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document.write( "The Jester's Quart\n" );
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document.write( "January 4, 2008
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document.write( "The Jester’s \n" );
document.write( "Quart: The Fan Outrage Outage
\n" );
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document.write( "When the \n" );
document.write( "brilliant James J. Patterson started SportsFan Magazine roughly a decade ago, \n" );
document.write( "one of the cornerstones of its foundational ideology was outrage: Fans upset \n" );
document.write( "about the ethics, ethos and, most importantly, the economics of professional \n" );
document.write( "sports in modern times. That led to cover stories about everything from fans \n" );
document.write( "suing teams to the art and science of ticket scalping. It also led to a \n" );
document.write( "reoccurring theme throughout the magazine’s print run, which was how \n" );
document.write( "corporations had successfully purchased the fun in all American sports and \n" );
document.write( "stored it under lock-and-key in some kind of underground vault.
\n" );
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document.write( "Advertising and \n" );
document.write( "other assorted corporate whoring has crept into every facet of sports, from the \n" );
document.write( "way they’re presented to the way they’re funded to the way they’re remembered. \n" );
document.write( "Stadiums have sponsors. Highlights have sponsors. Athletes have sponsors, and \n" );
document.write( "those sponsors have sponsors. It’s a small miracle that other professional \n" );
document.write( "sports have somehow avoided the blatant advertising on uniforms and equipment \n" );
document.write( "that NASCAR trail-blazed.
\n" );
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document.write( "A great litmus \n" );
document.write( "test about the over-commercialization of sports is the way the game is presented \n" );
document.write( "on the radio. Take baseball, for example: The differences between coverage today \n" );
document.write( "and, say, 25 years ago are startling. Every single occurrence in games seems \n" );
document.write( "sponsored today, from the first pitch to the last moments of a post-game show. \n" );
document.write( "Back in the day, sponsorship seemed obvious, folksy and quirky: The local food \n" );
document.write( "market sponsoring a home run, or the homer announcer doing a live-read between \n" );
document.write( "innings. Today, it’s engrained and, in many cases, nearly subliminal. \n" );
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\n" );
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document.write( "In the words of \n" );
document.write( "one of most popular pieces in the halls of SFM HQ: Where’s the outrage? Has the \n" );
document.write( "complete assimilation of sports by corporate culture caused us to give up the \n" );
document.write( "fight? Do we all just accept naming rights, constant sponsorship and the \n" );
document.write( "undeniable ability of corporations to usurp the integrity of our games as \n" );
document.write( "unavoidable and irreversible?
\n" );
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document.write( "I remember, in \n" );
document.write( "the not-to-distant past, a fan culture that was outraged over the fact that \n" );
document.write( "college bowl games had become de facto commercials for its sponsors instead of \n" );
document.write( "distinct experiences for college athletes and fans. Or maybe I’m the only idiot \n" );
document.write( "who’d rather tell his grandkids about playing in the Peach Bowl rather than the \n" );
document.write( "Chick-fil-A Bowl.
\n" );
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document.write( "See, it used to \n" );
document.write( "be the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, but then the grilled chicken ate the peach. Now \n" );
document.write( "we have bowl games that have never been anything but corporate advertising \n" );
document.write( "ventures, like the PapaJohns.com Bowl.
\n" );
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document.write( "Now obviously, \n" );
document.write( "the argument for all of this corporate whoring is that it subsidizes college and \n" );
document.write( "professional sports. Papa John’s helps create a bowl game for deserving college \n" );
document.write( "players, and that bowl game raises revenue for the schools and their conferences \n" );
document.write( "and the NCAA. ESPN Regional Television, according to Wikipedia, “owns and \n" );
document.write( "manages the bowl's operations, sponsorships and marketing.”
\n" );
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document.write( "So everybody \n" );
document.write( "wins, right? Well, not always. According to Fox Business News, there have been \n" );
document.write( "no less than 19 deals for over $100 million for stadium and arena naming rights \n" );
document.write( "over the last decade. A recent story by FBR quoted Jim Grinstead — publisher of \n" );
document.write( "Revenues from Sports Venues, “a Nashville-based company that tracks how stadiums \n" );
document.write( "and arenas make money” — as saying that “fans do better when those deals are \n" );
document.write( "struck because the team has the cash to invest in the players without it coming \n" );
document.write( "out of the ticket prices.”
\n" );
document.write( "\n" );
document.write( "“Fans do \n" );
document.write( "better?” Players, and their agents, do better. Teams do better, if they’re not \n" );
document.write( "criminally mismanaged despite their high-priced talent. But fans? Grinstead \n" );
document.write( "mentions ticket prices, which is sort of ironic: For all the corporate whoring \n" );
document.write( "in professional sports, can you remember an announcement that a team had signed \n" );
document.write( "on with a major sponsor at the same time it announced ticket prices would \n" );
document.write( "decrease?
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document.write( "Me neither. But \n" );
document.write( "much like the infiltration of commercialization in sports, I guess the continued \n" );
document.write( "fleecing of fans is just implicit these days.
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document.write( " \n" );
document.write( " | \n" );
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document.write( " ![](\"http://www.sportznutz.com/columns/jesters_quart/glowpucksbeer.jpg\") Get Greg Wyshynski's new book, \n" );
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document.write( " "Glow Pucks & 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History," \n" );
document.write( " available in stores and online now!\n" );
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\n" );
document.write( " "The only folks \n" );
document.write( " who won't like this book are employers, whose employees will spend the day \n" );
document.write( " around the water cooler arguing over which idea was worse: the overtime \n" );
document.write( " shootout or Disco Demolition Night. Just as I had successfully eliminated \n" );
document.write( " some of these horrendous sports ideas from my memory bank, here comes Greg \n" );
document.write( " Wyshynski putting 'em on a tee, inviting readers to take a swing. Great \n" );
document.write( " stuff."\n" );
document.write( " -- Ernie Johnson, TNT's "Inside the NBA" | \n" );
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document.write( "This Column To Your Site for free
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Visit SportzNutz.com\n" );
document.write( "for more great columns and opinion\n" );
document.write( "\n" );
document.write( "Published on the web and \n" );
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document.write( "www.SportsFanMagazine.com \n" );
document.write( "since 1997, "The Jester's Quart" is a weekly satirical look at sports, pop \n" );
document.write( "culture and why NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is a jackass. Columnist Greg \n" );
document.write( "Wyshynski is the Senior Editor for SportsFan Magazine in Washington DC, and the \n" );
document.write( "Senior Sports Editor for The Connection Newspapers of Northern Virginia. His \n" );
document.write( "book \n" );
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document.write( ""Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History" \n" );
document.write( "can be ordered now. Email Wyshynski at \n" );
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document.write( "jestersquart@hotmail.com.
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document.write( "| \n" );
document.write( "Archives | \n" );
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document.write( "The Complete \n" );
document.write( "List: 2003 - 2007 - Archives of all 'JQs' | \n" );
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