People in Portland love their beer. At last count, Portland had more breweries than any other city in the country. But Portlanders also love their Trail Blazers. The city has one of the most passionate fan bases in the NBA. Yet, for the last few years they’ve been getting a raw deal. And not just at the hands of the Lakers.

Comcast is the biggest villain in Portland right now.

While Portland may seem pretty distant for those of us on the East Coast, the situation is Portland is actually a cautionary tale for the rest of the country. If the Comcast-NBC merger is successful, sports fans around the country may end up feeling like Blazers fans.

In 2007, the Trail Blazers signed a 10-year, $120 million agreement with Comcast, giving the company the rights to show Trail Blazer games on Comcast Sports Network. Not surprisingly, Comcast then jacked up the fees for other cable and satellite carriers in the region to show Blazers games. In effect, Comcast is forcing customers to switch to Comcast in order to see Blazers games. (Comcast has signed agreements with local cable carriers who don’t compete with Comcast.)

Nevermind that Blazers fans in rural areas can’t even get Comcast service (or local cable service) if they wanted to.

And bear in mind that fans in Portland kicked in $35 million to help build the Rose Garden.

While the Trail Blazers themselves are certainly not without fault, they are not happy about the situation and are fighting back against Comcast.

Blazers team president Larry Miller wrote the FCC stating that Comcast has broken its promise with the team to increase the Blazers’ exposure. Miller complained that the Blazers fans were being “held hostage.”

Without an NFL, MLB or NHL team, Portland fans – and fans around the state of Oregon – have only the Trail Blazers. Their fans are called Blazer Maniacs for a reason. It’s crucial that all those Blazer Maniacs join SFC Portland chapter chair Sarah Moon and demand that Comcast quit holding Blazers fans hostage.

As for the rest of us, Portland should serve as a wake-up call for what can happen when content providers and cable/satellite providers merge. If the Comcast-NBC merger is ultimately allowed to go through, sports fans around the country who don’t subscribe to Comcast may lose NBC Sports – NBC Sunday Night Football, the NHL, the Olympics, etc.

And if Comcast withholds The Office and 30 Rock … watch out.

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

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.