Monthly Archives: September 2017

The Business of the NFL and How It Is Being Concussed by Politics

The NFL is more than a professional football league, it is also a multimillion-dollar business that capitalizes on the large football market of America with it being the most popular sport in the United States. The league and its own teams make billions just off broadcasting rights, ticket sales, merchandise, and many more sources of revenue.

Even if the NFL is very profitable and successful business, it is experiencing backlash from its stakeholders. The NFL’s television ratings have been declining for the past couple of years now. Some say it is thanks to the strict rules the league has put in place or the dangerous nature of the sport itself. However now perhaps the biggest cause for the decline in ratings is thanks to all the politics the sport is now involved with. The NFL’s television ratings have started to decrease since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the singing of the national anthem prior to the kickoff of a regular season game.

Colin Kaepernick (Right) kneels during the national anthem
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/GettyImages-603553668-1-1280×720.jpg

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color” (Colin Kaepernick, http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem ) This led to many players continuing Kaepernick’s protest today. This movement has become so large that it has drawn the attention of the President of the United States.

President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Alabama on September 22, 2017. http://cnnwire.images.worldnow.com/images/14986401_G.jpg

Trump tweeted “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now, out — he’s fired!'” (President Donald Trump, http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-teams-protest-trump-2017-9 ) In response to this attack, the entire NFL participated in this anthem protest with every team having its players locking arms, or kneeling in unison. However, ratings dropping even lower with these protests and with President Trump telling fans to boycott the NFL.

The decline in ratings is not only hurting the NFL, its sponsors or just companies who run ads are in danger as well. Running ads during an NFL game is a great way to market and will reach many. However, with fans boycotting the NFL thanks to the protests, ratings continue to fall meaning companies will slowly market less and less during these games, causing the NFL to lose business and income.

Nothing is ethically wrong about these protests, but if they weren’t doing it before and they were in a better shape financially and ratings-wise, perhaps they should go back to protesting on a small scale with few players instead of mass league-wide protests. Although I support the protests, I also think the NFL should tone down the resistance in the best interests of its ratings and finances. Even if that may anger some fans, it may be the right choice especially since most fans are against the protests anyways. As painful as it may be if the NFL wants to halt the plunge of its television ratings, they must dial down these protests if it wants to avoid any future repercussions.

Word count: 434 words

Sources

http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-teams-protest-trump-2017-9

http://www.financedegreecenter.com/nfl/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/ct-biz-trump-nfl-advertisers-robert-reed-20170925-story.html

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem

Business Ethics: how it can either help or hurt a business

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When running a business or company here is a tip, have good business or corporate ethics. Now what does it mean to have good ethics in business? It can mean running your business in a clean and ethical manner such as being honest or making sure that your supplier takes good care of their materials or that their reputation is clean. For example, Lush is a company that is known to be ethical when it comes to its products, they make many efforts to be sustainable and sell its products not at the prospect of destroying the environment. (https://www.lushusa.com/about-green-policy-intro.html) Business Ethics is mainly about practicing proper business methods and proper policies. To simply put it, Business Ethics can easily help a business out if it uses it as a guideline to stay clean, which helps them gain support from consumers which then most likely leads to more profit based on gaining customers’ support. However if it is ignored, a business may suffer the consequences since a business that does not have proper ethics may use shady and dirty methods to obtain profit such as fraud, discrimination thus damaging the company’s image. Companies want to be making the headlines for all the right reasons in hopes of maintaining their success by pleasing consumers and providing them with satisfaction that the business they support operates cleanly and ethically. “Think about a business that is not a good citizen in the community, that routinely ignores or violates local customs or law that doesn’t pay attention to the quality of life in the community. That’s a business that is soon to be regulated into decline” (https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIRUaLcvPe8) If a business with good ethics and morals enjoys growth, then a business with bad morals is almost certain to experience decline in many aspects if they do not make any efforts to improve its habits.

Cartoon portrayal of Wells Fargo Scandal involving fake accounts. (obtained from http://suindependent.com/wells-fargo-identity-theft-scandal-political-cartoon/ )

http://suindependent.com/wells-fargo-identity-theft-scandal-political-cartoon/

Take Wells Fargo for example. Wells Fargo is one of the biggest and successful banks of the United States, however a year ago their dirty methods were revealed to the world in one of the greatest ethical scandals of the year. Wells Fargo was responsible for creating approximately 3.5 million fake bank accounts, many these accounts were found to be paying redundant fees to pump more profit into wells Fargo. This large bank also forced millions of citizens to open insurance plans that were not needed. ( http://www.businessinsider.com/wells-fargo-had-a-bad-year-but-its-sales-scandal-wasnt-the-only-reason-2017-9, http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/31/investing/wells-fargo-fake-accounts/index.html) This is an example of a big-time company having bad business ethics. A business that does not demonstrate good ethics is in real danger of suffering consequences. The image of Wells Fargo has been heavily damaged and will take forever to repair. Shares dropped more than 10% for Wells Fargo since that incident. If a business wants to be successful, having good business ethics is vital for survival. It must please its stakeholders to thrive and compete, and the easiest way to do that is maintain good business ethics and operate cleanly.

Word count: 439 (Not including Citations, hyperlinks, quotations)