Just as anything else you choose to sell, selling a team to a player is the same thing. The NFL has been a great example of that in the last day and a half.
Players have retired, re-signed with teams, and also signed with new teams or been traded. Free agency is a key part of the NFL, but also a great look at selling.
The selling of NFL free agency is two sided:
Player to team: A player has the opportunity, in the past seasons or in meetings with a given team, to sell them on their skills and advantages. They try to sell them on why the team should sign them and at a given price.
Team to player: The team has the opportunity to sell a player on why he should come play for them. They use all kinds of bargaining chips, coaches, city, stadium, jerseys, food, and of course money.
Then it gets interesting. Just like a typical economic situation, it’s all about supply and demand. The demand can be high for one player and the price goes up, leading to high priced contracts. It’s also supply and demand for the player, some only get one or two offers, which lead to them having to go somewhere or take a contract that they don’t entirely like.
It’s not something that most people think about, as money is a huge part of the NFL, but teams and players have to sell qualities and opportunities that are intangible. It is a great process to look at if you’ve never quite thought about it before.
BoweryJE22
Interesting take Brian. Tough putting a price on a player or their value to a team. All the time we see free agents making or breaking teams depending on a million different variables. Lots of money for what can seem like a dice roll sometimes.
Free Agency is such a tricky concept. I think that aspect of the game is what has increased the pay of professional athletes to astronomical amounts. They are putting a price on how good of a player they are.