The Ugly Truth About New Stadiums

by Scott Kornberg

There is excitement abound for New York Jets and Giants fans for the upcoming season. Besides the fact that both teams expect to contend for at least a division title, both teams will be playing in a brand new, sparkling new stadium. Meadowlands Stadium is a gem. It will seat the second-most fans in the NFL, with 82,500 seats that include 10,005 club seats and 218 luxury suites.  The lighting on the outside of the stadium will switch colors depending on what team is playing. Inside the stadium, there are four 40-by-100 feet scoreboards that hang from the four upper deck corners. There will be four restaurants, wider concourses, and two club lounges. In addition, the front row 50-yard line seats will be the closest seats from the sideline in the NFL at 46 feet. However, many fans will be priced out of the stadium because of the fact that both the Jets and Giants are introducing Personal Seat Licenses.

Personal Seat Licenses are not a new issue. There are currently ten teams with PSLs in effect, most of which have been included with the new stadiums that have recently been built in the NFL. For fans to purchase season tickets, they must first purchase the right to buy season tickets. For the Giants, Personal Seat Licenses range up to $20,000 per seat. Each Giants season ticket requires a PSL, which includes the $1,000 PSL for a nosebleed seat. As for the Jets, upper deck season tickets do not require a PSL, but PSL prices range up to a whopping $30,000 per seat.

At the old Giants Stadium, the Giants fans with the best seats were the longest-tenured season ticket holders. All of a sudden, these mostly middle-class, diehard fans are unable to keep their seats and are getting either pushed towards the top of the stadium or out entirely because they cannot afford the new financial burden. Jets fans are facing a similar financial issue. While the new Meadowlands Stadium is a beautiful building with terrific sightlines for fans, the majority of diehard Jets and Giants fans will have to settle for watching the game on television. The day has finally come where some fans have no financial way to afford season tickets to see their favorite team play, and a lot of that blame falls on Personal Seat Licenses.

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.

The Biggest Fantasy Draft EVER!

by Jeremiah Tittle

The NFL celebrated its 75th anniversary this year by moving its draft to prime time on myriad television channels treating the NBA and NHL playoffs like a dog treats a fire hydrant. It was the typical hype machine in action except that fans, for better or worse, became over-saturated by its expansion over three days. The time off between the 1st and 2nd rounds almost proved to be too much for Mel Kiper and his Trump-style toupee.

What emerged from this ‘throw it all against the wall and see what sticks’ approach Roger Goodell employed was a better marketed, faster-paced, EVENT not unlike what sports fans experience when drafting their favorite players in the office fantasy league or fantasy leagues amongst old friends or college roommates who no longer live in the same area. With 5 channels covering all the machinations of rounds 1 through 6, the trades, the boom vs. bust analysis, and the obsession with the #1 position on the field of play – the quarterback – it was as close to the decision makers as fans get. That is, outside of fantasy leagues.

Sports fans have so little say about what their favorite NFL teams do in the draft, during the season. The only exception to the rule was Richard Nixon who called in Redskins plays from the White House (which makes you wonder what would happen if the all-important red phone rang at the same time he called in a left sweep).

The whole idea behind fantasy league play is that sports fans like to have the ability to create their own teams, make trades, sit injured or under-performing players, and make the all important decisions required on draft day. Who’s going to be that under the radar fantasy running back? What QB will launch bombs into the end zone every single game? (Don’t forget to take off ‘autopick’).

Sports fans are passionate about their fantasy sports. It’s fun. It makes a lot of typically boring games interesting. It puts the sports fan in the driver’s seat.

And it’s free-

-wait a second. It’s free, right?

Well, the answer to that question is not so easy to provide. Today, it is free for you and your office-mates to sign up for a fantasy league. Select a username and password, and you’re off and running.

The problem here is that the leagues are not happy about it. Furthermore, this isn’t about an emotion of happy or sad. It’s strictly about money. None of the big four considered the fantasy sports industry would sprout. Like so many bullies, the leagues would rather send a bill in the mail or a letter from a lawyer than admit they didn’t think of fantasy as a vehicle to improve fan interest in their sports.

Now that fantasy services have developed considerable business, the leagues want their cut. Leagues and players associations have brought legal action against fantasy providers claiming that using statistics comes with a price tag. So they sought to charge for the use of public information. It’s a shakedown that even Paulie Walnuts would be impressed with. The next phase would be to charge for online conversation using stats.

So far, it hasn’t worked, but they’ll keep trying. Anything to make a buck. They’ll even spread a perfectly good draft across three days to stuff more money in their coffers. Why wouldn’t they ask you to pay 2 bucks to enter next year’s draft? Why wouldn’t they ask for 5 bucks in 2012? 10 bucks in 2015?

So the future is uncertain. But we at the Sports Fans Coalition are certain that we won’t stand for this type of behavior. We won’t be caught sleeping.

Sign the Petition to the U.S. Congress telling them to SAVE FANTASY SPORTS.

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org.

Saints Fans Fight For Seats

by Jeremiah Tittle

In what could be SFC’s new favorite website, The Missing 1200 – which, despite popular belief, is not the title for the sequel to the film 300 - has taken up the charge of those 1,200 Superdome season ticket-holders who lost their seats for the entirety of the 2010 season as the team constructs additional luxury boxes.

SFC contributor Ross McDaniel reported on the move by the team which exposes a growing trend in the National Football League and the greater sports industrial complex.  That is, owners will stop at nothing to make a buck.  Even if it means disenfranchising their own fleur-de-lis-tattooed faithful.

The practice of eminent domain is all too common among sports franchise owners, but Tom Benson has taken it to a new level in New Orleans.  This time it’s personal. Literally. While the Saints do not charge for Personal Seat Licenses, each member of the ‘Missing 1200′ has already suffered the waiting list, and now they’re essentially back on it.

Adding insult to injury, Benson and the Saints have totally pillaged Louisiana for the $85 million they’re using to ’refurbish’ the stadium. Once the construction is complete, an additional 3,100 plaza seats, 16 new luxury boxes, premium clubs, and a multitude of concession stands will boost Benson’s bottom line.

Furthermore, the deal struck last year keeping the Saints in town through 2025 greased the wheels for the team to buy a large piece of land on the cheap which they are now ”leasing…back to the city at higher-than-average rates”. Sounds like a typical bait and switch.

While Sports Fans Coalition stands strong providing sports fans ‘a seat at the table’ when important decisions are being made, it is the physical seats at stake in New Orleans. SFC applauds The Missing 1200 for their bold battle to take their seats back.

Spartans! Take up your arms!

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org.

After some deliberation, the Glendale City Council chose the lesser of two evils in approving the terms of an arena lease proposal offered by the group led by Chicago sports honcho Jerry Reinsdorf, Glendale Hockey, while rejecting Ice Edge Holdings’ paltry offer. According to FieldofSchemes.com, Both suitors are seeking considerable tax advantages and kick-backs by the city of Glendale which has been overrun by sports franchises due to its prime location - home of the Cactus League, Superbowls, etc. – and exceptional weather conditions.

One positive in all the negatives that accompany the economic downturn is that it sheds light on business practices and decisions that aren’t rock solid. The NHL’s decision to start a franchise in the desert of Arizona was not rock solid.

Now that the League has bought back the bankrupt team for $140 million, they are eager to unload the financial burden, and no would-be owner will consider stepping in without tax help from the local residents which is already set to the tune of $65 million over 5 years.

Reinsdorf has scored a major victory in the City Council vote, but his group has a no-penalty opt-out clause that could put the deal back to square one if the NHL and Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley aren’t able to convince opponents like the Goldwater Institute that the deal is in the best interest of Arizonans.

Would-be owner of the New Jersey Nets Mikhail Prokhorov has wasted no time in declaring his intent to sign Duke Basketball Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski for an astounding $14 million a year to take the bottom-feeders of the NBA to the top. Likewise, this bull in a china shop has bought his tickets to the Lebron James sweepstakes this off-season hoping to sign the free agent in time to name the new stadium ‘the house that James built’.

The only problem with that dream scenario for the Russian Billionaire who would stand to become the first overseas owner of an NBA franchise is that the property in Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards, is not yet in the hands of the state of New York. A vote by the collective NBA ownership was set to take place this week, but was delayed a week due to this all important detail.

According to the NY Times, “Mr. Prokhorov is paying $200 million for 80 percent of the team and 45 percent of Barclays Center, the team’s arena that is being built near downtown Brooklyn as part of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project. He will also finance up to $60 million of Nets losses until they move into the arena and be responsible for 80 percent of the team’s debt of $207 million.”

All that appears to be on the up and up until you read how the state of New York is fighting to take people’s land to get the deal done. New York residents’ tax dollars at work indeed.