Giants' ticket holders feel little love and tremendous burden of new stadium

On Friday, I found out that my life long New York Giants tickets aren't really perpetual at all, unless I cough over an additional $10,000. That is, with the advent of a new stadium in 2010, I now have the “exclusive” opportunity to purchase a new lifetime license for my two seats (that means I either buy the license or my seats are gone forever.) Oh boy, do I feel special.

Wait. It gets even better. If I decide to purchase this license, I then have the added benefit of paying another $120 per seat, per game for the season. That is my “exclusive” rental fee. And, of course, this rental fee is considerably higher (about 30 percent) than the basic cost that I now pay to purchase the darn tickets every year.

Thirteen other NFL teams have built new stadiums over the last few years. The reality in each case is that none of these complexes were built for the fans or players because the fields were run down or seats were falling apart. No, it's all quite simple. New stadiums were/are being built to create many more corporate boxes and higher end seats so that owners can rake in millions of $$$ more each year.

On the one hand, it's hard to blame owners for wanting to make money. After all, as businessmen, they operate in the same capitalistic society as everyone else. The problem though (and it is HUGE,) is that this all falls at the expense of life time ticket holders, many of whom are working class people incapable of affording these out of the park (or stadium) costs. And specific to my New York Giants, the costs are some of the highest in the league. (Licenses range from $20,000 a seat all the way down to $1,000 if you want to sit in the nose bleed section a mile high in the sky.)

John Mara, the much respected and liked son of beloved, former owner (and father) Wellington Mara, is taking a ton of heat for Friday's news. Although Mara is trying to manage the monster size crisis he has created, it just isn't working. His comments range from telling fans that they were forced to charge this cost because of the enormous price tag to build the stadium (some $300 million will be made through these licenses, with stadium expenditures upwards in the $1.4 billion range,) while simultaneously reinforcing that they are giving ticket holders many options to downgrade their seats and simply license cheaper ones (uh, that means with much worse locations.)

The bottom line is that these statements ring hollow to ticket holders (many of whom are third and fourth generation) who are being completely sacrificed in this deal. (How many fans do you know who would enjoy moving from 40 yard line seats to those high up in the third bleachers?) The Mara and Tisch families always claimed that no one is more important than those die hard Giants fans who attend each and every game. But, when push comes to shove, we all know now how untrue this is. If the owners actually loved their fans, then they would have come up with a more creative idea to pass along some of the costs to finance the new stadium. Here's one creative idea that a friend of mine came up with: (And I happen to think it's pretty good.) 

We need to create a Players Field Tax over a three year period that helps to subsidize the cost and will decrease the fans licensing fees. There are 53 players on a team, many are making well over $1 million per year (and the minimum salaries range from $280,000-$820,000) and most have endorsements which in most cases at least double their annual compensation.  The game is really for the fans, not players, right? After all, if the ticket holders stopped showing up, and fans stopped caring, then the media bucks would stop rolling in and professional football players would be in as much demand (and paid as much) as those professionals in American soccer (which is close to zilch.) So, the players owe their livelihood and their riches to fan support. With that in mind, let them give back. Over this three year time period we would tax each player $1 million or 10 percent of their annual salary/bonus (which ever is closest to the $1 million number.)

Taking into account annual team turnover, this could create a surplus in the $50 million range (or more) to help pay for the new stadium. And, it would certainly reduce some of the pain that Friday’s open wound has caused. It would also show that the owners actually give a damn…

Comments

[med supply guy]

ed-

i have two responses to this one. as a jets fan about to be hit with the same PSL's i too am very against this. but for jets & giants fans it even more of a scam. in EVERY other stadium, the PSL means you own the seat. in this stadium, two people cant own the same seat, cant they? the jets and giants are selling the same thing 2x. this is a scam if i have seen one.

but, i think in the interest of full disclosure, you should tell the readers that the seats you got weren't handed down to you and you havent had these for years. im sure many fans would die to get the seats you got, they way you got them and would gladly pay the 10k fee...

Club tickets get you access to premium amenities such as: bigger seats, better variety of food (i. e. Hooters, ESPN Zone Bar), Wifi in the stadium, waitstaff at your seats and admission to 5th Quarter Post Game celebration!