Like the futuristic movie Rollerball , athletes will simply become faceless mercenaries for Team Disney or Team Microsoft. Get used to it. Not so long ago, professional sports were just the games people played, where loyalty to a team gave communities a sense of pride and accomplishment. In the new age of the Industry of Sport, teams are fast becoming an important spoke in the corporate wheel of media behemoths. As we enter the new millennium, the box scores in the morning paper will no longer be as important to the average sports fan as the stock quotes.
Sports is entertainment.
It's like going to the movies. As such, it is feared teams will increasingly reflect the bottom line mentality of company executives, bean counters who may believe the best franchise is the most cost-effective franchise and not necessarily the best team that can suit up and play the game. For many years, sports and television enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Big time sports owes its success to TV and vice-versa. They have become so powerful, that on a whim, just like Turner and NBC are proposing to do with a new football league, they can create their own league when they get frustrated with the rules.