Child Labor and education

A recent study looked into education and studying among child laborers in Colombia.  The results of the study were overwhelmingly negative, of the 27% of workers that are child laborers, nearly none of them attend school or even had time to study.  These findings were somewhat surprising due to the fact that Colombia has child labor laws preventing children from working until the age of 16 and even then only with parent permission, they also only allow children to work 6 hour days until they are 18. Another finding from the same study found that the average child laborer in Colombia was only nine years old.

A child working in a Bolivian mine
What will Colombia due to fix this? should they require children to stay in school? How can Colombia preven Children as young as nine and younger from working in such hazardous conditions?

Interesting Site

This site shows the salaries for every player in the NBA and gives an amount to how much each team spends this year and even a few years in the future. Overall a good site to see how much money there is in the NBA.

Site:http://hoopshype.com/players.htm

NFLPA

The NFLPA or NFL Players Association is a union for professional football players in the NFL. The NFLPA makes sure that the NFL doesn't take advantage of the players. They also fight for benefits for players. Most recently the NFL lockout took place, in which the NFLPA was fighting to keep a 16 game regular season as opposed to the owners suggested 18 game season, but also they fought over whether or not the owners should be able to take a bigger percentage of the teams' income. The NFLPA plays a huge part in keeping players safe from being taken advantage of.










http://www.nflplayers.com  


Why are so many former athletes going broke?

What Drives up Revenue

There are two main sources of revenue that drive college athletics: TV rights and ticket sales. Broadcasters such as ESPN and FOX pay hundreds of millions of dollars to have the rights to broadcast those games. They majority are football game, but a decent amount of basketball, too.

• Broadcasters make their money by charging subscribers (big ten network, NCAA Basketball Network) and advertising
• Schools always renovating their stadium, putting sky boxes in. Ticket sales huge for universities
• Driven by Alumni and crazy fans
• As long as alumni support schools, these prices will continue to grow

This information was found through an Email I had with Jackie Woodward. Jackie Woodward is an advertising agent that is involved in the sports world.

What if?

Source:wellsphere.com

        
       As the NHL lockout drags on, many don't see an end. But with a recent addition added recently to the NHL's class action lawsuit against the players, the end may be closer than we think. The suit states that if no agreement is reached, all contracts between players and teams would be deemed void and enforceable. If that were to happen, many players salaries would decrease due to the salary cap and because the teams would be signing top players to huge contracts. The landscape of the NHL would change dramatically. Time will tell what this part of the lawsuit will do towards ending the lockout.

Article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1446959-nhl-lockout-every-nhl-player-a-free-agent-nhl-could-void-all-contracts

Outline

Jack McGann

Period 2

Why is the Average Professional Athlete Paid So Much?

1. Value of Entertainment 

     A.  Americans value entertainment so much that leagues are able to set the prices high and fans still cooperate.

     B.   It is believed that we actually value entertainment that safety, education, and health.
              i.  Focus more on sporting events than health, education, etc.

     C.   With all the revenue the leagues are creating, they are able to pay the athletes large sums of money they demand.
              i.  Athletes will disagree with salary causing lockouts
              ii.  Commissioners and team owners decide salaries

2.  Popularity of Sport Played world-wide

     A.  Expense of recreational sport for youth and adults 

              i.  Cost of equipment

              ii.  Location of sport played

     B.  Number of players on a team
              i.  More players= lower salary, and vice versa

     C.  Number of games per season/ Money the team makes
              i.  More televised games
              ii.  Number of tickets sold

3.  Endorsements

     A.  Affinity
              i.  Affiliation with superstar athlete
              ii.  Feel more "part of team" or involved with league

     B.  Awareness
              i.  City with many fans
              ii.  Official products of leagues
     C.  Ability to sell more products
              i.  More advertisements seen by people
              ii.  Athletes representing products

4.  History
     A.  First players endorsed
     B.  Cause of endorsements
     C.  Tactics used by businesses through sports

"Starstruck" by the Industry

In my research, I found myself wondering how I could write so much about celebrities without actually talking to one, so I did just that. Today I interviewed a movie star in our own school, Danielle Campbell. Danielle is a senior here at Central, and she's been acting now for years. Her claim to fame is the Disney Channel original movie, Starstruck, but she was also cast in the big screen Disney flick, Prom, as well as other productions such as Madea's Witness Protection Program and a reoccurring role on "Prison Break." Here are some bits from our interview...

Q: How is Disney in terms of commitment compared to other companies?

Danielle explained to me that it really depends on which part of the company you're involved in. When she signed on with Disney for the TV section she had to sign a two-year contract where the producers could pull you in for other TV productions or have you pilot for new TV shows, but when she signed on for Disney on the big screen, those contracts didn't apply. Now, though, since she has accumulated enough experience with Disney, she doesn't have to enter a 2 year contract to do a movie for Disney. Also, she told me about how easy it was for to be on "Prison Break" because the writers were really lenient- "if they wanted to bring your character back, they would contact you, but if you couldn't do it, they were really good with writing you out."

Q: What do you receive in terms of royalties for your work?

Danielle: "For movies, everything is paid to you upfront before production. For TV, you do get paid each time they rerun your movie or episode, but by the time the money gets distributed to your agents, managers, etc., you're not left with that much."

Q: There's this stigma with Disney stars that they can't just be actors- they have to sing and model and have other talents. What's it really like?

Danielle: "It's good to be versatile because Disney is such different acting than other acting because it's very over the top dramatic. The people at Disney are always going to push you to try the singing thing and the modeling thing, but if it's not for you, then they get that, and you don't have to do that."

Danielle was such a pleasure to interview. She gave me a lot of good, honest information, and was really nice with taking out time from her double life to meet with me. Thanks to Danielle Campbell!

Images: auditions-for-all.blogspot.com; justjaredjr.com; enjoythepics.com