Went to a Dodger game last night, me, the wife, my son and his girlfriend. This is the first baseball game in about two years I have attended. I wondered why it had been so long since I had been to see a game. At first I thought maybe it was because my work schedule had been busy for the last few years, then I walked through the gates of the stadium that I had been going to for my whole life and ran into the reason sports that I have enjoyed all my life have become a mere blip.
Every thing with a flat surface on it is sponsored. From the scoreboard (Unocal, to the cup holders between the seats (Pizza Hut). Even the space above the men's room trough has advertisements. The simple scoreboards between the decks that showed score, balls, strikes....gone. Now the whole tier between the levels is a screen that gives information and graphics that flash by while the batter walks to the plate, then goes to the advertiser that is sponsoring that inning.
Going to a game now is no longer about the game itself, it must be an EVENT The game hasn't changed all that much, but the amount of advertisement and hype has made it hard to pay attention to what you went to see.
I paid an admission fee to sit in a seat and was treated to ads on the giant TV screen in the park, I got a hot dog, fries and a beer and it cost me $21.00. My wife went to get food and missed 2 1/2 innings. I bought a beer ($8.00) and gave the "cashier" a ten and three ones, she looked at me and said "You gave me thirteen dollars." I had to explain $8 for the beer = a five and 3 ones, so you give me a five and we're even.
I did enjoy the game being we crushed the Diamondbacks, and the fireworks show (sponsored by Ameritrade) was good, but the constant barrage of advertisement on top of my paying for the privilege to have this crap foisted on me, just rubbed me wrong.
Four people to go to a baseball game.....$170.00.
1 comment:
The boys of summer have priced me out of their game..and a game it is..a game to see how much of my money they can get and they ain't getting none of it. A few years back when the players and management decided their own interests were more important than baseball and the fans and canceled a world series I gave up the game and refuse to even watch it on TV. I don't know who does what anymore and don't care.
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