45 year anniversary of a sad day. R.I.P., JFK.
Bill Simmons touches on a topic I've been on for a few years now. By building new, expensive state-of-the-art-stadiums (SOTAS) and courting the affluent but casual fans to buy suites and expensive seats, the NFL is relegating to the upper decks or even simply pricing out the real fans of their game.
Bug woke up on Sundays at 7:45 a.m. no matter how hung over he was, paid the prostitute and asked her to leave (OK, that's not true), took a quick shower (not true either), squeezed himself into his Willie McGinest jersey, packed his car with beer and food, picked up his pals, packed more beer and more food, and then they zoomed down Route 1 to Foxboro and snatched a choice parking spot right next to the stadium.
THOSE are fans. The ones sitting at the 50yd line in the club section, reading a magazine between plays with their sweaters tied around their necks and their designer sunglasses pushed on top of their heads, are probably there because someone told them that was the place to be or maybe just the place to be seen. Not sure which. The end result is the SOTAS are visually dazzling, comfortable, perfect environments for the target demographic but totally sterile to the real fans. Owners are draining the emotion out of the game and turning it into a cold, hard business. Well, here's a cold, hard business reality, Mr Billionaire Owner. Emotion is what fills 90,000-100,000 seat stadiums in Knoxville, Baton Rouge, Ann Arbor, Lincoln, and Tuscaloosa while cold, hard business is struggling to fill smaller stadiums in bigger cities like Jacksonville, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Cincinnati. Making her lay too many golden eggs is killing your golden goose.
Quote of the Day
The old stadium was a dump, but we felt like we were at a football game, you know? Now we're at ... I don't know. The fans don't affect the game anymore. It's really sad. Grover calls it the wine-and-cheese crowd. We've become the fans we always made fun of.
Bug
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Just back from football. I've rather stupidly played for two consecutive nights, with different groups of people. I find it hard to say no. I'm 40 and my body is slowly winding down, but I love playing, and the more you use it the less you lose it."
Recent Comments