Truth to Power

Talk about your silver linings.  The White Sox game against the Rangers went extra innings and didn’t end until around 10:45 PM, so the Tribune couldn’t be bothered to run a hardcopy story on the Sox 5-4 win in ten.  But the filler piece was interesting, nonetheless, a column by Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

Engel isn’t excited about the Ranger’s new stadium, which he dubbed “Tax Hike Friendly Park,” and he doesn’t buy the excuse given for the Rangers’ so-so attendance, that being the lack of air conditioning.  It’s not the heat, Engel argues, because Dallas-Ft. Worth has enjoyed a cool spring, and fans haven’t exactly been flocking to the old ballpark.  What gives?

 

Engel thinks, “We have reached a point when fans are saying ‘No mas’ to paying for the insulting price to attend a big-league game.  The cost to attend a big-league game is too much, and teams are now seeing that.  No new stadium can fix that, and neither will air conditioning.”  Amen to that.  Ditto “Attending a baseball game should feel like fun rather than extortion.”

 

Sportswriters tend to pick a side in baseball, labor or management.  They rarely look at the game from the perspective of fans on a family budget; it just doesn’t interest them.  Neither do the economics and politics behind stadium building.  If they can’t write about X’s and O’s and K’s, sportswriters generally can’t be bothered.  Hats off to Engel for showing otherwise.

 

It’d be nice to know how much money baseball franchises generate, but, alas, the concept of transparency has yet to be applied to the national pastime.  I’m guessing every team does quite well, with publicly-built stadiums and sweetheart leases adding to the bottom line.  Imagine if they didn’t, and owners had to worry about meeting the mortgage the way their fans do.  Oh, well.

 

Mac Engel thinks a price-induced malaise has come to baseball.  Looking at markets like Texas, Miami and Tampa, he could be right.  If so, the owners may yet regret the day they signed up for free stuff courtesy of taxpayers while at the same time passing costs on to fans.  Eight bucks for lemonade?  What goes around comes around, guys.