by Jeremiah Tittle

Today, AEG and Farmers Insurance signed a $700M naming-rights deal for the new L.A. stadium we’ve been hearing so much about.  Five days before the Super Bowl will be played at a stadium without a corporate name, AEG has announced it signed Farmers Insurance to a 30-year, $700 million naming-rights deal for a proposed 1.7 million square foot, 68,000-seat football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. 

While it seems premature in that there is no architect, site approval, or NFL team, former Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger was keen to support the billion-dollar stadium project now to be named Farmers Field. That sentiment is sure to be held by the current Governor of California Jerry Brown as bringing an NFL franchise back to LA would present an obvious state-wide political victory unless you rob Peter to pay Paul in a move that would bring the Chargers north leaving San Diego fans with a 2-plus hour commute on Sundays. But forget the communte for fans.  It simply won’t be their team anymore. 

While SFC has warned of the siren song emanating from Los Angeles trying to lure the Jaguars, Vikings, or Chargers from their current homes, it didn’t seem so real until now.  It’s sinking in that the threat of Los Angeles is not an apparition, but a veritable temptation for billionaire owners around the country to use for their benefit and the fans’ expense.  Be warned that LA’s securing of naming rights at this juncture, although seemingly out of order, is truly a dangerous sign for football fans. 

Will it mean a stadium will soon sit empty in Jacksonville, Minneapolis, or San Diego? Time will tell, but it’s truly up to us to fight back to let our representatives know that we are not willing to give in to NFL franchise owner’s demands for more tax dollars to keep the team from heading to Hollywood. 

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org.  He graduated from the University of Maryland.  He is a fan of the Terps, the football team in the Washington, D.C. area, the Wizards, Manchester United, and Napoli. Follow him at www.twitter.com/WWWJT.

by Scott Weiss

Sean Gregory of Time.Com writes an interesting piece on the NFL labor negotiations, with an emphasis on the fact that owners should open their books to the players’ union and the public. “But if it’s all about costs, critics rightly wonder, why then is league not telling the union the full story with audited team costs, and therefore audited team bottom lines. The NFL says it has never provided team profit numbers before, and the sport has had labor peace for 20 years. It also might be concerned that the union would leak this information to the public. But aren’t we talking about the same public that forks over millions to subsidize stadiums and pours money into the pockets of both owners and players? Isn’t there a strong case to make that they also have a right to get a look at the books?”

You’re damn right the fans have the right to get a look at the books. We are the ones who make it possible for the NFL to claim over $9 billion in profits per year.

Read the full story here.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey and an SFC Sportwriter Fellow. 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.

by Chana Elgin

Does a lack of a political voice on Capitol Hill mean that the best professional athletes in the NFL are weak and defenseless on their own?

With the March 3 deadline looming for team owners to make a decision, the pressure is on and Politico’s Chris Frates describes how the the union’s lobbying effort has really pulled out all the stops.

“They’ve come to Capitol Hill, families in tow, telling lawmakers that a lockout would leave injured players and pregnant wives without health insurance coverage.” 30 million Americans are without health care and there are many pregnant women outside of the NFL family. So, that cry is bound to fall on deaf ears. 

While the PAC-less players have made just short of 300 visits lobbying representatives to get involved in the negotiation, the league has continued to contribute financially to lawmakers as they have for years as the tension builds towards the CBA’s March deadline.

The fans, meanwhile, have Sports Fans Coalition fighting for them on Capitol Hill. We may not have the funding or the star power, but we have all the fans on our side in demanding that there not be an NFL lockout next season.

Read Frates’ report here.

Chana Elgin is a junior broadcast journalism major at Texas Tech University. She is currently serving a Sportswriter Fellowship on behalf of the SFC. Hailing from Houston, Chana is a fan of all teams that are not Dallas.

by Scott Weiss

With less than two months remaining before the March 4, 2011 expiration of the present NFL labor agreement, we are no closer to a resolution than we were a couple of months ago. The owners and players have only focused on trying to gain public support through petty public relations efforts. Roger Goodell, the mouthpiece for the owners has done nothing to help bring about labor peace. It is hard to believe that a league generating $8 billion in revenue is this close to a devastating work stoppage.

Rather than progress toward wrapping up a new collective bargaining agreement, here are the things that we have been treated to by the NFL and NFLPA over the past couple of months:

• The Commissioner saying, “I know we can and will reach an agreement,” without any details attached
• The NFLPA filing a complaint against the league regarding the present TV contract
• Word that the league will still get $4 billion dollars from the TV networks even if there is a work stoppage
• In response to a question about whether a work stoppage would be devastating for the league, Jerry Jones said, “No. I do not. But I know that the sentiment is not to have a lockout”
• The NFLPA voting to decertify their union in case of a lockout, both sides building war chests of hundreds of millions of dollars in case of a work stoppage
• The NFL announcing a ticket refund policy in case of a work stoppage
• And a former NFL player calling for a pre-emptive players strike during this year’s playoffs ahead of an owner’s lockout.

As sad and irrational as all of the above is, it is not surprising. History tells us that this is how owners and players in professional sports negotiate with each other when trying to reach a new labor agreement. All the while, loyal sports fans are dragged through the mud to either get a last second settlement or devastating work stoppage.

This is exactly why an organization like Sports Fans Coalition needs to become the powerful representative and voice of sports fans. Left to their own devices, owners and players will always screw things up. Let’s hope that with the help of Sports Fans Coalition that the status quo will finally be changed.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey and an SFC Sportwriter Fellow. 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.

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.