Auction Action, Basketball Edition

So hire more freakin equipment people. Fuck, man, if you can pay the players millions of dollars, you can fork out a another extra couple hundred thousand for more lower level employees.

…and in response to Paul:
Yes, obviously you need to allow for a certain amount of advanced warning for the road team to pack accordingly – but that does not mean anyone should be forced into white. If the Red Wings want to wear white at home, that should be their choice, not a league mandate. If they choose to wear red at home, that should also be their choice – and if the Maple Leafs choose to go into Detroit, knowing that the Wings will be in red, and bring their blue jerseys, that should also be acceptable.

Jeff, do you use your brain at all?

Roadtrips are bloody EXPENSIVE. Bringing more people means more weight in the plane, more hotel rooms, more per diems, more costs for the team. The CBA negotiations right now are stuck on the amount of money teams are paying players right now, so why the hell would they add more non-playing staff to a roadtrip?

Owners aren’t excited about paying higher costs when there are viable options for paying less. Otherwise, why not just charge the fans more for tickets? I mean, in the long run, we essentially pay for the road trip anyway.

Give your head a shake.

Tom, there are logistical nightmares that go into roadtrips that we, as fans, don’t consider.

Home teams get to use their own washers and dryers before the road teams do unless pre-arranged. The road team equipment managers will stay late into the nights in order to prepare for the next game by laundering the uniforms so that they are ready for the next game. They also disinfect and dry equipment for the players, and make repairs if necessary.

Practice uniforms are cleaned after practice in the morning or early afternoon, and the clean game uniforms are placed into the lockers during the day. The equipment manager will work on problems – cuts, rips, loose namebars, etc. – during the day to have the uniform ready for gametime. They again have to wait for the home team’s equipment manager to offer up the sewing machine unless, of course, they’re lucky enough to have one with them as some teams do.

Once the uniforms and equipment are in the lockers, they begin prepping sticks and sharpening skates. Again, the visitors are limited by the available equipment at the rink they are visiting.

If a team plays on back-to-back nights, visiting equipment managers will often throw wet and dirty unifroms and equipment into whatever transportation they can obtain (minivan, cube truck, etc.), and go ahead of the team to get to the next rink. Once there, they again work through the night or rise at the crack of dawn to have everything clean and in lockers for the players by the afternoon. In the afternoon, they begin the repair process for uniforms damaged the night before, and the cycle continues.

If a team is on a six-city, ten-night roadtrip, the equipment manager and, if lucky, one assistant literally works their asses off for ten straight days and nights until the team gets home. It’s not some walk in the park. They literally put their noses to the grindstone so the players can look their best when they suit up on the road.

I know, I don’t “get it(TM)”, but it’s just baffling to me that in the multi-billion dollar industry that we call Professional Sports, the teams aren’t capable of hiring enough people and ordering enough uniforms to make laundry a non-issue.

I understand perfectly, Teebz, I just think that it’s bullshit. Multi-million dollar franchises, and ONE equipment guy? C’mon. Just because “that’s the way it is” doesn’t mean that’s how it should be.

Greed is not a positive attribute, ok?

You’re not exactly siding with me there, Phil. (Which is probably a good thing, actually)

My side was no league mandates and team choice, backed up by owners not being so damn stingy and hiring enough people to actually do the job when it comes to equipment management and dealing with said team choices.

Plus, I’m sure you’d want college and high school teams to pack all their unis and hire another equipment guy, too…where are they gonna get the money?

Nike, obviously. ;)

Nice comeback…

Still taking Teebz’ side on this, but at least you got a chuckle out of me.

Jeff, I can’t do this any longer.

Please continue being a fan. Your understanding of the operations side of a hockey franchise where they lug more than just a jersey and a pair of shorts for 12 players like they do in the NBA should be the standard for all business models regardless of the business. After all, capitalism is greed at the most empirical form – entirely upon what the pro sports business is founded.

Oblivion is bliss, I suppose.