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It Costs to Be a Sports Fan
The cost of being a sports fan is expensive. Ticket prices, concession stands and parking are all heading north fast. And it’s bad enough when professional sports leagues are trying to gouge us – now it’s “non-profit” and taxpayer-supported colleges and universities that are getting into the act.
The latest attempt is to increase cable rates for sports fans and consumers by forming new sports networks that will charge us to see games that used to be free.
The rising costs of sports programming account for the largest increases in our monthly bills. When the Federal Communications Commission looked at the impact of sports programming on cable prices in 2005, they found that sports programming accounts for 37 percent of the increase in cable programming costs. A Morgan Stanley report found that nearly 50 percent of the license fees we pay for an 80-channel cable package goes to a small handful of sports channels. And leading industry analyst Kagan Research predicted an 18 percent increase in fees paid to sports networks in 2006.
There seem to be no limits. It's time to be fair and put fans first.
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