Working people in the New York and New Jersey area are
being squeezed everyday by sharp increases in prices.
Many now face a monthly struggle to pay what once
seemed like routine bills for heat and electricity.
Thousands of others may also face the very real
prospect of having their houses foreclosed-on by banks
attempting to collect exorbitant mortgage payments.
Now, one of the outlets for social relaxation has also
been placed in jeopardy by the recent announcements
that sports team owners are demanding higher payments
in the form of Personal Seat Licenses and rising
ticket costs.

Personal Seat Licenses are an invention of the owners.
Each fan is forced to pay a fee just for the right to
be able to buy tickets to a game. The practice is
becoming widespread in professional football due to
the smaller number of games (8 home games a year) and
high demand (there is a multi-year waiting list for
Giants tickets).

Fans of the Giants football team must now pay between
$5,000 and $20,000 for the right to pay even more to
buy their season tickets. More recently, the Jets
football team also imposed a PSL which would charge an
average payment of $25,000. Though the Jets have
currently exempted fans in the upper deck, the
introduction of any fee opens the road for further
charges. Rumors abound that the New York Yankees
baseball team might also introduce the fee system on
their high-demand tickets.

Simultaneously, both the New York Mets and the Yankees
are moving to new stadiums for the 2009 season. These
stadiums have already received generous tax deferments
and transportation re-routing from public authorities
and, in the case of the Yankees, have eliminated green
spaces used by the outlying community. The new
stadiums are designed to capture revenue by increasing
the number of corporate box suites and improving the "intimacy of the experience" for high-price ticket
holders. As a result, the total number of seats in
the stadium has been reduced thereby eliminating
low-cost options for working class sports fans.
Baseball fans are now confronted with fewer chances to

buy tickets at inflated prices as team owners target
fewer but richer fans.

Not all professional sports teams have capitulated to
the drive for profits. In Green Bay, the Packers
football team has maintained some of the features of
early 20th century “small-town sports clubs.” The
team is run as a non-profit and has rules in place to
prevent any individual from accumulating enough shares
to become a majority owner. Local ownership through
non-profit status is a key reason why Green Bay, a
city with only 100,000 residents, is able to maintain
a major sports franchise. A corporate owner would
certainly seek out the profitability of a larger
market. The Packers have also maintained average
ticket prices of $63 below the league average of $67
(the Jets and Giants charge $79 & & $80 per ticket on
average). However, the team has had less success
regarding questions of public access to games. The
Packers have been sold-out for 45 consecutive years,
have a waiting-list for tickets of more than 70,000
and are considered the toughest ticket in sports.

New York sports fans are dedicated to their teams.
Team owners are using this loyalty to extract greater
profits thereby changing spectator sports from
recreation to another money-making enterprise. Sports
fans need to end sports-as-business. We will not
allow our stadiums to become sanitized playgrounds for
the rich and tourists.

The Socialist Party USA (NYC Local) calls for the
immediate revocation of all PSL charges. We also call
for an immediate 25% reduction in all ticket prices
and the reserving of a certain section of quality
tickets for day-of-the-game sale.

The SP-USA (NYC) encourages sports fans to consider
the possibility of social-ownership of sports teams.
Community ownership of sports teams would allow for
price controls on tickets by fans and could greatly
increase public participation in every aspect of the
operation of local teams. Specific programs could be
developed to increase access to games by tying seat
distribution to community service or creating "family-days" thereby allowing parents to introduce
children to professional sports without risking
bankruptcy.

Economic standing should not determine a New Yorkers
ability to enjoy spectator sports. If money is the
final determinant, we will continue to move towards a
system of economic apartheid where the rich monopolize
leisure and workers are left out. The Socialist Party
USA (NYC) says no to PSL's! No to stadiums for the
rich! Yes to sports for all!

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