Move Your Butt!!

Why are tickets to watch your favorite major sports franchise so expensive?  Is it the greedy players demanding huge contracts or is it the greedy owners who give in and pay those contracts then turn around and raise ticket prices to finance their new star player?

No, sports fans, it’s you.  It’s your fault and the time has come for you to do something about it or get off the field.

You see, we live in a market economy.  Everything is priced to what the market will bear. Look at the housing market.  Lots of people bought houses so the prices went up.  Now that not so many people are on the market, the price for rancher has plummeted.  Look around, I’m not lying.  Watch the news, you’ll see.  Supply and demand,  it makes our economy run.

On topic, if people are willing to pay $75 for a bleacher seat to a preseason game, that’s what owners will charge.  If people are willing to shell out $10 for a beer and $5 for a tiny hot dog, that’s what the concession stand is going to make you pay.  The sports world is not immune from market forces; in fact, it lives and dies by them.  Just ask the Phoenix Coyotes.

You can’t blame the players for this situation.  They live in the same market economy as you and me.  They, or more accurately, their agents, know that the owners want to win.  To win, they need to have the best players.  To get the best players they will pay through the nose or their top draft pick will hold out for the entire season if need be.  The players have the supply and the owners have the demand.  The owners will pay and the players will take.  Would you do any different if you could get $18 million per year for five years when you were 22 years old? 

The owners are greedy.  That’s not much of a debate.  They’ll charge and charge and charge.  Look how much it costs just to see a preseason game that means nothing or how much it costs for parking a mile away from the stadium.  It’s ridiculous.  They charge these huge amounts because, just like the players, they know what the market will bear.  Currently the market bears huge amounts that sports fans do little more than bitch about.

So take responsibility for your own actions.  Either stop paying these huge amounts or shut the hell up and get out your wallet.  Stop going to the games.  Stop buying their merchandise.  Stop watching Monday Night Football.  Just stop. 

Sports fans have only one negotiating tool: their butts.  By refusing to put your butt in their seat, you can change the situation.  The owners, the payers, the networks, all of them will only understand that the power is finally out of their hands when you finally decide that your butt is not theirs.