It ought to be on every stadium plaque and underneath all the endless stats the network's run constantly during games.
It ought to be on players' jerseys and included in every new stadium's corporate name.
At the draft, it should be etched in gold on Roger Goodell's podium.
The owners and players should get it tattooed across their chests.
And it ought to be in big, bold letters across every invoice sent to every long-time fan ordering season tickets.
Greed is Good. Gordon Gekko said that in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, a movie about corporate greed gone mad.
The NFL thinks of itself as the master of the universe. The more greed the better.
$8 beers, $5 soda, $200 tickets, $8 hot dogs, $10 burgers, and $25 parking.
Just pile the charges on the lowest denominators, the building blocks of the franchise's wealth, the folks waiting to be fleeced: the fans.
Just price gouge, baby.
The New York Giants announced that they will join other NFL corporate behemoths by pushing the epitome of NFL greed, the Personal Sect License.
For fees ranging for $1000 to $20,000, fans can buy the right to buy a ticket.
Which will cost thousands more and rise each year.
The New York Jets say PSLs at the 50-yard line will be about $50,000.
Luxury boxes at the new stadium will range from $275,000 to a cool $1,000,000.
And the taxpayers are dropping about another half billion or so in infrastructure improvements.
The bonfire of the vanities still burns bright in Gotham.
PSLs are rather new in the NFL. But they have spread like a bad strain of bird flu.
Chicago Bears fans coughed up $10,000 a seat license. Jerry Jones sold luxury club seats for $150,000 a pop. The Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, and a host of other teams have joined the chase for the money train.
Buy the ticket and take the ride? No, buy the personal seat license first, then the ticket, then take the ride. Sorry sucker, no even break at this carnival.
15 teams gouge their fans with the grossly greedy Personal-Seat-License grab.
Even the Cincinnati Bengals, with the sad product they present, have jumped on the license money-grab.
The NFL leads all other leagues by far. Greed is good. Greed will take you far. It is, after all, morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money.
Bigger stadiums, bigger jets, bigger television contracts, and bigger payrolls.
The only thing able to slay the NFL behemoth is itself. The potentially fatal weapon it wields against itself is greed.
If regular fans, the building blocks of franchises for years, are priced out of the market, the NFL will begin to shrivel and shrink.
Kill the fan, and you kill the goose that laid the golden egg. You kill the goose with greed.
Fans will be disgusted. Children, future customers, will no longer be able to attend over-priced games, at least, certainly not see a season's worth of games.
In the short term, the NFL will reap millions, as fans still fill stadiums. But in the long run, in a depressing economic climate, how much can the league squeeze from the fans until they say no more?
We just can't afford it anymore. We just don't enjoy it anymore.
Drop a couple of thousand to take my kids to a game, or save it for that possible layoff down the lane?
7 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Chris D'Aniello about 1 year ago
Very true. I split two Eagles season tickets with a couple guys from my dad's office. The tickets are $200 a piece but the licenses cost thousands. It's unbelievable. (Yet I continue to purchase them?)
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Andrew Kneeland about 1 year ago
Great article. Even baseball games are getting more expensive. Gone are the days of $5 bleacher seats.
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Spenser T. Harrison about 1 year ago
Well written and completely true. Jerry Jones is gonna take this to a new level when his crown jewel of the NFL gets unveiled next year................as for NFL owners I think a friend of mine put it best when describing them saying "they are the last bastions of old white wealth, and run their teams accordingly to such standards"
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Dave Metrick about 1 year ago
Amen.
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Ricker Sam about 1 year ago
The tax subsidy is greater than most people realize. Businesses can write of their tickets, most of which are not used for buisness purposes, as business expenses. Every small business owner can do this, and probably will not get caught. Were the entertainment expense racket ended, it would reduce ticket prices tremendously.
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Ricker Sam about 1 year ago
To clarify my point. Big businesses abuse this part of the tax code too, perhaps more than small businesses.
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Nyar Yike about 1 year ago
Didn't Gordon Geiko go to jail at the end of the Wall Street movie? His wife was cheating on him at the party, his business partners and friends all gave him up on the steel deal to his rival Does not sound like such a great life to me? Forest Gump made friends, money, and medals of honor awards and played great football...
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