Really, I can't put it any better than that.
This stems from a conference call that Goodell held with Tampa Bay Buccaneers season ticket holders. This particular quote was picked up by a couple of different sources. Basically, the Commissioner is telling us that the lockout. . .well, it's for our own good.
More than one Bucs season-ticket holder told Goodell the pace of the collective bargaining talks have left them feeling anything but special and that fans are being taken for granted.
Goodell tried to assure that was not the case. The rising cost of attending games, he said, is one reason the league is working hard to hammer out a favorable CBA.
"We can't continue to shift the cost, whether it's the rising player cost or the rising cost of operating an NFL franchise, on to our fans,'' he said. "That's why we're trying to get a better economic model.
"And I think everyone understands that. You are not being left out of the equation. The fans are a big part of that equation and a big part of the success of NFL football.''
Yeah, see, that doesn't make a damn bit of sense. I mean, in terms of money spent on player salaries in 2010, I'm pretty sure that the Buccaneers were at or near the bottom of the league. Does anybody recall seeing anything about the Buccaneers lowering their ticket prices because they were spending so much less on players?
Of course not, because the job of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. . .or any other NFL franchise, or any other business in general. . .is to make as much money as they can. They're not non-profit organizations.
And, in any case, the price of tickets, whether they're season tickets or single-game tickets, is going to be driven by two small words that anybody that's even walked past an Economics classroom has heard before. Those little words are "supply" and "demand." As long as the National Football League remains America's most popular sport. . .something else that everybody involved in this lockout seems hell bent on screwing up. . .people will want the tickets, and teams will set the prices of those tickets at whatever they know people will pay for them. This decision comes independent of player costs or any other variable that could potentially come into play.
So, regardless of what the Commissioner might be trying to sell us on, the lockout doesn't have one damn thing to do with the price of tickets or the price of attending games, because he doesn't have any control over that. When the dust settles and all of this negotiating is done, we're still going to be paying the same price for tickets, and for stadium sodas, and for stadium hot dogs, and for jerseys, and for whatever else, because the league doesn't have anything to do with any of those things. And, unless you're fooling yourself into thinking otherwise, the prices for all of those things are only going to trend in one direction. . .I'll give you a hint: that direction isn't "down."
I'm trying not to take sides in the players vs. league debate here. . .but, by that same token, I really don't need to have my intelligence insulted, which is what the commissioner is doing here.