Legalized Whoring??

Now I've read Jon's previous post, and I agree that football Saturday's are fun. I've always enjoyed the whole atmosphere of going to the games...the people, the town, the band, the history. What I can't justify, and each year pisses me off more and more is the whoring of the fans at the hands of the athletic dept. and anyone involved with the football Saturdays. The biggest example from this past weekend: After the game while exiting the stadium, started chatting with a couple that had their 3 month old infant with them. (Ok, I think it's crazy to bring a baby that small to a football game, but that's another blog) The baby was happily asleep in a front carrier being worn by his dad. In order to attend this game, THEY HAD TO BUY A TICKET FOR THE INFANT!!!!!! The infant that would never sit in a seat of his own, he can't even sit up on his own yet! And I'm not talking about a child's ticket, oh no, no such thing. These people paid $46 dollars!!!!!!!!!! for a ticket so that they could wear their child throughout the game. Now if this guy weighed 15 pounds more he wouldn't be charged for an extra seat, but because the 15 pounds could breath, well I guess, the University thought it wouldn't be right to let him enjoy all this football excitement for free.

Now let's talk about what this $46 gets you. We're lucky, this is the cheap seats, I don't know what the "good" seats cost. First off, I use the term "seat" very loosely. How about an aluminum bench with numbers painted every 12 inches. No seat backs, no padding, no comfort, and no room. An airline seat is a luxury in space & comfort compared to this. Pull out a ruler, and sit on it to get an idea of just how "big" 12 inches is. Now think of your average football fan. My 3 year old daughter figured out long ago that the only way to fit the big block into the smaller hole was to pound it or squish it to fit it. And she didn't charge the block $46 to squish it.

I know, at this point a lot of people are saying "But hey it's tradition." "It's always been like this." "That's what makes it special" My only response, if you kick the dog enough he'll think it's normal and come to expect to kicked.

Let's talk about parking next. Oh yeah, you can park real close to the stadium only 1/2-1 mile away for only $20!!!! For $20, I want door-to-door service and my car washed and detailed. Nope, that $20 will let you park on grass or dirt. I'm sure the people that pre-pay for the "special" lots provide enough money to fund several small countries.

I'll end this with a small math problem to ponder.
If a family of four were to attend 1 football game this year, how much of their retirement or kid's education fund would they have to cough up?

4 tickets at $46 $184
parking for the family truckster $20
4 hotdogs (inside the stadium) at $4 $16
4 cokes at $3.50 $14
1 program at $10 $10
no other food, drink or souviniers,
(like that's possible with kids)
Total: $244!

No diferent than TicketBastard....it's just legalized whoring.