The Politico – The Arena
Sports fans frustrated by soaring ticket prices, game blackouts, the lack of a college football playoff, and other often-repeated gripes finally have an advocate in Washington. A non-profit organization founded and run by politically active sports fans like me launches this weekend. The Sports Fans Coalition aims to use grass-roots and inside-the-beltway advocacy to ensure that fans have a seat at the table when important public policy decisions impacting sports are made in the Nation’s capital.
Whether it’s the proposed new football stadium in Los Angeles receiving scores of public benefits, college football teams in Utah or Texas being shut out of the National Championship, or sports fans in Detroit, Jacksonville, or Philadelphia cut off from watching their home team’s games on TV, SFC intends to fight the good fight on behalf of fans.
The Coalition is run by a Board and by individual Members who sign up online; anyone can join; and there’s no cost, The bipartisan Board of Directors includes myself, David Goodfriend, a former Clinton White House and congressional staffer, consumer advocate Gigi Sohn, sports journalist Dave Zirin, and former technology CEO Mark Walsh.
Giving sports fans a voice in DC is about as bi-partisan an issue as baseball and apple pie and this will be a fan-driven organization. We’re asking fans to get off the sidelines and onto the playing field here in DC, to help us take a stand.
The Coalition also includes two advisory boards, one for non-profit groups (Media Access Project and the Computer and Communications Assn.), and one for corporate contributors (currently Verizon). Under the Coalition’s bylaws, which are available on its website, (sportsfans.org) advisory board members have no control rights.
The coalition’s policy agenda will tackle several major issues:
•If public resources went into building a local stadium, there should be affordable seating throughout that stadium and no game s should be “blacked out” from television coverage, a practice currently required by professional sports leagues (if a stadium has not sold out) and supported by federal laws.
•If public resources go to a college or university, tickets to sporting events should be affordable and the teams should participate in a bona fide playoff, rather than — as is the case with college football– a pre-determined bowl system.
•Sports fans should be able to watch their local teams play, regardless of how fans get their games. There should be no local sports exclusives, especially if public resources went into building the local sports arena.
http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Bradley_A__Blakeman_695D509C-D702-4384-8366-6EDF5D304C44.html
Now is the time for Fans to take the field and have their voices heard in the Capitol, the State House and in City Halls. No longer should Fans’ shouts only be heard in stadiums.
