Major league sports were a big part of growing up for me. I enjoyed watching the best players in the world play the games that as kids we all played. We knew all the players, their stat lines, where they were from. There was an emotional bond between you and your teams. It was special. As I’ve gotten older that bond has frayed. It has been a sad process to go through and it has made me wonder why it ended up that way. In fact, I’ve probably wasted too much time thinking about it. Here are my conclusions. Feel free to pass them on to the commissioners of the major sports.
- Everything is impersonal and corporate. It was fun to go to games at stadiums that were named with personality. Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, The Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick Park, The King Dome. Now, because everything is a sellout, we have the pleasure of going to see teams at Target Field, Crypto dot com Arena, LoanDepot Park, Climate Pledge Arena, and Acrisure Stadium. I still don’t know what an Acrisure is.
- Players have no loyalty to the fans. Ownership has no loyalty to the fans. The owners, if they still are individual owners and not some private equity group, only have loyalty to the bottom line. The fans however, the fans are loyal. They are loyal to a fault. But not forever.
- Everything is a money pit. “Hey fans, I see that you have bought our fifth alternate jersey, but do you have the sixth seventh and eighth ones? And we just traded you favorite player so you should probably pick another guy and buy his jersey.” “Hey fans. Would you like to be a season ticket holder to your favorite team? The team you’ve been following since childhood. But first, we’re going to need you to buy a personal seat license just so you have the right to buy season tickets. Hey, we don’t make the rules. Oh wait, yes we do.” “Hey fans, how do you feel about paying forty dollars to park your car? Just kidding, we don’t care how you feel.” “Hey fans, enjoy that seventeen dollar hot dog. Oh. You need something to wash it down with? How about a six dollar bottle of water?”
Major league corporate sports is a soulless machine. The true soul of sports still lives, but not there. It is in amateur and minor league sports. It’s a shame that I’d rather go watch minor league infielders commit six errors on a routine ground ball than watch the best guys in the world. But here we are.
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