The Absurdity of Pro Sports Profits

With the end of the NHL lockout, it seems opportune to revisit the absurd greed involved in the conceit that owning a professional sports team should be not only a privilege for wealthy men to engage in if they so choose but one that they ought to be able to turn a profit doing. But it's a ridiculous idea. If you're the owner of, say, the New York Knicks then you should of course want the Knicks to have lots of revenue since the revenue can be plowed into helping the team win. But any Knicks fan would be willing to incur some non-zero quantity of financial losses in order to see the team win its first NBA championship in decades. Lots of people, of course, wouldn't want to do that. But that's just to say that lots of people aren't Knicks fans. And lots of Knicks fans couldn't afford to spend very much money on seeing the team win, which is just to say that lots of Knicks fans aren't ric...