Block the NFL Lockout

[psuasskicker]

Unions were useful back in the days prior to labor regulations. These days they're useless and often corrupt or straight greedy. Either way, siding with the players is not exactly the right direction...

- C -

[HoustonRaven]

Fans are already part of the equation.

They demand the product (i.e. professional football) and the team owners set the price it will receive on a consistent basis. The NFL fan has the ultimate say in the prices by simply not going.

Alas, it's a high demand luxury product. If you do not like the prices, price increases, concession prices, etc than don't go to the game. It's that simple.

[trailhiker85]

Fans are already part of the equation.

They demand the product (i.e. professional football) and the team owners set the price it will receive on a consistent basis. The NFL fan has the ultimate say in the prices by simply not going.

Alas, it's a high demand luxury product. If you do not like the prices, price increases, concession prices, etc than don't go to the game. It's that simple.

Yep. As noted before, it's what the market will bear. And this market -- the NFL fanbase -- has repeatedly demonstrated it will bear high ticket prices. There is absolutely no incentive for lower prices regardless of what happens in these negotiations.

[Dont Know]

Fans are already part of the equation.

They demand the product (i.e. professional football) and the team owners set the price it will receive on a consistent basis. The NFL fan has the ultimate say in the prices by simply not going.

Alas, it's a high demand luxury product. If you do not like the prices, price increases, concession prices, etc than don't go to the game. It's that simple.

That's all true, but just out of curiousity, where is the league, historically speaking, in terms of number of blackouts?

And don't you think there is a relationship between blackouts, massively increased availability of games on the internet and prices?

[Mista T]

That's all true, but just out of curiousity, where is the league, historically speaking, in terms of number of blackouts?

Since all home games were blacked out withing a 75 mile radius until 1973, obviously there were many more blackouts then. I lived near two NFL cities in the 1970s and 1980s - Baltimore & New Orleans - and rarely got to see a home game televised in the 80s because of the blackout rule; many more NFL cities did not routinely sell out. I think that having every NFL team sell out all their games is a fairly recent phenomenon, and that a lot more attention s being focused on to the number of blackouts as part of the league's propaganda statements heading to the NFLPA negotiations. I'll betcha that you will rarely hear of blackouts after the new labor agreement is in place.

And don't you think there is a relationship between blackouts, massively increased availability of games on the internet and prices?

Prices yes, availability -- just slightly, if at all.

Most people I know want to attend all the Ravens games that they can reasonably afford. Astronomical ticket prices, coupled with the worst recession in 75 years, have pushed fans out of the stadiums due to affordability -- especially in NFL cities with losing teams.

[Brtnder81]

Fans are already part of the equation.

They demand the product (i.e. professional football) and the team owners set the price it will receive on a consistent basis. The NFL fan has the ultimate say in the prices by simply not going.

Alas, it's a high demand luxury product. If you do not like the prices, price increases, concession prices, etc than don't go to the game. It's that simple.

for us PSL owners we dont have the option to just not buy the tickets they have us by the balls to charge whatever they want for tickets and if we don't pay it we lose our PSL. yes we can sell them but than that person will have to pay what the team wants or lose them. So no matter what the teams get what they want and can charge what they want.

[HoustonRaven]

for us PSL owners we dont have the option to just not buy the tickets they have us by the balls to charge whatever they want for tickets and if we don't pay it we lose our PSL. yes we can sell them but than that person will have to pay what the team wants or lose them. So no matter what the teams get what they want and can charge what they want.

You seem to not understand supply and demand since individuality really has no factor in determining what price is set.

You voluntarily decided to buy the PSL. You voluntarily decided to buy tickets each year. Nobody has you by the balls.

There is still a demand regardless of what you do thus the team can and should charge what they can.

[Rolfejr]

for us PSL owners we dont have the option to just not buy the tickets they have us by the balls to charge whatever they want for tickets and if we don't pay it we lose our PSL. yes we can sell them but than that person will have to pay what the team wpants or lose them. So no matter what the teams get what they want and can charge what they want.

You leased your balls to the team!
Break your lease, goodbye balls!
Sub lease, goodbye, some of your balls!


Bernie Madoff would not have made the deals that PSL owners made. Unless he owned the seats!

Invest with your head, not your heart.

[Mista T]

Invest with your head, not your heart.

"Pity the Fool" who bought PSLs as an investment!

It's entertainment, not an investment. If you are one of the 70,000 who understand the advantage of being there, live, at the games, feeling the electricity, it doesn't mater if your PSL is worth one dollar, $100, $1,000, or $10,000.

Sure, someday my heirs will have the PSLs ripped from my hands in rigor in order to raise money for the estate. Until then, I could care less about the value of the PSLs.

[RavenScallywag]

This thing is getting uglier every minute...now comes reports that the NFLPA is telling players to start saving their game checks because the union's "internal deadline" on negotiations to get a new CBA has passed...

What breaks my heart is that today, on his insistence, I took my 2 and a half year old to McDaniel (live right up the street, so we just walked up) to see where the Ravens training camp is. I let him run around the field for awhile and he kept refusing to leave, because he was waiting for the Ravens to come out. I told him they wouldn't be there for another 8 months, but I promised him we would go up then and see the Ravens...

At the rate things are going, no, we won't be going to see them. So I have to figure out how to explain this crap to my son. My stance on the thing is...now, I'm not a PSL holder, don't have season tickets, and when I go to the game tomorrow, it'll only be the third regular season game I've gone to. I just don't have enough spendable income to afford regularly going to games, but...I don't know enough about the labor stance to really side with the owners or the players...all I know is both sides have drawn their lines in the sand, they know what the other sides want...GET THE DAMN THING DONE. Negotiations are about compromise...so COMPROMISE...BOTH SIDES. If there is no football next year, it will be a damn shame. And again, I'm not laying blame on either side. But BOTH sides need to compromise and come up with a workable solution to keep football in place.

[Dade]

This thing is getting uglier every minute...now comes reports that the NFLPA is telling players to start saving their game checks because the union's "internal deadline" on negotiations to get a new CBA has passed...

What breaks my heart is that today, on his insistence, I took my 2 and a half year old to McDaniel (live right up the street, so we just walked up) to see where the Ravens training camp is. I let him run around the field for awhile and he kept refusing to leave, because he was waiting for the Ravens to come out. I told him they wouldn't be there for another 8 months, but I promised him we would go up then and see the Ravens...

At the rate things are going, no, we won't be going to see them. So I have to figure out how to explain this crap to my son. My stance on the thing is...now, I'm not a PSL holder, don't have season tickets, and when I go to the game tomorrow, it'll only be the third regular season game I've gone to. I just don't have enough spendable income to afford regularly going to games, but...I don't know enough about the labor stance to really side with the owners or the players...all I know is both sides have drawn their lines in the sand, they know what the other sides want...GET THE DAMN THING DONE. Negotiations are about compromise...so COMPROMISE...BOTH SIDES. If there is no football next year, it will be a damn shame. And again, I'm not laying blame on either side. But BOTH sides need to compromise and come up with a workable solution to keep football in place.

Great post. BOTH sides are at fault if there is no football next season.

[Greg]

:word

Unless and until the fan's perspective becomes part of the conversation, and this includes but is not limited to prices and price increases, all this is just postering by two rich parties arguing over who gets to screw the customer the most.

The fan's perspective is part of the conversation. Every time we buy a ticket or turn a game on we are telling them the current price structure and pay for the players is fine. Given what they do to their bodies and the entertainment value I don't see them overpaid. Top movie actors make more under much less dangerous and body harming conditions.

If you don't like the prices or the pay the players get you have to stay away.