Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

As a season ticket holder and life long fan of the Cleveland Indians I once again feel like I have been kicked in the scrotum.

Should I hate the Yankees and their overpaid players or should I blame the fact that the best team money can buy won the World Series on Major League Baseball?

Is it George Steinbrenner’s fault that the MLB allows the Yanks to have such an enormous payroll?

Steinbrenner bought the entire team for $10 million back in 1973. Alex Rodriguez cost him more than 3 times that in 2009! A-Rod’s ridiculous salary in 2009……$33 million!

Do you think Kate Hudson loves him for his pearly whites?

Maybe she does?

I don’t love him for his smile.…well maybe I would for his money? LMAO

But, I do respect him and Mr. Steinbrenner for striving to win.

Doesn’t matter who you root for, you have to take your hats off to the persistence of the whole organization on bringing number 27 home.

The Yankees had not even knocked on the door since 2003 despite acquiring almost every big named free agent in the last several years.

But Steinbrenner never gave up and when Mark Teixeira squeezed the final out in his glove on Wednesday night, his teammates rushed the field like a bunch of Little Leaguers who just won the City Championship!

It was the perfect ending to the perfect beginning of a new era in a brand new Yankee Stadium.

“This is what the Steinbrenner family has strived for, year after year — to deliver to the city of New York,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “To be able to deliver this to the Boss, the stadium that he created and the atmosphere around here, it’s very gratifying to all of us.”

Difficult to swallow for a diehard Tribe fan, but much easier to take for a fan of  Major League Baseball.

I guess it’s time to reach down and re-adjust myself.

And whoever said money can’t buy everything is full of the brown stuff that lines the ring around the little white bowl!

It brought the organization another World Championship and four Yankee players: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada a ring for the thumb!

photo by Tim Black www.BlackandWhiteServices.org

Marty Rice owns two small businesses in Mansfield, Ohio and owning a successful company in 2009 is much more difficult than it was even a few short years ago. His corrugated box company, Mr. Box Plus, has seen a dip in sales of about 11% to start the year after posting solid numbers in 2008. Most companies are experiencing similar results as America is faced with one of the toughest economic downturns in history.

Marty owns season tickets to the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers. With the tough economic times, one would think Marty has stopped attending games and sold his tickets to make up for the loss of income.

Or has he?

Marty splits a dugout suite Progressive Field with 6 other guys. He says that everyone of them is back for the 2009 season.  At a cost of $248,000 this year, Marty’s portion of the package is over $41,000. That doesn’t even include food and beverages on game day. No one especially wants to miss the dessert cart. I have personally been in the suite and win or lose; the dessert cart is a highlight of the location! The seats are so close to the field you can even spit on the on deck hitter. I know my kid tried two years ago!

Marty hasn’t given up his Cavs seats either. In fact, Marty or his clients attended all 41 Cavaliers home games in 2008-09. According to ESPN.Go.Com, the Cavaliers averaged 20,010 fans per night this season, slightly down from their 2007-08 showing of 20,465 per night. Marty says he noticed a great turnout at every Cavs game he attended, “the place was pretty much full every time,” he stated.

So, if Marty feels this way, how about the rest of America? Are fans no longer attending events because they can’t afford it? Not according to Harmon Howe, whose job it is to manage ticket partners for the world’s largest secondary market exchange, TicketNetwork Exchange™. “What’s happened is the average price of a transaction has dropped from last year by about 15%,” stated Howe, “the number of transactions has gone up substantially, about 75%.”

“Instead of going to Disney World for a week, parents are taking their children to a kid’s concert,” said Howe. Although, he really feels economic pressure has pushed down the price of a seat, he offered this, “fans don’t want to miss the opportunity to see an artist or musical group that may not tour for several years or never again.” U2 and Aerosmith are two very popular groups that fit this category and have been very profitable in the secondary market.

Carol-Ann Rudy of www.TicketNews.com supports Howe in her article written for the website on April 22, 2009. Rudy cites Broadway sales are up over $26 million versus last year at this time. Wicked continues to hold the top spot in all of secondary market ticket sales. According to the sites ranking system, the popular musical has more market share than the four shows ranked directly below the show combined!

A USA Today poll launched in March asked, “How will the economic downturn affect your sports consumption?” As of April 28th, 48% of responders say they will, “attend fewer events and watch more TV” and 36% of pollsters say the economy will have no effect at all!

So, despite an almost bare economy where company revenue is down, Marty Rice will jump into his 2005 Chrysler 300M, head up I-71 to Quicken Loans Arena and follow the Cavaliers throughout the rest of their playoff run. LeBron James is the favorite to win the MVP award and his team had the best regular season record at home this year in the NBA. According to Marty, it’s worth the money he will spend to sit in Club Section 124. Yep, Marty thinks it would be “bull” to sell his playoff tickets or any other ticket he owns at this point. He feels, “the excitement of the playoffs has overridden the economy.”

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