Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Enough Haitian Donations?

With the unfortunate incident that has occurred in Haiti, many athletes have stepped up and have considered it their responsibility to contribute to the relief, by donating funds and time to the nation in distraught.

Miguel Tejada has said that he’s planning on going to Haiti to help, Samuel Dalembert a Haiti native has planned to travel to the country as well, and has donated $100 000 to the effort. Georges Laraque has posted a request on his website for fans and readers to pledge any money they have to the relief. Alonzo Mourning and Dwayne Wade have raised over $800 000. Lebron, Durant and Paul also contributed to this amount. Andre Berto has dropped out of his WBC title defense against Shane Mosley this Saturday, due to the fact that he’s been focusing on his family and friends in Haiti. Mentally the champ says he’s unfocussed currently, and he as well plans on starting some sort of relief for the country.

The leagues however are a different story.

Yes, the MLB, NBA and NFL have donated $1 million, and the NHL has donated $100 000 and call me negative, but don’t you think the four major leagues could afford to donate more to the efforts?

The MLB earns billions each year, and they pretty much donated roughly $30 000 from each team. Again, perhaps I’m not seeing the “thought that counts” view, but that’s simply not enough, especially because that amount is given as a signing bonus to various players in the league for a year. The same goes for the NBA and NFL. The problem is that one league set the bar quite low and the others followed, thinking it would be fair if they matched the mediocre amount.

As far as the NHL goes, $100 000? Really? That’s approximately $3000 per team, which is about eight front row leaf tickets. I’m sure the NHL can give up more then that.

Perhaps I expect too much from sports. Sports has always shown the characteristics of determination, work ethic, perseverance and team-work. However there has always been the issue of role-models for others. The athletes are stepping up and being role models, hopefully the leagues will one day do the same.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Totally agree, when a single player makes 10x the amount that all three organizations donated as a whole, it only shows how selfish people really are. I believe angelina and brad donated a million dollars and thats just two people versus a organization of hundreds if not thousands!

Down Goes Brown said...

The NHL total is embarassing.

Anonymous said...

To the first poster...
I don't know what you said but I'll take your word for it.
Totally agree about the cheap ass major pro sports.
The NHL is especially embarrassing.
The league spends millions offering failing franchises lifelines to prop them up, but in a real life and death scenario they offer $100 K?
That's like a nickel for you and me.
And speaking about selfish fat bastards, Rush Limbaugh is using the Haitian crisis to score political points against Obama.
Have you no shame, sir?

Todd said...

No, he doesn't have any shame.

As far as the donations are concerned, the organizations can and should do more (but they won't, of course). In fact, as negative as it sounds, they'll give the appropriate amount that will a) not put a dent in their wallet and b) be enough to create good PR for the league.

Dennis Prouse said...

The NHL itself, though, is just an administrative body for the 30 teams, so it really doesn't have any money of its own that it doesn't either take or withhold from member clubs. Generally, the teams prefer to do their own charitable giving, and get the local PR credit for it, rather than having the League do it for them.

Colin Doyle Fan said...

Just a heads up: Toronto Rock owner Jamie Dawick donated $17,000 for the relief effort. $1000 per goal and the Rock crushed Rochester 17-3.