It’s a bad time to be building a stadium. Which means these teams need to be inventive in trying to recoup their costs. The Jets have responded to this by planning an auction for later this week in which the 2,000 highest bidders for Coaches Club seats will allow them to “ stand on the field and watch the game, five yards off the Jets bench or step inside to a private 20,000-square-foot bar and lounge designed by Nobu architect David Rockwell,” according to the team.
“We have some battles now with PSLs and an interesting environment to play in that will play out,” Jets owner Woody Johnson told CNN.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, hope to reel in as much as $735 million by selling 55,000 PSLs at $2,000 to $150,000 per seat.
Meanwhile, finding corporate sponsors willing to spend freely on naming rights and other revenue generators promises to become more difficult with the belt-tightening going on.
Teams that aren’t building new facilities are responding in different ways. The Seattle Mariners recently announced they won’t raise ticket prices next season.
“We are anticipating some economic problems in the future,” said Mariners president Chuck Armstrong. “We have great trepidation for next season.”
The NBA’s New Jersey Nets are offering fans the chance to buy tickets now and not be billed until 2009.
Says Nets CEO Brett Yormark, “Given what's going on in the marketplace we thought we would introduce that kind of offer now.”
If there is an upside for fans in the economic crunch, it’s that there are deals to be had. And, according to Carter, they can expect fawning service from teams anxious to maintain the rolls of season ticket holders.
But leagues are anticipating a changing landscape.
Speaking last week in San Antonio, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “We’re all feeling the pinch right now, some more than others, and it’s something we want to remain sensitive to.”
Ultimately, the changing economic landscape could affect the on-field product.
Carter sees a potential domino effect.
“In the past 15 years, leagues and owners have gained quite a bit,” he explains. “That’s no longer a possibility. The sheer cost of stadiums is going up and making it difficult for team owners to finance themselves. And … state and local governments have no appetite for spending taxpayer dollars on stadiums, which means stadium development will be hampered. The reason they are built in the first place is to develop an incremental revenue. When those stadiums are not being built and teams can’t make the money they’re accustomed to, the older buildings become less attractive to sponsors and fans and, with that, we may see a leveling off of player salaries.”
In the NFL, the owners have opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement and will likely ask the NFL Players Association to help share the burden they’re feeling by taking less. And that figures to be a hard and bitter battle.
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ANGRY FANS WILL REACT
On Sept. 21, for the first time in more than 22 months, the New England Patriots lost a home game at Gillette Stadium.
And they didn’t just “lose.” They got embarrassed, 38-13, by a Miami Dolphins team that had won once in its previous 21 games.
As that game slogged toward its conclusion, an unfamiliar sound was heard. Some Patriots fans, accustomed to a higher level of performance, began to boo the home team. It didn’t go unnoticed.
Ellis Hobbs, a 25-year-old cornerback for New England, reacted after the game to the booing by saying, “It amazes me how people react. You would think this organization hasn’t won as much as they have, and been as successful. … It’s a testament to how spoiled (the fans) are that expectations are that high, that we’re not allowed a bad game or something like that. How many times has someone had a bad day at the office?”
The flip side of that question is: How many times has a family of four spent $1,000 on tickets, parking, food, drinks and souvenirs to watch an unnamed "someone" have his bad day at the office?
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