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How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

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Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#261

Post by sowbug »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #137

A couple of things: I can't manage to copy and paste it from the article, but one section talks about these guys hiring friends and family, not for their expertise, but as a favor. This inevitably goes bad places. The old boys club is about knowing you well enough to vet you on two things: 1. How trustworthy you are generally and 2. What you are good at. Having connections matters and if you can't establish those con…

"I can't manage to copy and paste it" control-shift-I in Chrome, then use the element-selecting arrow to highlight the element in the DOM containing the text you want to share.

I was there for a different reason: to figure out whether my browser was to blame for all the typos in this 9-year-old article ("Old habits diehard" being the one that set me on the quest.)

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#262

Post by DoreenMichele »

sowbug wrote: post #261
DoreenMichele wrote: post #137

A couple of things: I can't manage to copy and paste it from the article, but one section talks about these guys hiring friends and family, not for their expertise, but as a favor. This inevitably goes bad places. The old boys club is about knowing you well enough to vet you on two things: 1. How trustworthy you are generally and 2. What you are good at. Having connections matters and if you can't establish those con…

"I can't manage to copy and paste it" control-shift-I in Chrome, then use the element-selecting arrow to highlight the element in the DOM containing the text you want to share. I was there for a different reason: to figure out whether my browser was to blame for all the typos in this 9-year-old article ("Old habits diehard" being the one that set me on the quest.)

I am on a phone with an Edge browser. I usually can copy and paste. I don't know why I couldn't manage it that time.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#263

Post by wepple »

tim333 wrote: post #201
wepple wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You start with “the safest thing is..” then suggest property, only if they have knowledge of what prices are reasonable. Doesn’t sound safe. Index fund would probably be safer. Or savings account.

Do you know many people impoverished in their old age because they bought a couple of houses (assuming no mortgages)? Bank savings inflate away, stocks crash, houses are typically as safe as houses.

property markets still collapse. Towns turn into ghost towns, it’s not bulletproof. The absolute safest thing is cash in a bank. It’s an absolutely terrible investment, and you’d be an idiot to do it, but it’s safe.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#264

Post by the_jeremy »

grahamburger wrote: post #163
QittyQat wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a very vivid recollection of 8th Grade Civics units on personal finance, budgeting, and tax management. In this unit we were awarded a salary through a lottery system and had to learn to live within the means of our salary. Students would pair up and find homes to live in by reviewing ads in the newspaper. We would have to learn to set aside money for savings, groceries, and for fun. We also learned how to inv…

I'm pretty sure your experience is pretty normal for the US. Lots of people forget that they had several classes that taught basics of personal finance, few people actually didn't have those classes.

I don't know about that. In my school district, there was a 5th grade field trip where we had "jobs" that paid "money" we could use to buy trinkets at the other shops the other kids worked at. That was the limit of my school teaching financial literacy. We never learned how to file taxes, how to invest or what good investments were.

There was a high school elective course about personal finances, but because it was an elective and sounded boring, none of my friends took it.

I don't think it is especially hard to learn how to invest, but I suppose getting to the point where you know the right questions to ask might be hard without knowing people who know the basics.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#265

Post by aj7 »

Everybody is being too nice. Athletics is hard, and is an almost full-time job for professional aspirations from 15 years old on.

Many of these athletes are semi-literate. And this has been going on in boxing, for time immemorial, for the same reason.

A means has to be found to better attack the perpetrators.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#266

Post by talmand »

talmand wrote: post #106
majormajor wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most of the US you can't even practice ice skating without paying money. Compare that to the number of basketball courts out there for pickup games, or fields where football could be played. It's not solely that the equipment costs more, it's that practice directly requires money, and practice time is the biggest overall driver of excellence. Professional race driving is another example of this. Tennis another not…

So the problem is lack of ice and not directly related to economic status? If one goes far enough north, or south, where ice is easily found for practice then the costs decline? So it's more where people choose to live versus the cost of the sport as a whole?

Why in the world is someone downvoting me for asking questions?

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#267

Post by talmand »

majormajor wrote: post #258
talmand wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the problem is lack of ice and not directly related to economic status? If one goes far enough north, or south, where ice is easily found for practice then the costs decline? So it's more where people choose to live versus the cost of the sport as a whole?

What?? What point are you even trying to make, now? "More black people would play hockey if more slaves had been imported to Canada and Scandinavia"? Sure, probably, but that's now a completely irrelevant hypothetical to the posed question of "is there a economic background connection to the likelihood of bankruptcy after exposure to extreme short-lived income streams?"

Um, I think I said nothing of the kind. I believe you need to reconsider how you approach different topics. People are free to move about these days you know.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#268

Post by talmand »

brewdad wrote: post #189
talmand wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's just as possible as football, but the locals decide to not offer hockey in the same way? What if predominately black high schools in large cities started demanding hockey teams?

Football can be played/practiced on any large grass field in any climate any time of the year. Hockey requires an indoor facility with expensive chilling and maintenance equipment if you want to play outside of a few northern cities for a few months out of the year. Inner city Houston kids will never have access to hockey facilities in any significant numbers.

Do inner city schools play basketball outside? Although, I can see maintaining a hockey rink has increased costs over a basketball court.

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#269

Post by talmand »

smogcutter wrote: post #116
talmand wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the problem is lack of ice and not directly related to economic status? If one goes far enough north, or south, where ice is easily found for practice then the costs decline? So it's more where people choose to live versus the cost of the sport as a whole?

http://time.com/4913284/kids-sports-cost/ Organized youth sports are expensive (in the US at least), and hockey more so than others. You need a lot of equipment which your kid will keep growing out of, and then costs for ice time. Ice time is likely less expensive in big hockey regions (I have no idea), but it's always a cost. A competitive youth league team isn't practicing on a frozen lake.

So, sticks and skates as more equipment than football.

Although, someone pointed out elsewhere that good skates can be expensive and requires maintenance. I didn't consider costs of keeping skates sharp. But I'm still curious as to why high-quality expensive equipment is required specifically for hockey when it seems to me that every other sport has a large number of kids with substandard equipment. Do hockey players not use hand-me-downs or used equipment?

Re: How and Why Athletes Go Broke (2009)

#270

Post by talmand »

alsetmusic wrote: post #176
talmand wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the problem is lack of ice and not directly related to economic status? If one goes far enough north, or south, where ice is easily found for practice then the costs decline? So it's more where people choose to live versus the cost of the sport as a whole?

> So the problem is lack of ice and not directly related to economic status? If one goes far enough north, or south, where ice is easily found for practice then the costs decline? So it's more where people choose to live versus the cost of the sport as a whole? Minors don’t choose where their parents live. If you’re getting drafted at 19 yrs of age, you’ve probably been playing since you were a kid. If you don’t live…

No, I'm just asking questions trying to understand how it is that hockey is apparently the most expensive sport for kids and only the highly privileged kids get to play.

I don't understand all this negativity I'm getting by just asking questions. A person couldn't possibly propose a solution to a problem without asking questions first.

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