Pro sports are "moving away from their fans, and there
is no better example than the one presided over by" NBA
Commissioner David Stern during All-Star Weekend in Oakland,
according to Glenn Dickey of the S.F. CHRONICLE. While the
league could have used the event to help boost the
"troubled" Warriors franchise, the team's season-ticket
holders who did receive All-Star seats "got shoved into the
upper reaches of arena so advertisers could get the best
seats." Dickey: "The league's explanation was that it
wanted to do business with the people who do business with
it. The league doesn't do business with the fans? ...
Apparently, fans should consider themselves blessed if they
get into the building." But while the league is playing to
"many empty seats," the "marketing geniuses that surround
Stern still proclaim him as the best commissioner ever."
While the league has marketed itself to "an affluent
audience, the people who can afford the high ticket prices,"
Dickey writes that there "are inherent risks in that
policy." The "special danger for the NBA" is that the
league has "increasingly ... upper-class white audience
watching black players. ... The players almost defiantly
retain the habits of their youth, from corn rows to trash
talking, which are repugnant to much of their audience. ...
This would worry the marketing geniuses in the NBA if they
ever thought about their fans" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/16).
AWESOME BABY? Pacers President Donnie Walsh, on the
"post-Jordan" NBA: "In about five years, this league will be
awesome" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 2/15).
