To all the sports fans across the globe serving our country, we say thank you for your service on Memorial Day.
Are You With the Owners or Players? I’m with the Fans
Are You With the Owners or Players? I’m with the Fans
by Scott Weiss
When work stoppages have loomed in professional sports in the past, the media has always posed the question as to whether sports fans would side with the owners or players. Would fans back the billionaires or millionaires? The problem is that neither side has ever been worthy of sports fan’s support. There have been a total of eighteen work stoppages in professional sports (MLB 8, NFL 4, NBA 3, and NHL 3). Another four potential work stoppages are on the horizon as the collective bargaining agreements in the big four sports all expire in 2011. If you think that the best interest of sports fans has ever been considered by either side, you are sorely mistaken. The almighty buck has been the focus of the owners and players, not Joe sports fan. It is hard to blame the owners and players for their disregard for fans, because despite the work stoppages fans have dutifully filed back into sports stadiums.
I for one will definitely not be backing the owners or players in the collective bargaining wars of 2011. The group that I will be backing is sports fans. The time has come for sports fans to stand up and say that we will not take it anymore. We will not stand idly by and watch the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL drag us through a nightmarish year of labor strife. The only way for sports fans to wield any power is through a collective voice. I am excited that the Sports Fans Coalition has presented itself as the voice that sports fans have been yearning for.
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.
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Supreme Court Rejects NFL's Plea for Antitrust Exemption
Sports Fans Coalition Praises Supreme Court’s Unanimous Decision
Rejecting NFL’s Plea For Antitrust Protection
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the National Football League in its pursuit of broad antitrust law protection. The court rejected the NFL’s request to be considered as one entity rather than 32 individual teams when negotiating contracts in this landmark case, American Needle v. NFL. “This is a victory of Super Bowl proportions for America’s sports fans,” said Sports Fans Coalition Chairman David Goodfriend. “A unanimous Supreme Court told the professional sports leagues in no uncertain terms that leagues must live by the same rules as any other business.”
The high court overturned a lower court’s decision against regional hat-maker American Needle which complained that the NFL’s exclusive 10-year contract with Reebok restricted competition amongst NFL merchandisers. “Although NFL teams have common interests such as promoting the NFL brand,” said Justice John Paul Stevens, “They are still separate, profit-maximizing entities, and their interests in licensing team trademarks are not necessarily aligned.”
While the parameters of the case were subject to interpretation, sports fans stood to lose considerable purchasing power when it came to buying their favorite player’s jersey and perhaps when subscribing to a particular NFL television package. “For sports fans,” Goodfriend stated, “This means that professional leagues will not be able to shut out fans or jack up prices for tickets, merchandise, or televised games unchecked by competition.”
Read SFC board member Dave Zirin’s article published in The Nation magazine here.
Read Drew Brees’ Op Ed published in The Washington Post prior to his testimony in the Supreme Court in January here.
BCS National Championship? It’s Just A Bowl Game
BCS National Championship?
It’s Just a Bowl Game
by Scott Weiss
As the 2010-2011 College Football season approaches, college football fans will once again be subjected to the sham that is the BCS system. Computers deciding who will play in the supposed championship game; could anything be more contrary to the concepts of competition and fairness than this? The NCAA wants fans to buy into the contrived game that they create as a championship game. As a fan, I have never considered this to be a championship game. Let’s face it, the game is just another bowl game. There were 34 bowl games played in the 2009-2010 college football season, and to arbitrarily call the winner of one of these games as the national champion is a total joke.
Somehow, the NCAA has found a way to come up with a playoff system to determine their basketball, baseball and hockey champions. They have even found a way to come up with a 16 team playoff format to determine the champions of the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). Contrary to what Gordon Gekko said, greed is not good. Should college football fans continue to endure the bogus way that the national champion is determined because the NCAA needs to stuff their pockets with bowl game bucks? As a sports fan, I think that the answer is a resounding, no!
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.
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San Francisco Stadium Issue: Worth A Closer Look
The following information has been reprinted from a Santa Clara Plays Fair handout:
Stadium = Construction Costs and interest-bearing bonds
For a $937 million stadium construction costs, Santa Clara and its agencies will pay $444 million (47%). The 49ers will pay $493 million (53%).
Santa Clara’s share of $444 million ($10,000 per Santa Clara household) comes from: $114 million dollars ($42 million from redevelopment area (RDA) property taxes (bonds); $20 million electric utility reserve money to move a substation to make 380 parking spaces at $52,000 each; $17 million in RDA bonds for a parking garage; and $35 million from hotel taxes (interest-bearing bond s & a loan at 8.5% interest from 49ers) $330 million from the Stadium Authority, Santa Clara’s agency, that must raise money from risky, uncertain sources (such as selling personal seat licenses and naming rights, which are not selling for other new stadiums elsewhere in the U.S.)
This does not include:
$220 million in interest on Stadium Authority interest-bearing bonds
Tens of millions in interest on the RDA bonds
Interest on loans at 8.5% from the 49ers
This also does not include (from the Term Sheet):
Unknown operations/maintenance costs because the 49ers only pay stadium operations costs they think are ‘reasonable’ Public Safety costs above the threshold the 49ers are willing to pay. The 49ers are not responsible for the Stadium Authority’s bond debt Who will pay for the costs and bond debt the 49ers won’t pay for? Why are the 49ers hiding the Stadium Authority $330M?
Correct Pie Chart of Construction Costs
On June 3, 2009, the day after the Term Sheet was signed, Jed York (49ers CEO) appeared on Comcast Chronicle Live and showed a pie chart with the correct construction costs (Yellow = Santa Clara $114 million; Red = Santa Clara’s Stadium Authority $330 million; Blue = $493 million 49ers):
This was the last time Santa Clarans have seen a correct pie chart of construction costs from the 49ers. After June 3, 2009, the 49ers created a false pie chart that lumps the $330 million Stadium Authority contribution in with the 49ers share to make it look like the 49ers are contributing 88% ($823 million) of the total costs, rather than 53%. The 49ers and their front group Santa Clarans for Economic Progress, have repeatedly mailed this false pie chart of construction costs into our homes, and use this false pie chart (below) in speeches and debates.
The media have repeated the myth that the 49ers are providing $823 M over and over, even though they have been given the true costs. Here’s the False Pie Chart of Construction Costs, which hides the Stadium Authority and pretends that the 49ers are providing $823 million for the stadium:
They are hiding the Stadium Authority to hide the $330 million and bond interest of $221 million, as well as to hide the risks, as described in Stanford Economist Dr. Roger Noll’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Stay tuned as SFC wholeheartedly supports Santa Clara Plays Fair and their efforts to expose the misinformation campaign waged against taxpayers’ and sports fans’ rights in San Francisco. SFC believes that no subsidy should be given to a sports team unless conditions are met in line with the SFC agenda; affordable seating and no blackouts whatsoever.
Join SFC in the fight to take the power back!
Sports Fans Unite
Sports Fans Unite
by Scott Weiss
In SFC board member Dave Zirin’s recent column published by Sports Illustrated, NFL Players Association President DeMaurice Smith predicted that the chance of an NFL lockout was a 14 on a scale of 1 to 10. After witnessing the devastation of work stoppages and threatened work stoppages over the years, I didn’t appreciate Mr. Smith’s quip. The NFL is the first of the four major sports leagues whose collective bargaining agreements will expire in 2011 (NFL- March, NBA- June, NHL- September, MLB- December). March of 2011 is only ten short months away. If sports fans want to make a difference in the discussion related to potential work stoppages, the dialogue needs to start now. Waiting for a month or two prior to a work stoppage is way too late for fans to speak out.
Rather than looking at the possibility of the four major sports leagues all having work stoppages in the same year as every sports fan’s worst nightmare, we can look at it as sports fan’s greatest opportunity. SFC, with the help of a united mass of sports fans needs to become part of the media discussion on this issue immediately. When DeMaurice Smith or Bud Selig comment in the media about the possibility of a work stoppage in 2011, SFC needs to be the source for the media to account for the sports fan’s perspective.
The idea that sports fans can not make a difference is a ludicrous premise. Sports fans pay the freight for the owners’ profits and players’ salaries. The reality is that sports fans have never had a collective voice to fight the injustices. The time is now, sports fans, for our voices to be heard, and SFC is the vehicle to finally make this happen.
As a passionate sports fanatic, I can not sit idly by while owners and players fight for their toys in the sandbox. The sports establishment needs to respect the interests of sports fans today. I ask everyone to start believing that this can be a reality, and join the fight for sports fans’ rights.
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.
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What Happens When You Fight Back?
What Happens When You Fight Back?
by Jeremiah Tittle
The expectations of entrepreneurs and real estate moguls seeking to build state-of-the-art coliseums in cities across America are that the public will gladly pay for a portion (if not all) of the costs associated with making billionaires dreams come true. In this morbidly twisted version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, sports stadiums began this practice in earnest once Camden Yards was built on Baltimore’s tax funds some 20 years ago. The industry has anticipated taxpayer help ever since as the rule rather than the exception.
While absorbing tax dollars from cities like a Dyson vacuum has become commonplace, there have been a few instances where citizens have fought back. One of the most recent examples of this is a story of the twin cities legislature standing up to the Minnesota Vikings winning slim margins in their government votes against a new stadium finance proposal.
While the pillaging Vikings-owning Wilf family sought to live up to the history of their Nordic mascot, the people of Minneapolis showed them where they can submit their complaints. Much to their disappointment, the Vikings must wait another year before bolting for LA or reaching an agreement to stay where they belong in the upper mid-west.
The people of Minneapolis have clearly won the battle, but the war is not over.The Wilf family has conceded that it has been forced to allow this bill to die another day. If the good taxpayers of the twin cities have anything to say about it, die, it will.
Let this encourage all those who believe it is futile to tango with those in power. This is what happens when you fight back and force your representatives to listen to you. Join SFC in the fight against public funding for stadiums, and enforce public demands when tax monies are used. Stand up and be heard!
Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org.
Economist Pulls Back Curtain On Stadium Financing In SF
Economist Pulls Back Curtain On Stadium Financing In SF
by Jeremiah Tittle
Friday’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle presents strong evidence to the contrary of what the 49ers and 49ers-new-stadium-enthusiasts have drummed up to make the case for the team to call Santa Clara it’s new home. Essentially what Stanford Economics Professor and author of “Sports, Jobs, and Taxes” Roger Knoll is saying is that an optimistic estimation of financial returns to the taxpaying city-dwellers of this small town within San Francisco helps the NFL sell this lump of coal at the bottom of their Christmas stocking as a bona fide wrapped gift with a bow. In reality, the only one getting a gift out of this zero-sum game is the owner himself.
June 4th is the date marked on calendars across Santa Clara as the community will decide definitively whether to subsidize the new stadium in their front yard to the tune of $330 million. It’s a hefty price tag for promised returns which include the recently ineffective sale of naming rights (see Dallas Cowboys new stadium as the most marketable option still unsold in this economy and note the political damage done to Citi for pulling the trigger on naming the Mets new home while receiving bailout cash). I wouldn’t take that bet to Vegas, and Santa Clarans shouldn’t take the burden of this stadium on come the first week in June.
If Santa Clarans do the right thing listening to the grassroots organizers at Santa Clara Plays Fair denying the NFL the cash to build, the game of financial russian roullette will continue throughout the greater San Francisco area perhaps opening the door to Los Angeles receiving the 49ers in exchange for the Raiders 30 years later. What a trade!
While that’s doubtful for a number of reasons, it is worth noting that California’s debt issues will continue when these types of measures are deemed acceptable by the general public due to sizeable misinformation campaigns waged by the billionaires and politicians with a vested interest. The word ‘investment’ should not be used without the word ‘bad’ preceding it.
VOTE NO on Measure J!
Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org.
Don’t Black Us Out Woody
Don’t Black Us Out Woody
by Scott Weiss
An article in the Newark Star Ledger on Friday gave Jets fans a reason to worry. As the Jets are getting ready to move into their new $1.6 billion stadium that they will share with the Giants, approximately 17,000 PSL’s appear to be unsold. The Jets billionaire owner, Woody Johnson, is getting nervous. He is also digging in his heels. Johnson said he will not sell tickets on a game by game basis for the seats that require licenses because that corrupts the value of the licenses. The problem for fans is that if seats remain unsold for games, the NFL’s TV blackout rules go into effect.
It was not bad enough that many families who had season tickets for generations, were priced out of the seats by the PSL fleecing, now these same fans may not even get to watch the games on TV. What an outrage! Knowing the character of Jets fans (does fireman Ed ring a bell?) they will not take to this abuse very well. However, when fans anger is expressed in an unorganized way, it is just noise. All you hear from the media is that the situation is really unfair, but there really is not anything that fans can do about it.
An organization like SFC can take the collective anger of fans over issues such as these, and present a united voice to battle the injustice. I don’t know about you, but I will not be able to stomach not being able to watch my Jets on TV because a greedy billionaire did not get enough money from the team’s followers. Let’s end the insanity people, and let Woody know that he ain’t gonna push us around.
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.
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Mets Fans’ Purchasing Power Sinks With Club’s Playoff Hopes
Well, you know what they say. If you’re going to succeed, you must be a leader. In the case of the Mets and Citi Field, I’m pretty sure they meant lead the league in a category worth a damn. It’s now up to New York City tax payers and diehard baseball fans to decide whether they’ll get their return on investment.
We’ll leave it to Michael S. Schmidt to crunch the numbers in his NY Times article.
Mets Lead the Majors in Declining Attendance
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
A year after moving into a sparkling new $800 million stadium, the Mets have the most home victories in the major leagues, but neither their NT stadium nor their record is translating into box-office success.
Jason Bay was the only major free agent added by the Mets, who cut their payroll by $20 million.
Gloomy weather has contributed to the Mets’ falling attendance figures this season. After 22 home games, attendance at Citi Field is down 6,852 fans a game, the largest decline by number in Major League Baseball. That translates to an average of 31,892 fans at games this season compared with 38,744 last season.
The Cleveland Indians, who have a losing record at home, are second to the Mets, down 6,585 fans a game from last season. The Yankees, who won the World Series last season in their first year in a new stadium, are holding steady at about the same numbers as last season.
In baseball, attendance figures are almost as important as victories. Fewer fans in the seats mean fewer sales of hot dogs, beer and caps. Team executives obsess over the numbers, finesse them and — when necessary — do their best to spin them, while Commissioner Bud Selig and his deputies closely monitor each team’s reports.
In percentage terms, the Indians’ decline is sharper than the Mets’, 30 to 18, but the Mets’ drop is especially jarring for a big-market franchise that is counted on to help generate income for the rest of the league. The Mets are also 11th in average attendance in the major leagues, down from seventh last year.
The Mets’ drop follows two September collapses, a 92-loss season in 2009, an uninspiring off-season and the loss of gloss that comes with the second year in a new stadium.
“The problem is last year the tickets were really expensive and the team stunk and that can really stick with fans for a while,” said Jon Greenberg, the executive editor of Team Marketing Report, an industry publication.
In the mid-1990s, Greenberg said, teams could count on new stadiums to help them boost ticket sales for several years, but that trend has ended.
“Stadium fatigue sets in much faster than it did before,” Greenberg said, noting that new stadiums built in Baltimore and Cleveland in the early 1990s led to long periods of increased attendance for both franchises. “When Camden Yards and Jacobs Field were built, they were a big deal and were a complete change. The novelty has worn off.”
The Minnesota Twins are the latest to benefit from the novelty. The Twins lead the league in increased attendance, with an average of 14,129 more fans attending games at the new Target Field than last season at the Metrodome, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
The Mets tried to prevent a drop-off by cutting ticket prices as much as 20 percent after last season, but signs of trouble quickly became apparent. When the team submitted its monthly report to the commissioner’s office in March, ticket sales dropped 40 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Dave Howard, the Mets’ executive vice president for business operations, blamed the early-season decline on bad weather in April, the team’s disappointing play in recent years and the economic downturn. (The weather in April was warmer and drier than normal in the New York area.)
“We are confident as we continue to play better, the weather gets warmer and school ends that we will draw more fans and end the year fine,” he said.
It didn’t help that the Mets started the season by losing 8 of their first 12 games before putting together a winning streak at the end of April. The team is 14-8 at home and 18-17 over all.
“The winning streak has definitely helped,” Howard said. “The fewer season-ticket sales has allowed us to sell more walk-up sales, and we have had four record walk-up sales so far this season.”
It may take more than one winning streak to fully win back fans after the team’s failures in 2007 and 2008 and the disappointment of the first season in Citi Field. The Mets came into the new stadium with hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2006, but the glow began dimming before the team took the field.
Citi Field was modeled in part after Ebbets Field, and there were complaints that it seemed to be designed more to honor the old Brooklyn Dodgers than the early Mets. Fans complained about obstructed seats. The team fell apart, with one star after another going down with injuries.
To the dismay of many fans, the front office did little to improve the roster in the off-season, adding only one premier free agent, outfielder Jason Bay, while cutting the payroll by a little more than $10 million, although it is still among the highest in baseball.
Mets players profess optimism about the weeks ahead. “I’m sure it’s been the weather,” shortstop Jose Reyes said. “It’s no big deal. The crowds will come. The fans still love us.”
Selig adopted a similarly optimistic perspective when he addressed the issue after an owners meeting in Manhattan on Thursday.
“The Mets have been playing much better lately, and let’s just see what happens,” he said. “Sparky Anderson always used to say to me, ‘Forty to 50 games, you can’t make any judgment before you play 40 to 50 games.’ That is true on the business side of the game.
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