There’s a rumor that I’ve picked up on from a good friend who is fairly high up in the NFL organization that the NFL is considering creating and owning a team of it’s own.
This idea is getting tossed around because a lot of people have been emailing and writing letters directly to Roger Goodell complaining about the high cost of football tickets. Apparently this has been going on for several years and the NFL notes that the price of tickets continues to go up (at least for the good teams). And since the economy has taken such a hit in the last year, the NFL feels the need to take action.
What they are considering is to force franchise teams to cut the prices of their less desirable seats (3rd level around entire field) by 25-50% in exchange for subsidies from the profits of the NFL owned team. In fact, the primary purpose of the new team would be to create revenue simply for these subsidies so that the franchise teams wouldn’t take such a hit on the lower priced seats.
Now of course this has been met with quite a bit of controversy among franchise owners who are worried that no one team can generate enough revenue to subsidize this many seats across the entire NFL. They contend that they will have to raise the prices of all their lower level and box seats to help cover the cost, which could cause season ticket sales to go down, which is the primary way they sell tickets. They will in effect be taking a hit.
They are also concerned about the inherent conflict of interest in the NFL owning a team, especially when it comes to refereeing the game – as the referees are hired and paid directly by the NFL. In order for the non-franchise team to make money, they will need to win games. The NFL says that the referees would act neutrally as they always have and not in the interest of any team. But the owners still contend that if the non-franchise team doesn’t win enough games then fans will lose interest and the team will struggle to make a profit which will leave them to pass on the higher costs to the fans purchasing the better seats.
Still, the NFL believes this is the only way to make ticket prices more affordable. They believe that for many teams this will cause an increase in attendance which will also help cover the costs of the lower priced seats.
Now if this idea really bothers you, as a football fan or not, well it should. In fact you should find this unbelievable. Really. But what should bother you much more than this football fiction is that this is happening right now with the current health care reform proposal in congress. If the democrats get their way, the federal government will essentially “own their own team” (ie. public health care) and they will also set the rules of the game, in effect causing a major conflict of interest. The government will be able to do whatever they want to the private sector and there will be no one to stop it.
And according to the CBO they can’t pay for it without passing the costs on to you. Just imagine having to pay alot more for that football ticket. In fact, you might choose to stay home and watch it on tv, which would cause the ticket prices to go up even more if enough people do that. It’s a vicious cycle that ends in a bunch of unhappy people and potentially the failure of the NFL.
If the government competes in health care, everyone loses.