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Team owners: "We're just humble billionaires and we care so much about your state. The team is part of the community... Now subsidize our massively profitable business or we'll move the team."
I'll never understand why fans are die hard loyal to franchises that screw them at every possible opportunity. Insane ticket prices, seat license fees (which are somehow different than tickets?), insane concession prices, ads on everything- it hurts my brain.
I'll never understand why fans are die hard loyal to franchises that screw them at every possible opportunity.
Because for many people it is a core part of their identity, without which they wouldn't have much outside of work and sleep
Seems crazy. I think professional sports would be so much cooler if the community had stake in the team and got something out of winning/profits.
It's just so weird to attach your identity to a team that you are in no way a part of, other than the location.
The Euro Leagues system
Your local team gets good enough that you have a team then there are stakes
NA leagues don’t do this because they are entertainment not competitive products
I'm not a huge football/soccer fan, but I love the concept of promotion/relegation. Around here if you have a losing team you get rewarded with a high draft pick. It's a strategy to be terrible.
I also would love having lower level teams to watch, but that's pretty rare. If you have a pro team in your city, you probably don't have a semi pro team with the exception of baseball.
Maybe that's why so many people enjoy watching college sports. Although I have my own issues with that scene, because of course I do.
What’s the state of community sport in the US ?
In the UK we have the same mindless billions in Soccer, but there is still (just about) a good level of community sport, like semi pro and below, where you can watch for almost nothing then go the bar after the match and drink with the players.
You don’t get the same athleticism and artistry (from overtrained genetic freaks) But you still get brilliant entertainment, drama, fun moments with your tribe. Etc.
Community sports is where it’s at.
everything would be so much cooler with that.
I mean I think most people are aware of how abusive the relationship is at some level (conscious or not) but ultimately the reason billionaires buy teams like this is if you truly love sports what are you by going to do?
I think the only correct perspective to view this from is that it is a tragedy that something so incredibly important to people that it might as well be a religion, is utterly controlled by the billionaire class. I couldn’t care less for professional sports in most ways and find it annoying that stadiums get so much subsidies from cities but at the end of the day I have no interest in bashing people’s rabid love of a sport. I think it is great, go wild and be totally obsessed with your sports team, it is an utterly benign love at the heart of it.
Nailed it. This is especially true with football in the UK. People are literally born and brought up with the expectation of supporting a certain team.
“You will not believe this 2000 year old strategy, that still works today!”
That's why history is so interesting. People today are exactly the same as we've always been.
Just doing shit faster
As a non north-american I never understood this franchise system. How could you cheer for a team that will move anytime to a city more profitable? In Europe and latin america, if your city sucks, is becoming poor or so, the team will fall to the second division and will deal with that cause they are from that city, cause they are a club, not a franchise. For me this makes much more sense.
As much a love to bash the yanks, it’s not just them any more .
You could take any of the top 10 brands in European football, move the stadium anywhere in the world, and no one would notice but for a handful Of die hards.
If Man City moved to Dubai tomorrow, would that really surprise you ?
If Real Madrid moved to Florida , Liverpool to Beijing, ? Your left with 10,000 pissed off locals, but that’s nothing when you’re a global brand.
You have a great point, but for me it is still too much conjectures, but looking to theses conjectures I still disagree. Moving to another country would destroy those teams, cause they aren´t just the teams, Liverpool actually is a global brand but it is the Liverpool that plays in the premier league and have their rivalries, leaving UK would mean leaving all these parts of the brand behind. It is also a very different scenario, those teams in US move to other cities in the same country and still compete in the same tournament keeping a lot more of their previous brand.
For me your example would be much closer to MLB, NBA, NFL and MLS if you thought about Liverpool goint to Bristol, for example. In this scenario I can see better your point but I still think that the club would lose a lot of their capital and the brand would suffer with the ridicule of the situation for the average football fan. But it is just another opinion based in my previous opinions.
seat license fees (which are somehow different than tickets?)
What the actual fuck is THAT bullshit??
From a quick search I found that it apparently gives the purchaser the right to a specific seat for the duration of a season. Makes sense I suppose, but still kinda scummy.
it hurts my brain
those players brains will be hurting from concussions
For the record, N.E. Patriots paid for their stadium and continue to pay all upgrade costs. They just finished an expensive upgrade.
There also is a train stop on the property. Even though it is a commuter line, it's not busy. The hours kinda suck. But, better than nothing.
Their original stadium (Foxboro) cost an incredibly-low $7 million to build circa 1970. Rather than building a bowl-like structure fully above ground like conventional stadiums, they instead dug a stadium-shaped hole in the ground and filled it with seats - a really practical way to do something like this, as long as you don't mind the flooding.
I remember it well. Shoveled snow out of the stands with FHS groups for $$.
Then Kraft built Gillette for $325 million. Just spent millions more on upgrades.
Bread and games, it's what the lizard brain craves.