On Wednesday, Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger wondered what the Royals would be like if Mark Cuban owned the team instead of David Glass. Mellinger rightly criticized Glass’ handling of the club over the last 10 years, but argued that Glass had made strides in recent years to improve the club. Even if that is true, there’s a more important question that should be asked.

Forget about Mark Cuban or any other wealthy owner. What if the people of Kansas City owned the Royals?

Initial reactions to this question probably range from “Hell, yeah, let’s run David Glass out of town on a rail” to “That sounds like socialism to me.” To be clear, we are a long way from the day when cities can actually buy the teams they love. And if you’re concerned about socialism, it’s already occurring in baseball – it’s just benefiting David Glass and the other owners. These owners get massive tax dollars to build and renovate stadiums that only end up making them richer.

As Dave Zirin, author of Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love, explains it, the current ownership system “socializes the debt of sports while privatizing the profits.”

Just look at baseball’s antitrust exemption, which allows only the current baseball owners to monopolize the baseball market.

And if a city ever did try to buy a team, the owners would prevent it, even if the city offered the most money. How’s that for the triumph of capitalism?

But let’s consider for a minute, however, that it was possible for the people of Kansas City to buy the Royals.

Glass purchased the Royals for $96 million in 2000. The franchise is now estimated by Forbes to be worth $341 million, making it the 24^th most valuable franchise out of 30.

Now, it’s clear that the franchise is not worth three times as much 10 years later because of anything that’s happened on the field.

As Forbes put it, and everybody else knows, “Few franchises have squandered the fortune they have gotten from baseball’s revenue sharing system as much as the Royals.”

The team is worth a lot more now, in part, because of the $250 million in renovations to Kauffman Stadium. Those renovations were not paid for by all of Kansas City, but by the people of Jackson County.

But here’s the thing – at the time Jackson County voters approved a sales tax increase to pay for the renovations, the franchise was only estimated to be worth $239 million.

Jackson County citizens could have just bought the Royals from Glass and saved money!

And if all of Kansas City had gotten behind such a purchase, they could have met any asking price from Glass.

Sure, Kauffman Stadium wouldn’t look as nice as it does now, but was it really vital to renovate the old stadium? Couldn’t Royals fans live without the new amenities if it meant getting rid of David Glass?

Of course, there is the matter of operating costs, but those could have been offset by money spent on the Sprint Center, which will likely never see a franchise.

And before you argue that new stadiums and new stadium renovations are good for the Kansas City economy, consider what Roger Noll, coauthor of Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums, wrote: “There’s never been a publicly subsidized stadium anywhere in the United States that had the effect of increasing employment and economic growth in the city in which it was built.”

Even if the Sprint Center did have a team, it wouldn’t necessarily be a net plus. Take a study published by the conservative Heartland Institute which found that “professional sports teams generally have no significant impact on a metropolitan economy.”

So if new stadiums and stadium renovations aren’t benefiting the Kansas City economy, what good are they? They’re simply good for further enriching Glass and keeping the team in Kansas City. It’s the same situation faced by sports fans from San Francisco to New York. Build a new stadium (or massively renovate the old one) or lose your team.

It’s time for sports fans to fight back.

Imagine a Kansas City-owned Royals team. The revenues from the club would go back into the community. The team would never be in danger of being hijacked by an owner looking only at his bottom line. And the city could spend as much as it wanted to build a winning team.

A team of the people and for the people.

It’s not that hard to imagine – this is exactly what happens with the Green Bay Packers.  There are more than 100,000 people who own shares of the Packers. And they couldn’t be happier.

Imagine feeling such a sense of optimism about the Royals and their future again.

Kansas City may have missed a chance to buyout David Glass this time, but don’t worry, it won’t be long before he demands more renovations or a downtown stadium.

By then, sports fans need to be ready to trade him away.

–

Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. His favorite teams are the Kansas Jayhawks, North Carolina Tar Heels, and whichever team his brother is coaching for. And the underdog. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com

Join your fellow SFC members tonight @ 6:30pm in DC at Politics & Prose for sportswriter and SFC board member Dave Zirin’s BAD SPORTS book reading.

CSPAN Book TV will be on hand taping the event.

Let’s fill up the seats and take back sports from the powers that be!

Buy the book here.

Attend a BAD SPORTS book event in your city.  Check out the book tour page here.

WHERE: Politics & Prose (Connecticut & Nebraska Avenues)

WHEN: 6:30pm

RSVP on FB here.

It is with great honor that I introduce myself to you as the new Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition.  I’ve never painted my face, nor have I attended a preseason baseball game.  But on countless occasions, I have prayed to the gods for a win and on countless more, felt that the world was over because of a loss. I’ve spent my life engrossed in sports and even wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the Pacers-Pistons brawl.

Sometimes sports can channel some sort of Dionysian spirit, filling the sports fan with an ecstasy impossible to describe but best captured in moments – for me, these include Mario Chalmers’ 3-point shot to lift KU into overtime and onto the NCAA title and Landon Donovan’s last-minute goal against Algeria to advance the U.S. in the World Cup.

Such moments are few and far between, however. When was the last time a diehard Detroit Lions fan really got to experience such euphoria?

Sadly, the typical sporting experience for most sports fans these days consists of paying way too much for tickets and parking, sitting in the nosebleeds while the front rows and corporate boxes sit empty, and drinking an $8 warm beer while watching a perennially losing team that has been mismanaged. All while sitting in a taxpayer-funded stadium that was only built because a greedy owner threatened to move the team to another city.

Fun times.

And if we simply cannot or choose not to spend money at the ballparks anymore, the leagues and media corporations blackout our games so we can’t see them on TV. (And sometimes we cannot even see the games on our TVs because we don’t have the right cable package.)

Yet, we still go to games and watch them on TV. Why? Because we love sports. Because we love the camaraderie sports gives us. If we are going to be miserable Kansas City Royals fans, we are going to be miserable Royals fans together.

And it is that spirit of camaraderie and teamwork that we must channel if we are going to take sports back and make them fun again.

In his must-read new book, Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love, SFC board member Dave Zirin writes: “Fandom doesn’t have to be a slouching, passive exercise and club supporters the world over don’t need to just meekly consume whatever thin gruel owners serve.”

If you’re tired of the “thin gruel” you’ve been served by the owners of your favorite teams, it’s time to take action. Join Sports Fans Coalition and tell your friends. All you have to do is provide your email and zip code. That’s it.

No spam. No dues.

The more members we have, the louder our voice and the greater our power to hold owners and corporations accountable.

If you want to become more involved, reach out to me. How can Sports Fans Coalition help you? Let me know in the comments section below or send me an email at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com.

Over the next few months, we will be working tirelessly to get as many people signed up and involved as we can. But there are just a few of us. There are many more of you. And there are countless sports fans out there who would love to see someone fighting for them. All you have to do is tell them to come to the website and sign up. That’s it.

In the meantime, know that we’ll be fighting to give you a voice in the political arena. Our mission is simple –

Lower ticket prices.

No blackouts.

And for the love of God, let’s get a college football playoff system already.

But it’s going to take some work. There is no magic bullet. This is a game of inches.

And we are going to fight for every inch.

Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. His favorite teams are the Kansas Jayhawks, North Carolina Tar Heels, and whichever team his brother is coaching for. And the underdog.

Economy Not Stopping Ticket Price Increase

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.

MLB Rolls Weighted Dice With Postseason PSL’s

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.