 Ideated and written by Bryan Artadi (A disgruntled Jets' fan) and edited by Wayne Lin.
What is the purpose of sports fans? Fans fill the seats in the stadiums and pay adequate amounts of money to the team that they enjoy watching so much. So why doesn’t upper management give fans a fair shake? After all they are the customers of a product that they are trying to sell. Isn’t input and resolution important? Week in and week out they watch the games, albeit from a different view from management, but they see what needs there are on and off the field. Surely management’s not out to save money and look after themselves. Surely they must take the fan’s input into their decision making. Wrong!
Take the instance of Pete Kendall. Kendall was an all-pro lineman for the Jets who publicly lobbied for a pay raise before the 2007 season. He took up and coming young players such as Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson under his wing and improved their game immensely. He protected the quarterback as well as any in the game, but loyal Jets fans knew of the impending doom that would happen to him. Though he played under his playing value in New York he stayed with the team in hopes of a contract extension. Kendall was later traded to the Washington Redskins. The thanks he got was a big bonus from another team. Jets’ fans saw this coming and despite numerous pleas and letters to keep an all-pro lineman, management deemed it necessary to let him to go to free cap space. The Jets went from 10-6 and a playoff team in 2006 to cellar dwellers in a less than competitive AFC East in 2007. The future of the Jets is in disarray. Chad Pennington is constantly under pressure from the pass rush of opposing teams. His predecessor, Kellen Clemens, faired no better. As prophetic as this may sound, the fans saw this coming.
If fans can see this, why can’t the people who make the decisions? Further, why do fans get so little say in team operations? Are they not valued enough? After all, fans do pay the bills. Do they not bring in enough money? Fans do, after all, fill the seats and without fans, precious merchandise wouldn’t be sold. The customer is always right, right? Jets fans witnessed the annihilation of the offensive line in 2007 to go with a 4-12 record, and an oft-injured quarterback. Could this have been diverted with the simple listening to fans? This doesn’t just apply to Jets’ fans, however. It’s happening all over the league and in every sport. Yes, even the successful teams’ fans have the same issues with management. The simple fact of the matter is the voices of fans are dying and the management is out to make more money under any circumstances. Consider a stadium where the stands are empty and the merchandise is adequately stocked on the shelves. Consider this: on average, fans as a whole spend millions of dollars each year in ticket sales and merchandise. Looks like the seller lost the buyer.
Fandom is so underrated it’s almost as if the seats are already empty. Sure, most fans don’t have the same qualifications as the people running the team, but in business, aren’t ideas and expressions important in trying to sell a better/winning product? This is called criticism. Some can take that and some can’t as evidenced in the Jets’ organization. Will it take empty seats and lower sales revenue for the fans’ voices to be heard? It might. Let’s hope it doesn’t amount to that. So, management, I ask you now…are you listening?
We, the fans, have a powerful tool that can bring you to our mercy. If we could only unite as one big voice and use that tool... You will never forget that!
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