May 23 2008
Fans Take A Stand…
Looking around the sports landscape you see teams in all sports that say that we “are rebuilding.” Which is a nice way to say we aren’t winning this year, next year and possibly the year after that. But you can’t be upset your team isn’t good because they have told you “we are rebuilding.” At its core I have no problem with teams undergoing a so-called rebuilding. But this means the product is lackluster yet the prices remain the same. What other company can readily admit that they are now putting out a sub par product but still expect the same price. When you pay for 93 Octane you are paying for that quality. So if a team goes from 93 Octane to 87, why don’t their prices drop? Realistically, if you are telling me that we aren’t winning now and are planning to win a couple of years from now, then I will tell you I will see you when you are trying to win.
Take for example the Washington Nationals who moved from Montreal in 2005. When the Nationals first came into existence they moved to an old outdated stadium. So they told the fans enjoy the fact that you have baseball back and if we get a new stadium the team will get better. Basically they announced that until they got a new stadium the money spent on the field wouldn’t allow the team to be competitive. Ok, understanding it was a franchise move and things might take a little while to take off. So the fans are asked to not expect a quality product, but pay similar prices as people who are going to see the Red Sox and Yankees. Now take us to today the Nationals new stadium has opened and yet the payroll for the Nationals hasn’t drastically increased. So a lie was told to the fans who supported the team with the promise of a better product and more spending on the team when the new stadium opened. So this year the payroll increases slightly but the product on the field has remained the same. It’s probably because the owners realize they can wait another couple of years to spend money on the team, because the fans are going to come to the new stadium. So once again the fans are being taken advantage of.
I’m not calling for an outright boycott of bad teams. Because teams will got through their cycles of being bad and good. But if the team is not making an effort to spend money to improve why are we taking money out of our pockets. How long are baseball franchises like Pittsburgh and Kansas City going to hold their fans hostage. At some point fans have to say we as a group aren’t going to continue to support losing franchises that aren’t making a legitimate effort.
