Harvard MBA Isn’t Needed to See Sports Rip-Offs: Scott Soshnick
Some of the most astute businessmen become dolts the second they own a piece of a professional sports team. Calculating becomes clueless. The heart overrules the head.
The same, it seems, is true of sports fans, many of whom don’t recognize that the companies they’re so passionate about - - yes, pro sports teams are nothing more than profit-seeking companies -- don’t seem to care about the customer.
It’s time fans broke their addiction to big-time sports. Need help? There’s no patch, but there is New York Jets holdout Darrelle Revis.
If you know anything about Revis, perhaps the best defensive player in the NFL, it’s that he enjoys playing football. It’s safe to say that Revis likes to play at least as much as you like to watch. Probably more.
And yet Revis isn’t playing. He has sidelined himself. This has nothing to do with injury and everything to do with intelligence. It’s a nod to head over heart. You, the disenfranchised sports fan, should try it.
Revis wants more money from the Jets, who, like their co- tenants, the Giants, resorted to charging fans a wretched personal-seat license to help pay for an unnecessary new stadium designed to generate more revenue.
Revis knows the only way to get what he wants is to stay away, even though his body clock must be screaming that it’s time for training camp.
Class Time
There’s a lesson in there for all sports fans who show up, game after game after game, or watch on TV, yelling at the screen, even though their favorite team shows little regard in return.
Say what you want about a contract being a contract and all that, but Revis understands what makes a sports owner tick. It’s a simple formula that doesn’t require an M.B.A. from Harvard or Wharton.
A player like Revis helps his team win. A winning team draws more fans, who fork over ungodly and unjustified sums for stadium drink and food that, if you’re lucky, leaves the overpaying public with only a case of indigestion. Then there’s parking fees. And let’s not forget about the sale of T-shirts, hats, jerseys, programs and all the other junk that’s hawked at stadiums.
Moreover, a winning team makes more national TV appearances, which, in turn, allows a team to charge more for sponsorships and advertising. There’s plenty more to the equation, of course, like escalating ticket prices. Don’t even get me started on ticket prices.
Ask Why
Every sports fan should ask their local team owner why it is that the folks at Augusta National Golf Club, which runs the Masters Tournament, can get by charging $2 for a domestic beer and $1.50 for a ham and cheese on rye. Sure they could demand more. Much more, and the folks walking the course and baking under the April sun would pay. But they don’t take advantage.
A tradition like no other, indeed.
The Yankees charge $5 for a bottle of water, same as a slice of pizza.
How can a franchise that can do something so right, like Hope Week, do something so wrong?
There’s only one solution: Don’t go. Don’t buy. Don’t watch. Don’t give in.
So simple, really. And yet, sports fans just can’t seem to help themselves. They’re addicts.
Entertainment Industry
On the bright side, some fans aren’t so accepting anymore, which explains why football’s Giants offered single-game tickets without seat-license strings attached.
Sticking with the entertainment industry, which is where pro sports falls, what would happen if the local movie theater charged $10 for the right to then buy tickets? People would find another theater.
And yet, sports fans keep on going, keep on cheering, keep on, more than anything else, paying.
Seems the city of Seattle, where taxpayers refused to approve a tax hike to fund a basketball arena, is doing just fine without the SuperSonics, whose owners didn’t give a damn about 41 years of history and moved the up-and-coming team to Oklahoma City. Business is business, even in sports, where owners time and again sell their teams as sources of civic pride and public trusts.
There are less expensive, just-as-rewarding options for sports fans in need of a bat and ball fix. Watch a high-school baseball game. Plop down a blanket and enjoy a brought-from-home feast that doesn’t cost a fortune.
And for you football fans, let the fun of Pop Warner be your substitute for the ferocity of the NFL. Who knows, maybe you’ll run into Revis.
(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net
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