Both Episode 2: The Fans

I was eight years old when, holding my father’s hand, we boarded a bus to go to the Buffalo Bills 1st ever football game. 

1960 at home against Denver Broncos, home being “the Rockpile,” War Memorial Stadium built in 1937 of mostly concrete, wooden green slat seats, some grass, more dirt. 

It was my first bus ride, it was my first sporting event, it was my first sporting event with my dad. 

I don’t remember much other than being with my dad, a fight between 2 drunks after the game where the bus dropped us off, and the new pennant he bought me and taped up on the wall in my bedroom while calling me a, “big boy now.” 

Twenty years later I take HIM, my father to a Bills game, no bus, I drive, I bought him a hat…and his ticket.

The 2nd Cornerstone:  The Fans

Some numbers, it’s estimated that $20 BILLION dollars are spent annually by fans on buying merchandise of their favorite team/sport. 

In 2021, mid-COVID 16 MILLION people attended a sporting event.  The average a fan spends per year on sport fan stuff, at last count, was $725 for middle class folks. 

The “Wealthy” group spent $1,143 bucks a year. 

Last year one MLB team realized $50-MILLION dollars in home game ticket sales alone, and they were “mid-pack” in butts in the seats revenue as compared to other teams.

I’ve been around professional sports at the highest level now long enough to see my fair share of owners coming and going. 

I’ve sat with them in their luxury boxes, stood in a hall to interview them at their annual meetings at some fancy country club, been in their ever growing stadiums where most seats had several hundred dollars PSL (professional seat licenses) the fan had to buy BEFORE they could buy tickets. 

When they talk, pay attention to the words. 

“My players.” 

“My game.” 

“My…” 

“My…” 

“My…” 

Bullshit.  Complete. And Utter. 

At best they lease the game, rent it from the fans.  Most in the biz won’t tell you that, fearful of losing out on access, sideline passes, fancy food and A/C up above the top rows behind floor to ceiling windows protected from the cheap seats and those in them. 

Wide screen tv sets to watch the game on, narrows their view.

Once you can pee in a private bathroom without the smell of the crowds, or puke, protected from the masses and the parking lot mayhem you’d be surprised at how many positive head nods you can make in a 1:30 Live Shot with an owner in a suit.

Free beer, bottles or tap…

Just, saying. 

What if this, no fans in the seats, no fans watching on TV, no fans buying jerseys, no fans buying the lures, the boats, the rods & reels, the hot dogs and beer. 

What do you own now. 

Simply put, you don’t own the game. 

And you don’t own us. 

You could make the point, that the real owners of the game… 

…are the fans.

…He listened more than he talked, more than once he would turn, point up into the stands and say, “Their game too, you know.” 

“I do, I think it’s mostly their game, actually.” 

We both smiled, turned back towards the field as behind us a chorus of “Dan…Dan…Dan…” filled the section nearest us.

The best owners understand that fans are as much partners as they are customers, they listen to those in the seats and those in the community. It all begins and ends with the fans.

It’s called a fan BASE for a reason.

BOTH

As a fan, every NFL game I go to a little bit of me at the game is an 8 year old child holding his father’s hand. 

As a fan, every game comes with memories of every other game that came before it. 

It is this consistency, this familiarity, the history within that draws us to the seats, to the docks, the understanding of where we are and what we are watching that wraps us in comfort. 

The game we love is common ground, concrete in a world of quicksand. 

To alienate us from the safety of our seats, from the safety of the well known is to jeopardize the game itself. 

For we the fans, it is the game that matters. 

For we the fans, it is the memories of the game that matters. 

For we the fans it is the memories of those who brought us to the game, and the memories of those who we bring to the game that matters. 

Because for fans… 

…the game… 

…is Kin. 

db

Next Weekend BOTH: The Players