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March Madness Reminds Sports Fans of Bowl Season Sadness
A tournament. What a novel concept. No matter how many people complain about how easy Duke’s road is to the Final Four this year – which has generated enough conspiracy theories to fill a book - Jon Scheyer and the gang still have to play the games. Getting there is no cake walk in NCAA basketball like it is in [...]
Blazers Experiment with Variable Ticket Pricing
If you haven’t heard about the Trail Blazers’ experiment with variable ticket pricing, it’s been the subject of much controversy in Oregon. Our friends at BlazersEdge.com posted this announcement last year. More recently, Brian Smith from The Columbian interviewed the Blazers Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing Sarah Mensah, and it appears that this practice will not only continue, but is [...]
Worth the Price of Admission for Sox Fans?
A personal seat license for a sports bar? At first blush, any fan of the show Cheers might laugh. Shell out half a grand to be Norm -- the guy with the best seat at the bar. The manager of Remy's describes the program as Red Sox season tickets at a fraction of the cost of real Red Sox season tickets. Anyone who can not afford (or get access to) season tickets to attend a live game can be guaranteed a front row seat to the televised game. The problem lies in the fact that most of the fans that head down to Landsdowne to enjoy the Red Sox game experience aren't able to afford the toughest ticket in baseball. Now these same folks are standing in line while wealthy VIPs skip right past the velvet rope? With an already existing divide between haves and have-nots in the sports fan community, this plan will only build another wall between the fans and access to the team they support.
BCS Arguments Proven Weak
It just so happens that many of these BCS don't-call-it-a-National-Title contenders schedule cake walk games each year. While the teams themselves deserve some ridicule for padding their stats, it is obviously the system, the Bowl Championship Series - which rewards such behavior - that is truly to blame. Sports fans deserve a playoff. Don't let their henchmen fool you into thinking otherwise. Even if they hired 15 Ari Fleischers to spin the issue, we sports fans know a playoff is the only way to determine a true college football champion.
Tiger Woods Hires Ari Fleischer
The best and only tactic Tiger should implement is to 'hit golf balls' according to James Carville. 'As soon as Tiger wins on the golf course, the public won't care about any of this.' This cajun wisdom may fall short of reality, but you can't argue with the fact that unpopular athletes who have performed well on the field, course, or court have drastically improved their public images.
Blinded by the Dark
A city of 1.3 million, Jacksonville, Florida is well suited to support an NFL team. However, the terrible economic situation in this city has had a devastating toll on ticket sales of their only major professional sports team, The Jacksonville Jaguars...[The town's] struggling families obviously need to spend their 100 dollars on more important things than a ticket to see the Jaguars live. However, this is the only option they have to see their favorite team play on Sundays. The Jaguars, because of low ticket sales, did not televise seven out of eight of the their home games last season.
Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Report
This past weekend, I attended the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. ESPN and MIT joined together to host the one day event devoted to the business of sports. What does one take away from all of this? The bottom line is that these organizations need us to survive. Due to the economic downturn, what was already stiff competition for the fan dollar has become more rampant. It is up to sports fans to organize their efforts to demand results from the sports industry or this fierce competition ends up harming fans rather than helping the group.
Cablevision Customers Lose Again
When large cable companies play chicken with content providers, history tells us customers lose. Cablevision and WABC-TV in New York were at a stalemate over the weekend and it took one of the biggest TV events of the year, the Oscars, to push the envelope to get the deal done, but not without some damage. TV [...]
The Struggle to Convince Sports Fans of their Power
The truth is that we sports fans have a tremendous responsibility to speak up when our fan dollars are being misused. When large corporations, even if they are the teams we passionately cheer for at home or in the stadium, take advantage of us, there is recourse we should pursue. When media companies strike exclusive deals and break the law by prohibiting competition and keeping us from getting the best deal or even the opportunity to watch our games on TV, we won't take it. We will fight back. Join us in the fight to take the power back.
Listen to Brad Blakeman on Portland Radio
Check out some of the recent interviews with SFC board member Brad Blakeman on Portland radio on our media page. Check out the full list of media appearances made by Brad while in Oregon testifying in an Oregon General Assembly hearing in which he tried to convince lawmakers to step in and do something about the Trail [...]
About SFC
SFC is the American sports fan’s advocate in the D.C. public policy arena fighting for sports fans in every city across the country.
Sports Businesses, Leagues, and Universities are grasping for our cash left and right. Let's join together to keep their hands off our wallets unless and until we have a say in how that money is spent. Futhermore, we sports fans believe we should be able to watch our games, no matter how we get our media.
