The steroids, never
really bothered me (disappointing but a reasonable economic decision by a
player, given the rewards), but the lack of revenue sharing that consigns
the small market teams to B-league status is a problem. I'm a Yankees fan, but can imagine
what it must be like to be a fan in places like Kansas City, etc. - and it's not
the patent impossibility of hope that would get me, it's the third-tier
baseball product I'd be offered. As a big market customer, I can't really say
it's thrilling to spend big market bucks for a seat and go out to watch Kansas City.
That said,
don't think it doesn't suck to be a big market fan - as the saying goes,
winning isn't everything. To me, a big part of enjoying a baseball season is
going out to the ballpark. When I was in my 20s, and broke, I'd go out to 5 to
10 games a year, and saw the average ticket as a splurge, but not a
wallet-buster. Now that I'm 50 and have a decent amount of scratch in
my pocket, I look at a Yankee ticket as financial hardship, with concession
stands that should list their prices like this: "F**k you it’s $10 for Bud
Light!" I'm sure it's the same at Fenway, and Wrigley, and other iconic,
perennially sold out parks where the assumption is that the fan is privileged
just to be in attendance, an attitude that sadly has been adopted by a majority
of fans who over-identify with the team.
Even if I go, I'll only go
to an afternoon game - the kids who replace the hardcore heels who are there at
night make the experience tolerable. And don't get me started about the
playoffs starting at 8:30 and ending after midnight. For an Easterner, it makes
playoffs as hard to get through as a mid-May game from the West Coast – and if
the team isn’t mine, I just don’t care to make the effort. Watching sports is just not what I want to be doing at midnight.
The late hours show that baseball and other sports don't care about two types of fans to whom
the games matter most – children and binge drinkers
No comments:
Post a Comment