries that play each other. These super leagues tend to not have any sort of entry or exit design, just that the teams make their own league and ignore everyone else.

The Premiership is simply the top flight in England.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, If I wasn't clear my point was the EPL is an early but flawed (its very inequitable, which is why the top clubs will break away) example of this breakaway league model, as it was sorta an English super league. The next generation international super league will sorta mimic the EPL model, although on an international scale and without the deadweight. The real point the next breakaway league will get the big clubs, get the big TV money and take off from there (as sorta the EPL did wrt to English soccer but on a more international and larger economic scale)

parity = competitive drama = increased fan interst = more loot for the league

[Toro]

[ QUOTE ]
I was pretty young, so I don't remember the details of Oakland sending Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to Boston for cash.

But I do know that the commish put the kibosh on that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

June 18, 1976: Commissioner Kuhn voids the A's sales, totaling $3.5 million, of Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox, and Vida Blue to the Yankees, saying they are "not in the best interest of baseball." A's owner Charlie Finley files a $10 million damage suit against Kuhn, and will refuse to use any of the three players until June 27th.

» December 16, 1976: Court proceedings in Charlie Finley's $10 million damage suit against Commissioner Kuhn begin in Chicago. At issue is Kuhn's voiding of Finley's attempted player sales in June. The proceedings will take 15 days, and the decision will take three months.

» March 17, 1977: Federal Judge Frank McGarr rules in favor of Bowie Kuhn, saying that the commissioner acted within his authority in voiding the 1976 player sales engineered by A's owner Charlie Finley.