Football fans being forgotten in labour dispute between NFL and NFLPA
While billionaires and millionaires fight over who gets what from the $9 billion National Football League (NFL) pie, the fans have been given the back seat.
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) has been trying to get fans on board but their efforts can only be called half hearted at best. Instead of doing something for the fans, the priority has always been the demonisation of the opponent;
but there are no good guys or bad guys in this dispute.
Do what you will but trying to get sympathy from the average Joe for the financial hardships faced by millionaires is going to backfire. That is exactly what the NFLPA tried to do early in the season. It tried to make the NFL look like a villain which was
taking away health insurance from helpless players. Yeah right.
The NFL for its part isn’t lovable either. Every year the NFL’s revenues have increased and now the organisation is worth nearly $9 billion a year. While the global economy crumbled all around, the NFL was still as profitable as ever. The NFL also kept breaking
viewership records and fans kept filling up stadiums game after game.
Fans love football and will pay outrageous sums of money to be a part of the football experience. It’s their love of the sport that puts more and more money into the pockets of billionaire owners each year. When fans aren’t buying tickets, NFL merchandize
or watching the game on TV, they’re are making owners richer by just being tax payers.
From the mid 1990’s to the mid 2000’s, tax payers have contributed an average of nearly $500 million every single year to building Stadiums which make the NFL more profitable. Then suddenly NFL owners tell the fans that they are putting the 2011 season on
the line because they aren’t happy with the hundreds of millions each team makes a year.
The fans have nothing against the NFL trying to make as much money as they possibly can. That is the American way. It’s only just as American as the adage, the customer is always right. The fans are ultimately paying for all of it; player salaries, stadium
maintenance and the owners’ billions. They have been gladly paying to keep their favourite teams running.
At this point, a lot of fans feel their voices are being ignored. A lockout will cost more than just the lost revenue from one season of football. If the battle of greed between players and owner costs the fans the 2011 season, they will not be too forgiving
towards the NFL.
Taking away an NFL season is like taking away Christmas. Football is woven into the very fabric of American Society. However, baseball too held that position once, but the sport fell from glory and the fans abandoned it in favour of the NFL.
The MLB’s fate was sealed when a labour dispute caused work stoppage. Baseball returned once the players and owners slugged it out but the fans never did. That’s not to say that baseball isn’t widely popular now or that the NFL won’t be after a work stoppage.
If the NFL returns in 2012, millions of fans will be back to follow and cheer their teams on. The NFL will still be hugely profitable but it won’t be the same.
The fans will be there but football won’t be like Christmas to them anymore. No one knows how many lost billions that could be worth.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com.
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