By Ken Reed
Guest Opinion
The Post Gazette
Originally published by Syracuse.com
Only in America can multi-billionaire capitalists like Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, demand socialist handouts from taxpayers for a new publicly financed sports palace so the value of their franchise — along with the team’s annual […]
Guest Column
By Joe Haefner
There’s a lot of misinformation about whether kids should specialize in one sport year-round…or play a variety of sports…and if/when specialization should begin.
We (breakthroughbasketball.com) believe that youth should play a variety of sports and not specialize in basketball until age 14 or older. In fact, we encourage athletes […]
“There is no industry like baseball in our country. It has special status as a monopoly, and it is completely unregulated. Right now baseball exploits the hell out of the cities.”
— Andrew Zimbalist, American economist and Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College.
“The initial rationale for the baseball exemption was […]
“Every other sport – like virtually every sort of business – is governed by the antitrust laws.”
— Stuart Banner, author of “The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption”
By Ken Reed
In a recent Saint Louis University Law Journal article, Adam Renfro stated:
“That the relationship between MLB and the […]
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
The Toronto Blue Jays are often referred to as Canada’s team because they are the only Major League Baseball (MLB) organization in the country. This season they are playing the most exciting baseball we’ve seen in years, and even though their ranks are not made up of many Canadian players, […]
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
I am not a big fan of fiction in any format. I prefer that writers clearly elaborate their theories or that they explain what is actually happening in the world. I’ve also never been influenced by the latest draw in popular culture.
Given my disposition, I was surprised to find […]
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
Jeremy Lin is probably best known to basketball fans for “Linsanity,” the amazing streak of clutch and dramatic moments he had with the New York Knicks in 2012. Many Canadians know Lin for the spark he brought to the court when the Toronto Raptors won the National Basketball Association […]
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
My earliest memories of baseball revolve around the 1969 Chicago Cubs. Enthusiasm just resonated off Wrigley Field as the great Ernie Banks chimed, “Let’s play two!”
Regardless of the disastrous finish to that season for the Cubbies, a love for the game was planted in my soul as […]
From the Editor:
League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, is the host of a new sports issues podcast called League of Fans’ Sports Forum.
Here’s the podcast description:
Sports Forum is an ongoing discussion about current sports issues. The goal of the podcast is to find ways we can improve the sports experience […]
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
In times of crisis, true leaders step forward. While effective political leadership has largely been absent, professional athletes, primarily players in the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association, have demonstrated that celebrity status, when embraced with a sense of responsibility, can be a catalyst for global change.
Quite […]
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books