After one of the best playoff performances in NFL history, it is very easy to find Giants fans. Some have become fans due to their absolute hatred of the Pats or anything Belichick. Others felt that the bandwagon just was not quite full enough.
Which is perfectly fine. This is not unique to New York's championship run. In '07, these folks loved Peyton, and in '06, it was Hines Ward that had bandwagon fans smitten.
In order to appreciate this newfound position of being on top of the NFL world, one has to have been there from early on. For a majority of the Giants' fans, pain has come with the territory. Every time you became confident in this team’s ability, they would find some way to disappoint. This time is no different.
After such a great ride, orchestrated by the drive of the century (I’m a little biased), the front office at East Rutherford has devised a great fan-appreciation promotion. You will never guess what it is.
By now, many thoughts are entering your mind. What could it be? Discount tickets? Cheaper parking? Reasonable concession-stand prices? All good guesses, but horribly wrong. The Giants felt that the best way to reward their diehard, loyal fans is with PERSONAL SEAT LICENSES.
What is this?
Well, for being such a loyal fan, you get to pay a nice one-time fee to move your current seat into the new stadium. But don’t panic, it will only cost up to $20,000. Did I mention per ticket.
So, after putting $60 in your hybrid to get to the Meadowlands, and forking over another $30 to park, you can rest easy knowing your loyalty is appreciated. That new loyalty tax, $1,000-$20,000 per ticket, will go to help pay for the new stadium.
Now, I wonder, will the future profits trickle back down to the average Joe’s hand. Since season-ticket holders are helping to build this new stadium, shouldn’t they get some compensation? By the way, that whole recession thing the country is going through is just plain hearsay.
If there is one thing Giants fans understand, it is a recession. From 1990 through this last championship, we’ve seen how the numbers in the wins column can recede.
Take 1991 for example. A year removed from a championship, Ray Handley is introduced as head coach. Did we repeat? Or even make the playoffs? No way!
Under Mr. Handley, we went a 14-18 (8-8 in his first season) in two seasons. Did we charge a fee? Did fans ask the Mara’s for a personal waste-of-time refund? No. We stayed true blue. It was chalked up has a fluke. Just a mistake that anyone at human resources could have made.
Then we ushered in the Dan Reeves era. To be fair to Dan, he did a pretty descent job at first. Especially considering the talent he had. Granted, in his first year, Phil Simms and other veterans were here. But his sophomore year as the top guy, the talent level dropped considerably.
(I know this because I remember 1994. Those arguments with my NFC East peers over who has the best quarterback were pure torture. They would have Cunningham and Aikman, while I was countering with Dave Brown. I feel an ulcer flaring up just thinking about those losing debates. I felt like a character witness for Courtney Love, no one wanted to listen.)
Dan Reeves still managed a 9-7 record, but that was the peak. That roster did not allow him to flourish, finishing his tenure with 5-11 and 6-10 records respectively.
Other than the 2000 season, the Jim Fassel years were a mixed bag. While coaches and rosters changed, the team went through its highs and lows, but the one constant was the Giants’ fans. The Giants’ fans came to the games religiously, shelled out everything in their pockets, and most importantly, gave every ounce of emotion to this franchise.
We accepted Dave Brown as our starter. We accepted him and treated him like his jersey read Montana (maybe not all the time).
Even after those dreadful seasons, everyone who is true blue would go into the following season with high hopes. The Giants’ fans were willing to forgive the team for their shortcomings, with the faith that the team would succeed. The type of faith that is second only to a child’s belief in Santa.
And just like that relationship, after maturity, Giants’ fans have realized it is all a fantasy. The fan that has held on to season tickets for years, going to 10-degree games in December when the team was 4-11, deserves better.
There seems to be a lack of reciprocation with the loyalty in this relationship.
I am very proud of the Giants and their accomplishments, but as a loyal fan, I, and a whole legion of others, have paid our dues. We have been faithful in the past, and when this crop of Giants decline, hopefully not for another 10 seasons, we will be there for those 5-11 and 6-10 rebuilding seasons.
Maybe that is the problem.
The new front office has disconnected from their fans. For them, it is no issue to pay $20,000 for a seat. What about the average fan? Should he mortgage his property to retain the seats that they have held for 20 years?
The front office keeps referring to the personal seat license as the “PSL”. They understand that acronym as the "preferred suckers list".
We have shown we will support this team, regardless of how the front office looks at us. Maybe it is time to reevaluate our position in this relationship.
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3 months ago
Money Money Money Money
So true and it's even worse in Dallas. This could be the end of real fans attending games, loud obnoxious drunkards that make things fun, and families. At some point there will be more club seats for the execs and bigshots than the actual fans. Sad.
3 months ago
Yea I can never get to Foxboro or Fenway, it's too expensive and exclusive. Thanks guys!
3 months ago
I entirely disagree with your article. Even though it will be tough for some fans to afford seats, the Mara's and Tish's should not have to eat the entire cost of the new stadium. Even after the PSL's (which, by the way, are taxed) the owners are still in debt $300-$400 MILLION!!! In Dallas, the PSL's are MUCH higher and their team hasn't even win a playoff game in the last decade! While it definitely sucks for the average fan, you have to understand that the NFL is a business and teams can't just lose that type of money and keep chugging along. You want the Giants to spend money on signing good personnel, building new stadiums, and being a classy organization but you don't want ANY of that cost to be absorb by the fans? I think that's a little ridiculous and somewhat hypocritical. The Giants are one of the classiest organizations in sports and while I'm sure they didn't WANT to charge their fans a personal seat license, it was the only fiscally responsible thing for them to do.
3 months ago
As a loyal Giants fan myself, I disagree with some of the points in this article. Because of the way the Giants have done their season tickets with their waiting list, season ticket holders who no longer want them hang on to them anyway, and sell them off to the highest bidder. They keep the tickets in their name though, because of how long the waiting list has become. I'd hardly call that a "loyal fan".
Based on what I've read I'm pretty sure the Giants organization funded the entire project of the new stadium without raising taxes for residents of New Jersey. They've got to make up the 800 or so million they spent on this stadium somehow. Mara stated that it was the "last possible option" for the organization to go to PSL's, and that it was an "extremely difficult decision". It's a brand-new, state of the art stadium, prices are going to go up, that's the way it works. Think of the PSL as the taxes you would have paid for the new stadium if it had been funded by the state.
I understand your frustration, but the PSL's weed out fans that don't even use their season tickets anymore in the Giants case. It's a bad situation for true fans to be in because it puts a strain on them to fork over even more money, but sadly it's the way it has to be if the team is going to move into a new stadium, that it's funded on its own. It's the nature of the game, and of sports today.
3 months ago
this is a disgrace... how about this Giants, take out a stinken loan like people do when they get a mortgage for their home.. Don't charge the fans to pay for the already expensive enough seats that they already have... I love the Giants and I have lived in NY for 18 years of my life until I went to college and have been to 2 games, you want to know why? because it is so expensive
3 months ago
This is a great read. It is so true, as a die-hard Packer fan it is obnoxious. Thanks for thinking about the little guy. Pick of the day for me.
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