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Hey, college football. Let's "pay" the fans
Published: 7/9/2012 5:11 PM
Last Modified: 7/9/2012 5:11 PM

A college football playoff got approved. In the aftermath, Texas coach Mack Brown voiced an opinion that perhaps it’s time to pony up some money to players.

Brown said a playoff will be a “very lucrative event” so why not reward the people who make it all possible?

First thought: That’s a great thing to say if you want to convince recruits that you have got their backs.

Second thought: Brown is right. The people who make it all possible should be rewarded -- but not the people he is talking about.

Who are the people who make it all possible? It’s the fans who subsidize the college football industry by putting their butts in stadium seats and putting their eyeballs on television sets, thus making giant TV contracts possible.

Sure, you could use the financial windfall from a college football playoff to legally pay players. And that’s a great idea if you want the trickle-down effect to enrich the tattoo parlor industry.

How about this instead: Rather than invent a new expense (player salaries), how about spending the playoff money on athletic department operating expenses so there will be less of a financial burden on fans?

A ticket to a game should never cost more than another form of entertainment, like a movie ticket or a round of golf. Let’s cap game tickets at $40, max. The vast majority of tickets should cost $20 or less. You shouldn’t have to pawn your children in order to attend a game.

A hot dog at a game should cost $1. I attended a Major League Baseball game while on vacation and the concession folks wanted $8 for a chili dog and $4 for a bottle of water. To find more blatant gouging, you would have to perhaps watch a “Three Stooges” episode. Cheap concessions can be done. Ask the folks who run the Masters. When I went to Augusta five years ago, sandwiches were a buck.

Let’s prohibit the practice of charging outrageous fees just to park a vehicle during the game. You’re paying to rent a piece of concrete with yellow lines on each side, but the pricetag screams Waldorf Astoria. How’s this for a parking plan: Free. First come, first served.

And, even though networks pay for the right to broadcast games, fans should be able to veto poor kickoff times. Really, do OU and OSU fans from Tulsa want to drive back home from games at 1 a.m. or later?

Hey, fans. It’s your game and it always will be. You’ll be there for your team longer than any coach or player. It’s OK to demand, if not payment, then at least some consideration as college football enters a new and apparently more lucrative age.


Reader Comments 3 Total
Bart78 (7 months ago)
You are so on point with the tattoo parlor comment that I think you might come to regret making it. The players who have made themselves into walking billboards have no room to gripe about the scholarship not covering the full cost of attendance.

As to the rest of your blog post, if the price is too high then let simple economics take care of it.

cannon_fodder (7 months ago)
A select few schools (OU, TX, ND, USC, BAMA, LSU, etx.) get rich from college football. Most, if they make any money, make just enough to subsidize nonrevenue sports. If Texas wants to pay athletes- declare them the pros they really are and stop pretending they go to class.
Danomite Dandy Dan (7 months ago)
Until a majority of fans say "enough is enough" and stay at home on game day, it'll just get worse.

History is starting to show what happens when sports activities reach the limits of fan's pocketbook.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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