Lakers Schmakers

6-17-09

This morning at 11 am, Los Angeles is celebrating.

The Los Angeles Lakers brought home yet another World Championship. Everyone rejoice and cheer since our beloved heroes are going to grace us with their presence in a huge parade through the streets of Los Angeles.

Are you out of your mind?

I will preface this with a disclaimer. I don’t like basketball. Never have, probably never will. I have attended one game because we were given phenomenal seats for a Clippers game. I enjoyed myself only because of the amusing music selections determined by who had the ball. When the Clippers had the ball, it was an upbeat selection, and when the opposing team had the ball, it was a menacing melody. It was good guy/bad guy music set to a sport. But even that wasn’t enough to keep me interested.

However, I do recognize that sports are important to a city. I have enjoyed baseball games, hockey games, even football, which is only slightly less offensive than basketball. When your home team wins, it is awesome. I watched the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series and I was elated with pride. I felt the same way about a team that I never routed for before, the Red Sox, when they finally broke their curse with their World Series win a few years back. I even have cheered the Ducks when they won the Stanley Cup, and they are rivals of my Kings! It doesn’t really matter the sport, it just matters that we are enjoyed the game and cheer the victors.

But where do we draw that line? Does every championship need that much fanfare? And more importantly, does the fanfare need to cost millions of dollars?

Athletes as it is, make gobs of cash for a game. They are good at it, and they make a franchise a crap load of money for their talent, therefore giving many people jobs, and even more people hours of enjoyment at the ballpark, local sports bar or even their own home. We could make the argument that all of the places you watch a sport put money into the economy. From the ticket price, to the beers bought at Nationals to the pizza you ordered from your living room. Professional sports are big business, and not just to the owners.

Perhaps we should in fact celebrate their victory with vigor. Didn’t they in fact not only give us entertainment, but they possibly are one of the only things that is still stimulating our hurting economy?

Even though I agree that these are all good reasons, I don’t think they are enough to warrant the parade scheduled for this morning.

I am not the only one who feels this way. There was a lot of backlash about the price tag on this little shin dig. We are a city, we are a state, in financial crisis. Jobs are being eliminated, city workers put on furlough and budgets slashed across the board. Isn’t it a tad irresponsible to throw a party just because some sports team played a game, made lots of money for themselves, and let’s face it, will do it again.

Bernard Parks had the audacity to say, “"I don't think we have a choice, this is one of those things that happen once in a decade."

Has he only lived in LA for a week?

Let’s look at the facts. The Lakers since their creation in 1948, they have only missed the NBA playoffs 5 times. They have 15 NBA titles, with 4 of those championships this decade. 4 out of the last 9 years they won! Hardly a once in a decade sort of situation.

The criticism resulted in today’s parade being paid partially by the Lakers organization and other sponsors, guaranteeing any costs the city would have been responsible for being covered. Great, problem solved, right?

Does this check being cut to LA cover the citizens that got to work late because of the freeway closures this morning? Does it cover the businesses that are likely to be closed along the parade route due to the congestion of fans converging along the route? Does it cover the messes that are not on city property? Does it cover the productivity slum that may occur when employees log onto the live broadcast from their work computers? I realize that these may seem like minor expenses, but what I am trying to say is that by paying the city for this, it doesn’t cover all costs of a major event like a parade in downtown.

In addition to these costs, there is the possibility of violence and vandalism. This isn’t news to anyone, especially since some of the players records PSA’s begging our city to not go stupid. If we really think that there is even the slightest chance of riots, shouldn’t we reconsider rewarding the team and city? When someone is killed by this violence, no amount of corporate sponsorship is going to cover that loss.

Be happy for your win, cheer for your team, enjoy your moment, but don’t for one moment think that this was so important that we spent as a community 2 million plus dollars on a frivolous party when there are so many more important things that need that kind of funding. Hey, Lakers players? I applaud your skills on the court, but instead of us celebrating you, maybe you should celebrate your city and volunteer this morning at a shelter instead of expecting adoration from Angelinos? Homeless shelters, unemployment issues, health care, and any other countless number of things rank higher than a parade right now. We should have an escape, we should have something to celebrate every once in a while, but we need to keep it in perspective. A man in Hermosa Beach was found this week in his apartment with a gunshot wound to his head. It was self inflicted only moments after he set his apartment ablaze. The reason? He couldn’t make rent this month. Do you think he was celebrating a 5 game series?