RE: ADSactly Sports - The sports money machine: Are fans getting left out in the cold?
Former St Louis Rams fan here. I acknowledge the bottom line is $$$ for every pro franchise but the disgusting greed of the NFL has turned me off completely and I can't be alone in this sentiment. The last year of NFL in St Louis polarized this city in ways I couldn't imagine.
If you aren't familiar with the St Louis metro area the city of St Louis and St Louis County are two separate, independent entities. The hangup in the city was public funding of a new stadium. I live in the city and like most city residents opposed financing a stadium that the vast majority of the city residents could never afford to enjoy themselves despite paying millions to help build.
The middle class and wealthier communities are in St Louis County. Because of the rediculous separation of city and county the majority of fans that could afford tickets to Rams games wouldn't share that tax burden.
This was a nasty fight. Add the emotion of losing your team that you love to the mix created a perfect storm.
Personally the most insulting part of the public funding debate is the fact that the man who owns the Rams, billionare Stan Kroenke, is one of the wealthiest people in America.
And the saga doesn't end here. As if we learned nothing from the Rams stadium fight the CEOs of US Soccer, World Wide Technology, a Bain Capital exec, and a investment fund tycoon all straight faced asked the city to fund an MLS stadium not a year after the NFL skipped town.
The greed killed it for me. Fuck the NFL.
St Louis residents still owe 10s of millions of dollars for an empty building our NFL team used to play in.
Your comment speaks volumes to what is going on in this industry every single day. I must admit that I am a huge NFL fan but I am frustrated with the way things are right now. You had to experience some of the worst of this issue first hand. Professional sports are a business for profit and that is just the harsh reality now. Fans and cities are held hostage and reap very little return for their invested dollar. It was a damn shame what happened in St.Louis. I see it happening all the time. Right now there is a fight in Calgary about who is going to pay for the "must have" new arena. Here in Ottawa the owner of the Sens is toying with the city about the new arena project and who suffers in the end? FANS. Thanks for the great comment.
We just lost a court battle with the Blues over public funding for arena upgrades. The frustrating part for me is the division. Many passionate fans think opposing a tax to fund these projects makes one anti-your team. Which is hardly the case. I loved the Rams. Second time in my life we actually went through this. I was young but generations before me had to go through losing the Cardinals to Arizona.
Relevant to our conversation, my first NFL game ever was in Denver. Got to see Elway play.