Now These Guys are Real Massholes

The Patriots are a well-run team. Although he sucked in Cleveland, Belichick has done a lot of work to make sure that the Patriots are never out-coached, and along with the front office personnel, has created a dynasty (you have no idea how much it hurts to say that...). A lot has been made about the cheating scandal, but I think that it is a similar story to Barry Bonds, i.e. if Belichick had been better at kissing the asses of the collectes sports media, there would have been a lot less scrutiny. Belichick was also lucky his commissioner decided to take immediate action when the problem arose, unlike, say, that asswipe Bud Selig.

One thing I will comment about the Patriots is the recent story that the team sued to get the names of people who sold tickets on StubHub the past five years. That's 13,000 people. On one hand, I can see what the Patriots are doing. They are the ones who built their team to the point where people can demand five times the face value for a ticket, and scalping is illegal in Massachusetts. The team sees no revenue from the market they generated, but what is the real purpose here?

A lot of fans are saying that this is good news because it means that there will be more tickets available at normal prices for the blue collar fans to enjoy. I don't think anybody should be so naive as to think the Patriots are doing this to help out the working class. I envision the Patriots are looking to take advantage of their teams popularity while they can. When Lambeau Staidum had to be renovated, the Packers paid a lot of the cost by charging a $1400 user fee on the price of season tickets. I see the Patriots doing the same thing.

Now, I am going to put my tinfoil hat on, but bear with me. Suppose the Patriots wanted to institute a new user fee for their season ticket holders, but they don't want to piss everybody off, so maybe they only charge the fee for new season ticket holders. They just found a reason to get 13,000 season tickets back, and at the $1400 rate Packers fans paid, that is $20 million dollars. That may not seem like a lot, and the Patriots are well-run franchise who do a good job of managing the cap, and with record NFL revenues, why would a team risk alienating fans like that?

Personally, I don't think it would happen. That kidn of money is a drop in Bob Kraft's billionaire bucket, and he doesn't seem like the hoarding type - he gives millions to charity. However, it's still a lot easier to spend money when it comes from somewhere other than your pocket, and perhaps it makes it a little easier for Bob to spend his money in some of his other ventures, like perhaps investing in another football team.

OK, that was pretty crazy, even for me, but I still think the Patriots need to do some explaining, and I wonder why this isn't a bigger story in the media, even after you remove all of the personal privacy issues. I guess we'll see. Patriots vs. StubHub in the Supreme Court? I won't bet against Bellichick and Kraft there either.