PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Professional athletes who try to pad their million-dollar paychecks with paid autograph signings wouldn't be welcome in Rhode Island under legislation introduced this week.
Sen. Roger Badeau said he is fed up with athletes charging upwards of $100 for an autograph at large-scale autograph signing events. What really irks him is that children have to pay for the signatures of their sports heroes.
"They get paid millions and millions. Where do we stop with this? It doesn't make sense," Badeau said Friday. "It's not even realistic anymore."
Badeau's bill would ban professional athletes, entertainers or promoters from charging a fee for an autograph to a child under age 16. They would be fined $100 for each violation.
A Democrat who represents the Northern Rhode Island communities of Cumberland and Woonsocket, Badeau said he was appalled after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year and several players participated in an autograph signing event in Providence.
He said it sickened him to see parents shelling out $125 so their children could get a baseball, photo or bat signed by a player.
"There's a buck with everything," he said.
Badeau said it didn't matter that some of those signed baseballs and bats will end up online or with sports memorabilia dealers. He said it still sends the wrong message.
The Red Sox declined to comment on the legislation.
Badeau said he's gotten a lot of support for his bill. And though he doesn't expect it to pass, that's not the point.
"Whether the bill passes or not, I'll do it again next year," Badeau said. "I'm just trying to send a message to these guys."
Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots.
Oh, and if politicians really want to do something useful regarding sports, why don't they stop spending millions of taxpayer dollars on stadiums (collected involuntarily, unlike the money for autographs where you can choose not to participate) .
If you want the autograph get it at the park. No one charges at the ballparks.
And with the bill saying they can't charge kids under 16, whats to stop an_ebay_guy_01 from sending kids to get the autographs and then selling the crap?
One area that it could be their business as to what is being charged is if it is considered additional income which I am guessing is not currently taxed with the state income tax.
Chmee wrote:Oh, and if politicians really want to do something useful regarding sports, why don't they stop spending millions of taxpayer dollars on stadiums (collected involuntarily, unlike the money for autographs where you can choose not to participate) .
Jesus, I couldn't agree with you more. I so sick of having my taxes being used to subsidize a stadium for an owner who is already a damn billionaire. The west side stadium Bloomberg is trying to sneak through on people's taxes (in addition to trying to sell the land for 1/6th's its actual value) is a freaking joke.
On topic, if parents pay to get autographs or entry fees to meet and greet, it means that there is a market for selling autographs or meeting with an athelete. The sports memorabilia market is so twisted anyway these days.
Baseball players were planning on carrying mobile credit card scanners and signature authentification stamps with them out on the field.
They should start selling hand shakes. I can't believe they shake hands for free. acknowledgment of someone in the stands should be worth at least 10.00.
Maybe make baseballs hit into the stands dissolve unless the fan pays for them within 7 days.
I can't stand the greed of baseball players and sports figures in general. Their huge contracts and ability to play a sport as a living should be payment enough.
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
Winnow wrote:
They should start selling hand shakes. I can't believe they shake hands for free. acknowledgment of someone in the stands should be worth at least 10.00.
Maybe make baseballs hit into the stands dissolve unless the fan pays for them within 7 days.
I can't stand the greed of baseball players and sports figures in general. Their huge contracts and ability to play a sport as a living should be payment enough.
If noone wants to buy it, they can't sell it.
What's worse, the greed of the player who has about 10 years to earn their entire income unless they are one of the very few that are franchise leading quality, or the greed of an ultra wealthy owner that can pass on that value and income for generations not to mention the ridiculous tax writeoffs team ownership entails? Sure, let's not sell beer for $5 a pint and a kinish for $3.50. Yeah, it's the player's salaries that are dictating that. Or better yet, let's just give all of that cash to the corporate execs that make a shitton of cash off of tv and radio contracts. After all, they sit in press or luxury boxes every-single-day hobknobbing about how much money they have. That must be a bitch!
its not like the players are going to the owners with guns negotiating the salary.
The billionaires who own teams didnt get that rich by being unable to negotatiate a business deal. So to blame the players is largely ignorant of the entire situation.
The greed of the wealthiest baseball owners has prevented them of having an NFL like revenue sharing system. At the beginning of each NFL season, all teams get a check for something like $100M. The NFL has the highest TV ratings, so no other sport regardless of how organized would get that kind of a check, but the point is, even if MLB teams knew they were all getting $40M day 1 of the season, and all revenue from local ad sales, ballpark concessions, product licensing etc, would pad the rest of their revenues, you would see a much more competitive playing field.
It was the SF Giants who wanted Bonds so bad they made him the highest paid player. Nobody held a gun to the Texas Rangers and made them pay ARod $25M.
if adult geeks didnt want to have an autograph so bad, the marketplace for them wouldnt be there, and athletes wouldnt charge so much.
One area that it could be their business as to what is being charged is if it is considered additional income which I am guessing is not currently taxed with the state income tax.
If I remember correctly that is how they got Pete Rose on Tax evasion.
When I was younger, I used to think that the world was doing it to me and that the world owes me some thing…When you're a teeny bopper, that's what you think. I'm 40 now, I don't think that anymore, because I found out it doesn't f--king work. One has to go through that. For the people who even bother to go through that, most assholes just accept what it is anyway and get on with it." - John Lennon
