In case you missed it, there was a fabulous article in the NY Times on Wednesday that is essentially reading for anyone concerned about the issue of publicly financed stadiums (and the debts they leave behind).
NY Times‘ Ken Belson: “As Stadiums Vanish, Their Debt Lives on”
After reading about how the BCS already “interferes” with academics by extending into the spring semester for some schools, an astute reader — my brother — pointed out that Alabama actually cancelled classes for three days in January so that Crimson Tide fans could attend the game in Pasadena. But yet it’s college football playoffs that are the real threat to academic calendars…sigh.
For those who have been too busy worrying about their fantasy drafts to notice, several NFL teams are in serious jeopardy of having multiple games blacked out this season. Taxpayers and fans in cities around the country should be outraged.
If an NFL game is not sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff, league rules mandate that the game be blacked out in the local market. Last season, the NFL blacked out 22 games and this season looks worse.
A lot worse.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first victims of the league’s blackout policy, having failed to sell out this weekend’s game against the Cleveland Brown before the deadline.
While Browns fans will get to see this game because it’s in Tampa, they may miss future games played in Cleveland. On Thursday, Sherrod Brown, the junior Democratic senator from Ohio, released a letter to NFL-commissioner Roger Goodell calling the NFL’s blackout policy “deeply troubling.” That’s Senator-speak for seriously f’d up.
Brown may be primarily concerned about fans of the Browns and the Bengals, but the problem affects sports fans around the country. Especially in this economy.
Consider that 18 of the 32 NFL teams raised their ticket prices this year.
And according to Team Marketing Research, it cost an average of $413 to take a family of four to an NFL game last season. That’s for one game.
Now, some may argue that this is just a matter of capitalism and that the owners have every right to blackout television broadcasts if their games aren’t sold out. That would be fine if most of these owners weren’t benefitting from taxpayer funded stadiums.
The Buccaneers, for instance, play in Raymond James Stadium, which cost $168.5 million and which was financed entirely by raising taxes. The taxpayers of Tampa built the stadium only after Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer threatened to move the team if they didn’t. (It’s one of the key steps in what “Field of Schemes” author Neil deMause calls “the great stadium swindle.”) So now Tampa taxpayers who paid for the stadium and who can’t afford to go to the games can’t even see the Bucs on television thanks to the rules of the owners — most of whom didn’t pay for the stadiums they play in.
Browns fans are intimately aware of the “art of the steal,” having lost their team after refusing to cave to Art Moddell in the mid-90’s and being forced to build a new stadium in order to reactivate the Browns. The team now plays in the $283 million Cleveland Browns Stadium. Meanwhile, Bengals fans (actually, Hamilton County taxpayers) forked over $455 million for Paul Brown Stadium, which opened in 2000. And despite all the money Clevelanders and Cincinattians paid because they love their NFL teams, their loyalties may be rewarded with blackouts.
Fans in Kansas City, Detroit, San Diego, and St. Louis, among others, may also feel the same sense of betrayal this season.
In addition, for those who argue that the government shouldn’t get involved in the matter, remember that before Congress got involved in the 1970’s, the NFL blacked out all home games, whether they were sold out or not. It wasn’t until Congress passed a law that the NFL relented and agreed to show games sold out prior to 72 hours before kickoff. FCC regulations further require that these games be blacked out.
Sports fans around the country need to stand up and demand that the NFL end the practice of blacking out games, at least in cities with taxpayer financed stadiums. Fans should contact their representatives and senators and ask them to write to the FCC and Roger Goodell.
With any luck, a few more senators will be willing to join Sherrod Brown in asking the NFL to remember that “football has long been a source of pride for communities” around the country and that blackouts betray loyal fans.
–
Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com
For those who have been too busy worrying about their fantasy drafts to notice, several NFL teams are in serious jeopardy of having multiple games blacked out this season. Taxpayers and fans in cities around the country should be outraged.
If an NFL game is not sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff, league rules mandate that the game be blacked out in the local market. Last season, the NFL blacked out 22 games and this season looks worse.
A lot worse.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first victims of the league’s blackout policy, having failed to sell out this weekend’s game against the Cleveland Brown before the deadline.
While Browns fans will get to see this game because it’s in Tampa, they may miss future games played in Cleveland. On Thursday, Sherrod Brown, the junior Democratic senator from Ohio, released a letter to NFL-commissioner Roger Goodell calling the NFL’s blackout policy “deeply troubling.” That’s Senator-speak for seriously f’d up.
Brown may be primarily concerned about fans of the Browns and the Bengals, but the problem affects sports fans around the country. Especially in this economy.
Consider that 18 of the 32 NFL teams raised their ticket prices this year.
And according to Team Marketing Research, it cost an average of $413 to take a family of four to an NFL game last season. That’s for one game.
Now, some may argue that this is just a matter of capitalism and that the owners have every right to blackout television broadcasts if their games aren’t sold out. That would be fine if most of these owners weren’t benefitting from taxpayer funded stadiums.
The Buccaneers, for instance, play in Raymond James Stadium, which cost $168.5 million and which was financed entirely by raising taxes. The taxpayers of Tampa built the stadium only after Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer threatened to move the team if they didn’t. (It’s one of the key steps in what “Field of Schemes” author Neil deMause calls “the Art of the Steal.”) So now Tampa taxpayers who paid for the stadium and who can’t afford to go to the games can’t even see the Bucs on television thanks to the rules of the owners — most of whom didn’t pay for the stadiums they play in.
Browns fans are intimately aware of the “art of the steal,” having lost their team after refusing to cave to Art Moddell in the mid-90’s and being forced to build a new stadium in order to reactivate the Browns. The team now plays in the $283 million Cleveland Browns Stadium. Meanwhile, Bengals fans (actually, Hamilton County taxpayers) forked over $455 million for Paul Brown Stadium, which opened in 2000. And despite all the money Clevelanders and Cincinattians paid because they love their NFL teams, their loyalties may be rewarded with blackouts.
Fans in Kansas City, Detroit, San Diego, and St. Louis, among others, may also feel the same sense of betrayal this season.
These fans, and fans around the country, need to stand up and demand that the NFL end the practice of blacking out games, at least in cities with taxpayer financed stadiums. Fans should contact their representatives and senators and ask how they feel about the practice.
With any luck, a few more senators will be willing to join Sherrod Brown in asking the NFL to remember that “football has long been a source of pride for communities” around the country and that blackouts betray loyal fans.
–
Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com
Here is the full text of the letter Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the NFL’s blackout policies.
On Thursday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) wrote a letter to NFL commissioner asking the NFL to reconsider its blackout policy, which could affect several teams this season.
“During these difficult times, working families are struggling to make ends meet,” Brown reportedly said. “Although appealing, attending a football game is simply cost prohibitive for too many Ohioans. The average price for an NFL game ticket is $77 – nearly ten times the hourly minimum wage. The problem will only become worse, as 18 teams have increased ticket prices for the upcoming 2010 season.”
What a refreshing change to hear a politician speaking for the average sports fan…
Here’s a good column on the chances for even more NFL blackouts this season. Up first, the Tampa Bay Bucs, whose owners say they won’t buy unsold tickets for a reduced price in order to keep Bucs games on the air. Never mind that taxpayers paid for the entire $168.5 million Raymond James Stadium…
By Scott Weiss
The 2010-2011 NFL season kicks off on September 9 and February 6, 2011 marks the date of Super Bowl XLV at Jerry Jones’ palatial estate in Texas. Football fans should be able to focus their attention on an exciting season ahead. However, lurking right around the corner from Super Bowl XLV is the expiration of the present NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. The current agreement expires on March 4, 2011 — just one short month after the next Super Bowl champion is crowned. That means football fans are just six months away from a work stoppage and NFL labor disaster. It is hard to believe that a league, which by all accounts is generating billions of dollars in revenue every year, can allow this to happen.
So, instead of the 2010-2011 NFL season being about Drew Brees, Sam Bradford, Brett Favre, and the rest of the NFL stars, it will be a season focused on Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith. They may be great guys, but I have never seen either one throw a touchdown pass, break away for a fifty-yard run or sack a quarterback. I, for one, do not have the stomach to witness the petty posturing of these two guys over the next six months.
Football fans can either sit by passively as the sport lurches toward the first work stoppage since 1987, or they can step up and make a difference. Pressure needs to be exerted by football fans from day one this season toward the owners and players to reach a new labor agreement. Once and for all, fans need to say enough is enough. We will not sit idly by while you destroy a good thing. SFC can provide the collective powerful voice that fans need to finally make a difference.
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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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In addition to the spurious claims that college football has the most compelling regular season and that the bowl games still have tradition, Bowl Championship Series defenders also claim that a playoff system would “interfere” with the academic calendars of the schools.
Except that it wouldn’t have to. Oh, and except that the BCS system already interferes with the academic calendars of some schools.
Let’s look at the present system.
The college football postseason starts on December 18 with the much anticipated (ha) 5th annual New Mexico Bowl. The postseason starts on that date because by then all schools are finished with fall/winter finals exams. The postseason runs through January 10, when the BCS National Championship Game will be played in Arizona. That means there are four weekends of postseason football that apparently don’t interfere with the academic calendars, at least that’s what the defenders claim.
Except that the Orange, Sugar and Cotton Bowls take place during the first week of classes for many schools.
And the January 10 national championship game takes place during the second week of classes for several schools.
So by the BCS defenders’ logic, Ohio State shouldn’t be playing in the title game or two of the other BCS bowl games. After all, classes for the Buckeyes start on January 3, 2011.
Same goes for 4 of the other 7 schools who played in BCS bowl games last year. The Oregon Ducks (January 3), Cincinnati Bearcats (January 4), and Florida Gators (January 5) all start classes in the week before the BCS title game. And unless the TCU Horned Frogs plan on attending classes the day of the title game, the national championship game would interfere with their schedule.
It is true that the January 10 BCS title game might interfere with the academic calendars of two schools — a sacrifice the NCAA and the BCS seem willing to make in order to have a national championship game. But is interfering with the academic schedules of (possibly) four teams instead of two really threatening the academic missions of all 120 FBS schools? Of course not.
Moreover, consider that the college basketball season not only spans two semesters, its postseason takes place over three weeks during the semester. And college basketball teams also typically play games during the winter break.
Truth is, even a 16-team playoff could work in the current time allotted for postseason bowl games with a title game on January 10. An eight-team playoff could culminate with a title game on January 3, causing student-athletes to miss virtually no class time. Or if the 16-team playoffs started on December 11, when there are no games scheduled, except for Army-Navy, the title game could still be January 3.
(For those wondering, in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), 16 teams play on December 4, 8 on December 11, 4 on December 17-18 and two meet in the championship game on January 7.)
Clearly, there is plenty of time set aside for bowl games so as not to interfere with academic calendars during which an 8- or 16-team playoff could be completed. A 4-team playoff would be a piece of cake with the current schedule.
Just as the BCS title game itself kills the heart of the argument about the “great traditions” of bowl games, the date of the title game also proves that the BCS and the NCAA are willing to interfere with the academic calendars of some schools. They’re just not willing to do so for the sake of an equitable and far more compelling postseason.
Unless sports fans stand up once and for all.
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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com
Sports fans in Portland without Comcast may have had it tough for the last few seasons, but sports fans in Philadelphia have had to endure more than 10 years of Comcast flexing its muscles in the local market. Not only does Comcast own Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, a regional sports network that carries three of the four major teams in town, it also owns two of those teams – the Flyers and the 76ers.
This means that Philly fans can’t watch their local teams on DirecTV or DISH Network. Unless they can afford to pay for both Comcast and DirecTV, sports fans in Philadelphia who want to watch DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket so they can see all the NFL games must sacrifice watching Philly teams. As a result, satellite TV providers reportedly only have an estimated 16% share of the Philadelphia market, half of what they have in other markets.
Meanwhile, sports fans in New York have had to endure not just James Dolan’s mismanagement of their beloved Knicks franchise, they’ve also been victims of his strong-arm tactics as President and CEO of Cablevision and Madison Square Garden, Inc. Dolan and Cablevision have withheld MSG Sports programming in HD from New York fans who want to use some other carriers, including Verizon and DISH. And any true sports fan can tell you it’s infuriating to watch a sports game without HD.
Comcast and Cablevision have been exploiting a loophole in the law to prevent its competitors from carrying their respective regional sports networks. Here’s how the AP explains the “terrestrial loophole”:
While content owners generally cannot stop competitors from getting access to its channels, there has been an exception since 1992. If the channel’s signals travel through a land-based network instead of satellite, the owner of that channel doesn’t have to give every rival access. The purpose of the exception was to encourage development of local programming.
Comcast and Cablevision Systems Corp. have counted on that loophole to block access to some of their sports channels by their satellite TV and phone company rivals.
But in January of this year, the FCC closed the loophole (and in March a federal appeals court upheld the decision). Here’s what FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said at the time:
The loophole gives free reign to cable-TV operators to lock up local sports events and other popular programming and withhold them from rival providers … Consumers who want to switch video providers shouldn’t have to give up their favorite team in the process. Today the commission levels the competitive playing field.
To most observers, the FCC’s ruling meant that Comcast now has to offer CSN Philadelphia to its competitors and Cablevision has to offer MSG in HD. Not that that’s happening anytime soon. Both have refused to follow the FCC’s ruling.
DISH Network wrote to Comcast in June requesting to carry CSN Philly and received what it said was an outright refusal from Comcast two days later. DISH subsequently announced plans to file a complaint with the FCC.
Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said in a statement:
The FCC’s recent Terrestrial Order does not require Comcast to offer Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia or any other terrestrially delivered network to every distributor. It only allows claims where the provider has suffered a competitive injury, and there is no evidence Dish has suffered such an injury.
Comcast says it will give the rights to CSN Philadelphia if DISH and DirecTV give up the rights to their exclusive content, namely DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket. But there’s quite a difference between not allowing other carriers to show in-market games and withholding out-of-market games.
So for the time being, sports fans will continue to have to choose between watching their teams and satellite service, a choice that, as Genachowski emphasized, no sports fan should have to make.
If the situations in Philadelphia, New York and Portland don’t make sports fans wary of the pending Comcast-NBCU merger, they should. Comcast has used its control over two regional sports networks to withhold sports programming from competitors, thus treading all over consumers. Imagine what it could do with a national broadcast network.
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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
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