Baseball fans are filling stadiums this spring to watch early season games, but the most important baseball action -- deliberations on whether there will be a players' strike and whether the owners will eliminate two teams -- is taking place out of public sight. Although both issues will have significant impact on the fans who pay the salaries and build those stadiums, those fans will have absolutely no input. That's largely because there is no organized group in place to represent their interests.
Pro sports is the only monopoly business without a national consumer watchdog. The latest attempt, USFANS, closed its doors last year. That's unfortunate, because sports fans need someone to look after their interests.
The public's dollars fuel pro sports' meteoric growth, but its concerns are often ignored. Frustration with high ticket prices, stadium blackmail, labor unrest and franchise flight has been exacerbated by the feeling of powerlessness over whom to turn to for help. The industry provides Americans with a wonderful product, but still requires oversight. Local elected officials too often are little more than booster-club presidents, and the business has thrown a virtual regulatory shutout in Washington.
Conditions would appear ripe for a fans group. But while everyone complains about pro sports, no one has been able to do anything about it. Previous efforts to organize fans have failed in large part because sports do not fit the typical consumer template.
Ralph Nader tried twice, but didn't get beyond first base. ''Sports isn't anything like the car, food or drug industries,'' he observed. ''People can be angry and pay through the nose, but they'll still root for their teams.''
Reluctant activists
Fans are loath to use their best leverage. They don't want to stop attending or watching games just to make a point. And fans tend to have parochial and sometimes opposing concerns, such as franchise contraction, that make a national movement difficult to organize.
But it can be done. What's needed is a big tent everyone can get under: a sports consumer organization to oversee the leagues, owners, players, media and political leaders. Such an advocate could bring accountability to the sports world by taking the public's temperature on policy issues, then delivering it to decision-makers. It would also give the industry a credible conduit to help improve relations with its fans.
As things stand now, fans get a double whammy. They help pay for new arenas, then are priced out of them. Denver-area taxpayers, for example, picked up three-fourths of the construction tab for the new Invesco Field. Then the Broncos raised the average ticket cost 67% to $77.41. During the past decade, prices in major pro sports have increased at three times the rate of inflation. Fans who can't afford to attend games in person must deal with another monopoly, cable TV.
Going to bat for the public
Communities regularly hear teams plead poverty when it comes to raising ticket prices or asking for stadium financing, but they rarely have the expertise to evaluate those claims. A consumer group could be an information clearinghouse, collecting data and analyzing sports-policy issues on the public's behalf. Then it could be the advocate that the public usually does not have in dealing with team owners and elected officials.
Perhaps it could answer those perennial unresolved questions, such as: Why aren't teams asked to open their financial books as a prerequisite for major government funding? Why is the San Francisco Giants' privately financed PacBell Park the exception, not the rule?
To paraphrase Boston Red Sox fan Tip O'Neill, sports are local, and any national group will need chapters to be effective. It also must have a strong Washington presence. The leagues field powerful teams there, complemented by the connections of individual team owners. One former owner, George W. Bush, now has the best seats in town. That's largely why sports-fan-oriented legislation in Congress -- allowing cities to own teams, ending tax subsidies for stadium bonds -- has struck out.
A sports consumer group would allow fans to watch the action on the field without worrying so much about the action off it. That's a home run no matter which team you root for.
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