Paul Pulley’s Take
It has been mentioned at various levels, that if one team decides on it’s own to not allow fans at NFL games for the entire 2020 season, then no team should have fans attend games for this year. The more I think about this, I believe the decision should be left to each individual city and their team. While I will agree that the ‘playing field’ should be somewhat equal, it never truly is, even in the best of times.
While the NFL attempts to instill parity among all 32 teams. The salary cap, introduced in 1994, which unlike other sports is a hard cap, has done a very good job of providing parity. With that said, not every team chooses to use the entire salary cap in any given year. Not every team has an elite quarterback, or an elite pass rusher, or an elite wide receiver or tight end. Looking at NFL stadium capacities, they range from a low of Soldier Field’s 61,500 (excluding the Chargers temporary soccer field) to New Jersey’s 82,500 seat stadium. I guess what I’m trying to say is, things are not, nor can they be equal at any given time.
Admittedly, the previous paragraph has nothing to do with fan attendance, but what exactly does not allowing fans at any game produce? Oh, yes, equality, which we don’t have anyway.
Speaking of equality, there is some discussion of allowing teams to pipe artificial crowd noise into their stadiums during games. How is this to be controlled? Will the NFL set a decibel limit? Even so, a 105 decibel noise in a domed stadium will be louder than in an open air stadium. If the individual teams have control of the sound, it could be deathly quiet when the home team has the ball and completely raucous during the opposite. There can be no equality here either.
With the Covid-19 pandemic being the sole reason to not allow fans to attend games, I can understand any dome teams hesitancy to allow fans. The chances of the potential spreading of a virus would be considerably higher indoors than in an outdoor stadium such as Arrowhead.
What’s to gain by allowing fans to attend games. Revenue, for the entire league, as revenue is shared among all 32 teams and with a 2021 salary cap floor set at $175 million, with any losses to be spread over the four following years, any additional revenue from any means will be beneficial for the entire NFL.
For the Chiefs and their fans, there is the benefit of having the moral support that fans bring to the games. There is the crowd noise, as diminished as it will be this year. There is the pride of the fans, being able to watch their World Champion Chiefs live in Arrowhead.
Now, let’s forget about the NFL, the individual teams and the fans for a moment. Let us consider the economic impact of the peripheral entities associated with game day if absolutely no fans are allowed to attend games. In these times when unemployment is running rampant and with both houses of Congress playing politics instead of looking out for their constituents, any monies available to be made by people located near to stadium cities can only be looked at as a boon.
As many times as I’ve been to the Truman Sports Complex, I’ve never attempted to calculate the number of people working there, but the number has to be substantial. There are parking attendants and gate personnel before one even enters the stadium. Once inside, there are the employees operating the concession stands, the souvenir stands and the vendors walking the stadium themselves. There are security personnel, and of course the custodial workers, that prep the stadium, keep it tidy while in use and then have the thankless job of cleaning the entire stadium, inside and out, post game. Although these are part time jobs and with only 8 home games to look forward to (except for the Chiefs, who will have 10 home games), any additional income for local citizens has to be extremely beneficial.
Looking beyond the stadium and the game itself, not all fans are local. There are season ticket holders from outside the Kansas City area that travel to games, so eliminating fans for the season would potentially harm the entire cities economy. Many fans that travel stay in motels, eat in restaurants and might even take in some other local attractions. Not allowing fans to attend games, in my opinion, is a lose, lose situation.
Michael Travis Rose’s Take
Fair is fair. Never has such a simple statement been so true. It means only that something should be done because it is… well… fair.
Historically, the NFL has abided by this rule. They abided by the ‘fairness rule’ when the instated the salary cap over 25 years ago. The league instituted it to help ensure parity, also known as equivalence, amongst all 32 teams in the NFL, and has worked fairly well during that time period, despite Bill Belichick and his Cheatriots.
In fact, the NFL has long strived for equality among its teams. Equality is why the Red & Gold Super Bowl LIV Champions had the last pick of the first round in the 2020 NFL draft. It’s why teams switch sides each quarter during games. It’s why division rivals play each other home and away, twice a year. It helps level the proverbial playing field and none are afforded an unfair advantage.
Many NFL fans will argue that it’s unfair that one team has an elite quarterback while another winds up with a Ryan Leaf or a Mark Sanchez. This has nothing to do with equality. This has to do with doing your homework and drafting smart in the ‘fair’ NFL draft. For example, don’t pick Matt Trubisky when Patrick Mahomes is still available. Better yet, don’t pick Mike Bell and Steve Fuller <sob, sob> in the first round when Joe Montana is still on the board. Words like ‘fair’ and ‘equal’ are meaningless when sheer stupidity enters the equation.
Some might argue that ticket revenue is necessary for NFL teams to remain solvent from year to year. I call BS, or gobshite, or poppycock, or insert whatever term floats your boat here. In 2018, gate receipts from the NFL games accounted for only 15.47% of total revenue, and it gets lower each passing year. Folks who find themselves suddenly on unemployment insurance receive much less than 84.43% of their previous income when joblessness hits home for them. I’m sure that the billionaire NFL owners will survive without winding up destitute.
Take, for example, take our own Kansas City Chiefs. If there are no games at Arrowhead One this year, it’s estimated that the Chiefs stand to lose $128 million in 2020. The Chiefs are owned by the Hunt family, worth $15.3 billion. The Kansas City Chiefs organization, itself, is worth $2.3 billion at last check. So, don’t worry, Chiefs Kingdom, Clark and the fam are going to be just fine.
Many will also mention the impact that home games have on the local economy. They are right. There will be a negative impact. However, as a native St. Louisan, I assure you that both times our city lost an NFL franchise — the Cardinals in 1988, and the Rams in 2016 — the world kept twirling and the sun still rose each day… the Gateway Arch still gleams above the Mississippi River and the city still stands. Football fans do not a city make.
The NFL has already banned cheerleaders, mascots, sideline reporters, and flag runners from the sidelines this season for all teams. The league must apply that same equity with regards to fans in the stands. Either all NFL teams allow an equal percentage of fans in their stadiums, or they allow none.
After all, fair is fair.
Paul Pulley’s Rebuttal
Home field advantage is a NFL tradition. The best fans, the smartest fans, the loudest fans, i.e. Chiefs Kingdom belongs in the stands. It has been suggested that drafting or signing better players is not an inequality, but a matter of intelligence. Therefore, couldn’t the decision to allow or not allow fans in the stands also be a decision of intellect? What if by some miracle, this SARS-CoV-2 virus has run it’s course by Halloween (not that I expect this to happen), aren’t these teams/cities that have decided to go the entire season without fans going to look pretty stupid?
Allowing fans in the stands, at least for the Chiefs, is on a trial basis. The Kansas City decision makers have determined that 22% of capacity is the starting point for safety and this is just for the first three home games. Basically, not unlike a vaccine, this is an experiment, to see what can be accomplished safely. Companies racing to produce a vaccine for Covid-19 aren’t going to just roll something out of their labs and say “OK, here it is”, nope, they’re going to perform tests and experiments to see what does and does not work.
It has been stated that “fair is fair” and the NFL strives for equality, but just how accurate a statement is this. If the NFL were honestly striving for true equality, wouldn’t every single player be payed the exact same amount of money? Wouldn’t there just be one unified, equal contract for all players, all coaches and every employee associated with the NFL? Let’s be real, the world, although maybe it should, just doesn’t work like that.
It has also been brought to my attention that all NFL teams should allow an equal percentage of fans to their games, but where do we draw the line on this? When the Chiefs went to LA to play the Chargers in the 30,000 seat soccer stadium, it was estimated that almost half the fans were Chiefs fans. So, does this mean that when the Chargers come to Arrowhead, we can only allow 15,000 fans to attend. After all… “fair is fair.”
Last years season opener saw the Jacksonville fans doing a rapid exit of TIAA Bank Field after the end of the 3rd quarter.. Does this mean that the next time the Jags come to KC, Arrowhead will have to force their fans to leave once the 4th quarter starts. After all… “fair is fair.”
Nope Ladies and Gents, when it comes to sports, particularly the NFL, and especially my Chiefs, equality be hanged: I want Tradition.
Michael Travis Rose’s Rebuttal to Paul’s Rebuttal
Touche, Paul!… but, as American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic James Agee so eloquently reminds us, “You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition.”
Paul Pulley and Michael Travis Rose – ArrowheadOne
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Stop by at noon today to read David Bell piece called:
“Chiefs: Tidbits and Hidden Gems“
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