It’s called the Superstar Theory. It demonstrates the extraordinary importance for an NBA team to have a dominant superstar if it is going to be a serious contender, not to mention win an NBA title. The discussion of how best to understand the Miami Heat’s coup to achieve instant dominance of the league over the next six years yields some striking lessons which are not yet fully understood. 

What does this means for the rest of the teams in the NBA and the future of the association, if not sports, as a whole?

Read the full article here.

By Scott Kornberg

Even with the country in its worst recession since the Great Depression, 18 NFL teams have increased ticket prices for the upcoming season. While USA Today proposes that the main motivation of ticket price increases is for teams to stay competitive, it shows that teams continue to overlook the needs of their blue-collar fans.  The economy may be slightly better than it was last year, but its still not enough for sports fans to rationalize spending such a large portion of their income on football tickets.

A perfect example of a team misunderstanding their blue-collar fans is the Minnesota Vikings. While they continue to sell the league’s cheapest nosebleeds at $15, the Vikings raised prices on 85% of their tickets, and are raising ticket prices for the second time in three seasons.

The Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers are also raising prices heavily on tickets, with an average increase of 6.67% and 7%, respectively. Both teams, with rabid fan bases that routinely sell out games, are banking on the fact that fans will pony up extra money in the recession to watch football. Both teams do not understand that to raise prices in this unstable economic climate, they are pricing out some of their blue-collar fans.

The only way for teams in the NFL to stay competitive is to create as much revenue for themselves as they can. However, when teams attempt to increase revenue at the expense of fans, it shows that teams do not understand the economic issues that many of their fans face. As teams continue to raise prices every two to three years, they continue to price out more and more of their working class fans. As a non-profit entity with anti-trust exempt status, the NFL should own up to its responsibility to the public and provide affordable seats for their blue-collar, low-income tax-paying fans.

Scott Kornberg is a sportscaster for WMUC Sports (www.wmucsports.com). He hosts his own sports talk show, and announces baseball and softball games for the University of Maryland. He covers Maryland’s football and basketball writing for www.turtlesportsreport.com part of the scout.com network.

by Scott Weiss

Chris Mannix of SI.Com reported on David Stern’s press conference in Las Vegas on Monday regarding his thoughts about the upcoming NBA labor wars.  “Basically where we are at is that we would like fundamental changes,” said Stern, “and the players would very much like the present system to continue.”  I could express my opinion on which side is right and which side is wrong regarding the looming collective bargaining negotiations, but that is not what is important to the fans.  The big problem here is that when Stern uses the word “we,” he is referring to the NBA owners.  The NBA Commissioner should be representing the best interests of the NBA, inclusive of not only the owners, but also the players and fans.

There is nothing wrong with the owners having a representative to trumpet their cause.  The players association has a leader, so the owners should have one as well.  So, let’s call David Stern what he is: the NBA owners rep.  Let me throw this radical idea out there for you to chew on: The NBA Commissioner should be jointly selected by the owners, players and fans (SFC).  This person should act solely in the game’s best interest, not just the interests of one party.  Do you think that work stoppages would occur if there was a neutral Commissioner?  My answer? No way.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey.  He has been involved in the sports fans advocacy movement since 2000.  He is a life long fan of the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers.

Become a fan of SFC-NY-NY on Facebook.

Follow SFC-NY-NY on Twitter.

In February, SFC board member Brad Blakeman testified before the Oregon General Assembly against Comcast’s decision to withhold games from fans in Oregon more than 3 years after promising to provide them access.  Now, the Portland Trailblazers have taken the next step in requesting that the FCC force Comcast’s hand in providing broadcasts to the multitudes of Oregon-based fans who are unable to subscribe to Comcast.

Let’s keep the pressure on Comcast to do right by Blazers fans and keep their promise to the people of Oregon.

Sign the petition to the Oregon General Assembly to give us our Blazers games.

Tell us your story.

Become a fan of SFC-Portland on Facebook.

Follow the Local Chapter on Twitter.

by Scott Weiss

Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the Giants moving into their new stadium and New York/New Jersey securing the 2014 Super Bowl are stories like this that the Giants don’t want you to hear.  Several months back, I had the opportunity to speak to a life long Giants season ticket holder who represented the many disgruntled diehards of Big Blue. 

Jim shared with me that his family has had 6 season tickets (originally purchased by his father) since 1956. He remembers going to see the Giants play the Jaycee Classic at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey when he was 7 years old. In the old stadium, their 6 seats were on the 30 yard line, 16 rows up behind the Giants bench. In the year 2000, the seats cost $45 a piece, last year they cost $100 a piece, and hold on to your hat, in the new stadium the Giants are asking $700 a piece. Not only that, but they are also asking for $20,000 per seat for the seat license fee. Needless to say, Jim and his family have been forced to give up all 6 seats because of the exorbitant cost. Instead, the family has decided to go for 6 seats in the upper deck ($1000 seat license fee and $95 per ticket each). The family was required to put 20% down in August 2008, another 40% down in August 2009, and the remaining 40% balance in March 2010 toward the seat license fee. He said that the Giants were not even releasing the seat location until early in 2010. Jim said that he was unsure if the family would even accept the tickets at the end of the day. Meanwhile, the Giants got to hold onto to their money for a year and a half.

So, when Giants fans should be celebrating their team’s move to a new stadium, most are nursing their wounds from being fleeced by their greedy ownership.  Maybe I missed something, but when did attending a professional sporting event become the privilege of a select few?  It’s time for fans to gain some respect from the sports establishment, and SFC can take us there.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey.  He has been involved in the sports fans advocacy movement since 2000.  He is a life long fan of the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers.

Become a fan of SFC-NY-NY on Facebook.

Follow SFC-NY-NY on Twitter.

Here’s a little sports history about soccer – you know, the sport claiming the attention of the world for a month with the World Cup ongoing? It’s good to be independent.

Have a safe and happy holiday.  Enjoy the fireworks!

by Jeremiah Tittle

While PSL’s (personal seat licenses) in football are a big money maker and predictably frustrate fans to no end, MLB hasn’t caught on to this practice yet has implimented a mutation of the sports fan cash grab which has raised a few eyebrows since its announcement yesterday.

This hideous new policy infects how baseball fans purchase postseason tickets.  You’re now allowed to purchase “reservations” to buy tickets for your teams home games.  The problem is, the reservation is 1) non-refundable, even if your team misses the playoffs or doesn’t need to play that game 2) doesn’t count against the face value cost of the ticket and 3) Automatically charges you for the tickets that you’ve reserved, for that game if and when your team makes the playoffs.  (Plus there’s a service fee, for the reservation.)
 
Personally I find this practice galling, and can only imagine the slippery slope this leads us down (i.e. Cubs did a Pre-Sale this year where you could buy tickets for a 20% markup before they went on sale to the public). 

Read the full article here or continue reading below.  Then, feel free to take a shower to wash off the greed-laden slime encountered along the way. There’s nothing like quoting racists and post-season performers alike to inspire fans of losing clubs to pay just in case their teams punch their ticket to October baseball.

Much like the marketing philosophy behind PSL’s, MLB asked itself, ‘How do we get fans to pay, and then, pay again?  Furthermore, how do we get them to pay for absolutely nothing?’  Much like the house sets the rules in a casino, MLB is guaranteeing many sports fans will lose their shirts on this new policy while Selig & co. stuff their coffers. 

It would be funny if it wasn’t so hypocritical that gambling is the number one taboo with signs posted in every Major League locker room around the country. For sports fans who can’t resist this temptation, it’s time to double down. 

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org.

By Mark Newman / MLB.com
06/30/10 7:00 PM ET

Eight Major League Baseball clubs will celebrate hard-fought, much-deserved trips to the postseason this fall. Then amid all that civic pride, fans will compete with the masses as demand exceeds supply and tickets become hot commodities.

You probably know that feeling. This time there is a way to handle it proactively.

MLB.com is offering you the opportunity now to buy tickets at the face value price for your favorite team. Postseason Ticket Reservations is a new feature intended to broaden potential access to these valuable seats, ensuring you that if your team plays in a game you reserve, you get to buy a face-value ticket and go to the game.

Let’s take the defending National League champs as an example. If you purchase a National League Division Series Home Game 1 reservation for the Phillies and they qualify for the postseason, your selected game will occur and a reservation would allow you to purchase a ticket for the first home Division Series game at Citizens Bank Park (either Game 1 or Game 3 of the Division Series, depending on whether the Phillies have home field advantage in the series).

The cost for each transaction is $10 for the Division Series, $15 for the League Championship Series and $20 for the World Series. The maximum purchase for each game is two reservations per household per team per series. So it would cost $90 now if you wanted to reserve two tickets for one game of all three possible postseason rounds, for example.

Just select the team for which you would like to purchase a reservation. Then select the series and home game, and purchase the reservation. If your selected team plays in the postseason game for which you’ve purchased a reservation, you will be guaranteed the opportunity to buy tickets for that game at the face value price.

Think of it as investing in futures. Sure, there is some degree of chance involved. Competitive balance is great in 2010, and there will no doubt be frantic finishes throughout the standings. Your team might be one of the 22 that goes home after the final scheduled regular season games are played on that Sunday, Oct. 3. Then again, it might win a clincher.

“I never could stand losing,” Hall of Famer Ty Cobb once said. “Second place didn’t interest me. I had a fire in my belly.”

“What are we out at the park for, except to win?” asked Leo Durocher, who won two World Series as a player and another as a manager.

How optimistic are you?

Emotions will run high for playoff clubs. So will ticket costs. With Postseason Ticket Reservations, you can spend a little now to avoid the possibility of a large expenditure later. It is a new option for 2010, and available for all fans right now.

by Scott Weiss

When I was a kid, I can remember my father teaching me how to read the box scores.  It was exciting getting the newspaper in the morning and checking the stats from the previous nights games.  I can remember my Uncle coming over to my house to watch the New York Rangers games, and how much I looked forward to that.  I can remember how incredibly exciting it was as a kid to go to any professional sporting event in person.  Fast forward to 2010.

Now, sports owners aim to soak every last dime out of their loyal followers, and players salaries escalate at mind numbing rates.  If the sports establishment continues to go unchecked, more and more sporting events will become pay per view, and only the wealthy and corporations will be able to go out to the ballpark to view games live.  Fast forward to the next generation of sports fans.

I can envision two different scenarios taking place.  The first scenario is that the professional sports business continues down the present path resulting in fans required to purchase all televised sporting events.  Ticket prices will be so high, that only a select few will be able to take their kids out to the ball game.  The second scenario is much more hopeful.  A powerful organization representing sports fans (SFC), will help to return sports to the fans who fuel the industry itself.  Sports fans will be able to view their favorite events on TV for free, and ticket prices will get back to a place where sports fans from all socio economic backgrounds will be able to take their kids to games.

So, if you ask why we need an organization representing the rights of sports fans, this would be my reason.  I care because I want my kids to be able to provide the same sports experience for their kids that I had growing up.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey.  He has been involved in the sports fans advocacy movement since 2000.  He is a life long fan of the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers.

Become a fan of SFC-NY-NY on Facebook.

Follow SFC-NY-NY on Twitter.

Taxpayers would have to help pay for whatever the Blazers design.

Isaac declined to disclose any financial estimates, saying he’s still working on them. But he told city officials that the total cost of an earlier proposal would have been $100 million to $150 million.

As for the public subsidies, the city’s urban renewal agency has budgeted $5.4 million. But the city has the capacity to offer more than $50 million if it takes on riskier debt in one urban renewal district and redraws another district’s boundaries to swoop into the Rose Quarter.

Read the full article here.  Sounds like the City will be footing part of the bill for whatever the Blazers decide to do.  We can’t take these actions for granted.

Sign the petition to the Oregon General Assembly to give us our Blazers games.

Become a fan of SFC-Portland on Facebook.

Follow the Local Chapter on Twitter.

Join us in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, July 28th @ 6:30pm for the book release party of BAD SPORTS: How Owners Are Ruining The Games We Love by Dave Zirin. The event brought to you by Sports Fans Coalition and Busboys & Poets offers free food and a talk by sports writer and SFC board member Dave Zirin.

Here are all the details:

EVENT: BAD SPORTS Book Release Party

DATE: 7/28/10

TIME: 6:30pm

LOCATION: Busboys & Poets

ADDRESS: 14th & V St. NW DC (2021 14th St NW)

WHAT: Free Food, Conversation, and Entertainment

WEB: www.busboysandpoets.com/events.php

FACEBOOK: Event Page

EMAIL: Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org

PHONE: 202-674-0775

MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE BOOK:

Hailed as the “conscience of American sports writing” (The Washington Post), Dave Zirin  has written an explosive call-to-arms that details the increasing power and influence of professional sports and the dictatorial team owners who keep fans, and hometowns, at their mercy. BAD SPORTS (on sale from Scribner on July 20) is a hard-hitting and trenchant look at the politics of sports, from an astute and thought-provoking young sportswriter. Join Dave Zirin as he discusses the new book, and hear why he already has so many fans cheering.

“Zirin puts the politics back in sports and makes good sport of the politics. Even if you don’t know the difference between March Madness and Spring Break, read this book: it’s an original and scathing look at how America works.”

—Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

“The only thing I like better than pitchers who throw hard, are writers who do the same. In Bad Sports, Dave Zirin does exactly that. No curve balls, no changeups, just fastball after fastball under the chins of owners who say they love sports but make decisions based on profits for profit, the hell with the fans or the quality of the game. Bad Sports doesn’t ask for accountability, it demands it.”

—Howard Bryant, author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron

“Every owners nightmare just came to life. Bad Sports is the book that all owners, general managers, presidents and CEO’s of professional sports franchises prayed would never be written. Brilliantly blatant, Dave Zirin separates scandal and innuendo from truth and moral ineptness. Bad Sports proves that although wealthy men in suits may own franchises, they don’t own the game.

—Scoop Jackson, ESPN

“Hard-hitting, fun, ironic and informative, Dave Zirin’s Bad Sports is a riveting look at sports ownership in our time. Zirin takes on the owners in a way only he can and makes you think about sports in a way you never have. This book makes you laugh and it makes you cry, sometimes in the same paragraph.”

—Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist, author of Inside Edge and Best Seat in the House

“The smartest and gutsiest sportswriter in America has just written the smartest and gutsiest book about sports – and about America.”

—Robert Lipsyte

“Dave Zirin is Bringing The Noise once more with his expose on the modern day tyranny that has turned athletic entertainment into ‘Gross’ National Product. Dave Z is irreplaceable. He’s the sports world Geiger counter, exposing the truth and protecting the fan from first, second, and third degree burns.”

—Chuck D, Public Enemy

“This book is a critical account of how rapacious owners are leaching the fun out of sports and how we, the beleaguered fans, can take back the games we love.”
—Katrina vanden Heuvel; Editor, The Nation

“As Dave Zirin says to fans of corporatized sports teams—“There is a time to cheer and a time to seethe.” Zirin seethes and sometimes applauds with facts and true stories. It’s more exciting reading Bad Sports than 95% of the games I’ve watched.”

—Ralph Nader