American sports fans have been mistreated for decades and
they do nothing about it.
Things reached a dramatic new boiling point on the fabled grounds
of Old Trafford when Manchester United fans broke into the stadium before a big
game against Liverpool and took over the pitch. The game was postponed as fans
made it abundantly clear they were fed up with the Glazer family’s ownership of
the club for the past decade and a half.
As an American sports fan, I could only watch in wonder and
amazement. I watched in wonder because those fans had the guts and the gall to
not just push back against ownership, but put those feelings into action. I watched
in amazement because American sports fans don’t do anything except accept fate.
I’ll spare you the “back in my day” recounting of what
sports were like for me growing up, because I don’t think I’m that old, even in
the back-half of my 30’s. I can’t speak to the 1960’s or 1970’s, only the
1990’s, yet even those days feel like they took place centuries ago.
For a long time, sports operated for the fans. The games
were scheduled to maximize fan interaction with the sport, specifically to get
fans to attend games and create new fans by making it as accessible as
possible. Games were largely on broadcast television, or a small number of
cable stations like ESPN or TNT or your local regional sports network. Your
cable bill was certainly pricey, still nothing that broke the bank or had you
considering alternatives.
For too long now, sports have operated against the fans. The
games are now scheduled to maximize television ratings and revenue. In-person
attendance is not important, nor is creating new fans. It’s all about revenue
streams. There are far too many cable stations costing far too much per month,
on top of myriad streaming services and add-ons asking for even more money.
It’s almost impossible to keep up with the costs of being a sports fan.
Most annoying, the “hardcore” fan is the one punished the
most by these changes. As just one example, my Dad, myself, and my friends had
UConn football season tickets as a group from 2003-2012, until the school
killed the program. Despite being the most loyal fans, the game times were
almost always announced within the last week, making it impossible to schedule
group tailgates in advance.
Why couldn’t they announce if a game was starting at noon or
8pm more than a week in advance? Television, of course.
Similarly, even the act of watching sports at home can be an
issue. I’m a fan of Liverpool but NBC has put more and more of its EPL games on
Peacock, asking me to pay an additional fee per month on top of my cable bill
to watch all of their games. The result? I haven’t paid for Peacock and I’m
less engaged with my favorite soccer team. It’s a bummer.
The question though, is what will fans do about it? Because
for the entirety of my life, the answer has been nothing.
It’s pretty remarkable when you take a step back and view
the big picture.
Billionaire owners are making money hand over fist by
squeezing every last drop of revenue from fans. The owners don’t bring in any
revenue. It’s the fans that bring in the revenue and make sports as popular as
they are. The fans hold all the power and use absolutely none of it.
Of course, none of that is happening. The NFL media types
all ran with the NFL’s garbage marketing about the “future” of football, and
fans will just accept that the NFL costs more than ever to watch every week.
There is a worrying trend out there, though, that no one
seems to want to acknowledge, because much like climate change it won’t affect
anyone in the next decade. That’s how old the audiences are for sports. Yes,
the games still do a tremendous number in the coveted 18-49 demo, but the
overall audiences skew very, very old.
When I was a kid, we all watched sports because it was so
easy and accessible. You turned on NBC, or ABC, or CBS on the weekends, and you
watched all the biggest sporting events, usually during the afternoon.
Today, everything is on late to maximize ratings and very
few events are still on broadcast television. With more and more people cutting
cable to save costs, games become less and less accessible. Combined with
insane ticket prices and other ridiculous costs for attending games, like
parking, and we’re creating fewer fans of sports every passing week.
No one in charge cares because they’re still making their
billions and American sports fans still accept whatever is thrown at them.
I don’t think the older generation of American sports fans will ever rise up and fight back. That’s a shame. The bigger problem looming, though, is the lack of the next generation of American sports fan. The next generation won’t fight back either They’ll just find something else to watch.
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