Late last week U.S. District 9 Judge, Philip Gutierrez, made a final decision against plaintiffs in their 14 billion dollar Sunday Ticket Lawsuit. If you are like me, you’ve never really paid for the Sunday ticket to watch your out of market sports teams. Mine are the San Francisco 49’rs, who I adopted when I became a part of the fabric of San Francisco, when I worked out there as a missionary. And the Seattle Seahawks who I follow as well since working in downtown and the south side of Seattle also on mission. Obviously those are out of market franchises and are not going to be on basic cable here in Alabama unless they are either Monday night game participants or are playing local teams such as the Falcons or Titans. So, had it not been for Buffalo Wild Wings and their excellent ability to cater to the true sports fans, I may have been a plaintiff. Then again I’m moving away from viewing pro football and into more viewership concerning Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. And Sundays in the fall outdoors are certainly a better option.
Yet, what of those fans who live and breath for their teams? Those transplants from say, Pittsburgh, who move across country with one of their only connections to home being their hometown team. What if there is not an establishment they can visit which can offer out of market games in exchange for buying slightly over priced hot wings? And when you see how many t.v.’s some establishments have you don’t complain about the price of the food. Trust me, what places like Buffalo Wild Wings have to pay to carry every game for 5 months, you start to realize their menu’s are fairly priced! I did a hypothetical purchase of an NFL/You tube Sunday Ticket Purchase by viewing their site. It was almost $700 for a package. That is the type of price gouged dynamic where consumers either get really creative by stealing satellite channels on the black market, going out to watch it or just walking away from the product for good. I’d personally recommend all three. The NFL stated they want to keep that price because fans have enough options like Buffalo Wild Wings and can watch reruns after the game at a discount. In theory this is a decent argument. Though, after viewing NFL.com I saw where they did offer a steep discount, yet, who had time to catch up on games during a hectic work week? Like it or not, eating out at restaurants adds up every Sunday. Two years ago I did the math and saw that by eating at BWW throughout an entire season, I accrued about the same cost as I would have, had I purchased Sunday Ticket when it was in the $200-$300 range on Direct T.V. Reader, I’m seeing more and more hints of the NFL cornering the market in small ways like making highlight reels only last for under 1:00. In order to tantalize and even force consumers into buying the full game live when they really can’t afford it. Even if they could there are much more important things going on on Sundays. On some sights you can watch fairly complete highlights that last about 10:00 minutes long. For me that’s enough. For a lot though, they lose that sense of home and community without the old way of doing things.
Who’s to say the NFL won’t attempt to monopolize the issue even more by excluding any site from carrying any highlights by hiding those from fans just to force them into a scenario of either completely ignoring the sport or paying fees that force them into their savings. Ayn Rand brand, childish and selfish, libertarianism! That’s what!
In early August a podcast I follow, The Libertarian Angle, was decrying the government’s oversight against companies who price gouge during natural disasters. Let me say that one time! Libertarians believe it’s perfectly part of the natural order of things for greed to price gouge consumers at their most vulnerable times. Show hosts Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman (ironic surname heh) went on a screed about how such behavior would curb waste and cause consumers to conserve and ration better. And how the ‘free market’ would take care of the issue. Try telling that to the only water supplier on an island, who can have buyers at their mercy if they are an asshole. Or how ’bout the only gas stations on an island when evacuees are attempting to flee a category five hurricane. God ordained governments in some form for a reason. People are naturally self serving and they are greedy. If you cannot grasp that concept then you never grew out of adolescents. Thus what has taken place with libertarian minded Americans.
With the NFL Sunday Package case likely going into appeals court, the story will linger until next season. And it is such a good indicator of where we are going as a culture. Just look at how college football is being ruined by media conglomerates like ESPN who dictate which schools get to come onto center stage and receive the most attention and profit. It reconfigured conferences to the point that west coast schools are now playing schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I’m sure fans of Washington State and Oregon State LOVE the whole unfettered free market perspective. Fans who will have their traditions relegated to the scrap heap of history and a downgraded game day experience in a degraded conference with schools they’ve barely been made aware. All for ESPN’s bottom line. If I were those fans I’d personally sue ESPN to get some money for my beloved ‘state u’ that those schools are losing over time by losing the vitality and reality of their old conference.
In conclusion, even our past times, which we use for fellowship and recreation, are being used against us all in the name of profit. It’s one thing to be gouged over something like vanity or luxury. Yet, it’s another over something that brings communities together or allows the lonely to feel a little less that way. It is my hope consumers become even more angry and litigious. They certainly have a right. Then again we are becoming a society where greed wants to corner it’s own consumers into forcing them to part with their money through monopoly thwarting options that make true capitalism healthy and then buying off the courts to further keep their greed unfettered. Folks, this kind of society is where you start to have violent anarchy as a response. I don’t believe I’m being hyperbolic either. Just review all of the vitriol we have in our society against government. Although misguided, it is an indicator of the righteous anger against those well monied forces attempting to thwart accountability. It looks like the NFL is another one of those institutions who are about to get sacked in the proverbial end zone by fed up consumers. Angry consumers, now that’s a team I’m really rooting for each weekend. Hot wings anyone?
-J
#libertarianism
#NFLSundayPackage
#NFLSundayPackageLawsuit
#pricegouging
#ESPN
#TheLibertarianAngle
