Hey Brits, Welcome To America
January 21st, 2010
It seems Bryan and Joel have the British soccer hooligans worked up.
Then again, the cynic in Joe asks aloud, “A British soccer hooligan worked up? No!”
Seems the owners of the Bucs, who also own some English kickball team, are in debt, if reports are to be believed. Big-time debt.
This has Bucs fans overly concerned that the finances and debt of the English kickball team are siphoning funds from the Bucs payroll.
There’s no way to prove this, short of being an Internal Revenue Service auditor, but Bucs fans can connect the dots.
The same issue doesn’t have British soccer hooligans overly concerned, but beside themselves. So much so one English kickball fan has taken fingertips to keyboard, naively thinking his missive of outrage will somehow sway Bryan and Joel or their underlings in England managing their kickball team.
Via Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune, a fellow named Jim Nutter fired off an e-mail to the Glazer’s kickball team executives:
“For the last 40 odd years I have been a season ticket holder. My son sits beside me. His car’s number plate reads MU__ NUT. It leaves little to the imagination.
“When Newton Heath was formed in 1878, the U.S. Cavalry were fighting the Cheyenne Indians, and the outlaw Black Bart held up the Wells Fargo stagecoach. What do the Glazers care for our history?
“It may be that by now you will be appreciating the intensity of my letter to you. Like many, many thousands if not millions of others, I care deeply about my club. It is not a franchise, a cash cow, a business model. It is, like all other football clubs in this country, a way of life, a culture. …
“As an open antagonist of the Glazers, I want you to realise that the obscene greed of these people, who have no recognition of the passion and heritage of the world’s greatest sport, and their parasitic effect on one of its greatest professional clubs, is destroying the very fabric of the game.
“To sustain their insatiable appetite for wealth, matches are arranged to suit television, not the fans. They are never considered. Spectator ticket prices have, and will continue to rise inexorably. The “prawn sandwiches” will have long since disappeared when the fans desert the terraces, no longer prepared to feed the voracious appetite of the Glazer family greed. It breaks my heart to say that any further price increase will almost certainly result in me not renewing my season ticket for next season. It has come to this after 65 years. I shall be among the first of many. I say this with emphasis.”
Joe isn’t so sure how or why Nutter worked in a reference to the Cheyenne Indians, but it’s a nice stab. Also, Joe’s not sure who Newton Heath is but Joe does know who Mike Heath is.
In short, Joe’s reaction to this email is, “Welcome to America, Mr. Nutter.”
In the 21st Century, the proletariat sports fans are little more than pawns, the little people whose blue collar ways and modest wallets are not cherished and, in some cases, not welcome. They are the ones who should, if not must, settle for watching games on TV.
Those in the stands, or more importantly, in luxury boxes, are the beautiful people, the coveted class. For it is they who can fill the NFL coffers with copious amounts of cash thereby feeding the beast.
If one is to grovel, why not grovel to those who have thick checkbooks?
To be fair, there are other sports leagues which treat fans worse, far worse, all for the sake of the almighty dollar. Bud Selig has all but ruined America’s pastime by thoroughly whoring out the sport to TV. The Non-Basketball Association is equally guilty, all but rigging (some argue including rigging) playoff games if not corrupting the game itself all under the guise of marketing, all for the glare of the TV cameras and the truckload of dollars that come with it.
Mr. Nutter, kindly say hello to Andrew Jackson and Ben Franklin.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Mr Nutter wrote: ““Like many, many thousands if not millions of others, I care deeply about my club. It is not a franchise, a cash cow, a business model. It is, like all other football clubs in this country, a way of life, a culture. …”
Hey Nutter I’ve got 2 words for you: YOU’RE NUTS!!!
Manchester United IS A BIG FAT CASH COW!!!
Wake up and smell the money Nutter. There is WAY more $ to be made from lucrative TV contracts that what you wee little “prawns” pay for admission.
In the US only 10% of all football fans actually go to the stadium to watch the game. 90% watch football (The REAL football) on the telly. Roger Godell knows this and has embraced technology and the sport to provide the absolute best entertainment product available.
Furthermore Mr. Nutty you should be glad that Al Davis or Mr. Bidwell didn’t buy your little kickball club. If I owned Mann U. I’d take out loans against the team and get some high profiled free agents for the Bucs so that I’d be able to sell some more NFL jersey’s and Bucs bobbleheads, etc.,
So Mr. Nutsy don’t renew your Mann U season tickets – the Glazers don’t need your 65 pounds anyway – as long as ESPN wants to fork over BIG BUCKS for kickball TV contracts. You can go to your local pub, get a pint of Guinness some fish & chips and then slug the guy next to you. Cheers!
January 21st, 2010 at 4:54 pm
PS Mr Nutty, I’m sorry to sound so harsh but how can you really expect us to take you seriously when you’re talking about your “club”?
In a REAL sport it’s called a TEAM.
In America when you start talking about “clubs” we think nightclubs or high school glee clubs or in your case Mickey Mouse clubs… 😉
January 21st, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Newton Heath is the original name for ManU, after the neighborhood where the team played.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Thanks Vince.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:47 pm
United are a club in real financial crisis. The Bucs have fuck all to worry about in comparison.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:49 pm
You could tell he was a Brit. He misspelled realize (realise). Queens English.
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:49 am
The great thing is the Bucs are trying to block any discussion of the team’s finances from the team discussion in the forum on the grounds it is “off topic”, if you’ve got a second see if my latest attempt is still there: http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?p=4110574#post4110574
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Joe, this is perhaps one of the best, most succinct articles indicting the NFL, baseball, basketball, and really all of pro sports that I have yet to read on this site. Nice job.
It has been my position for years that TV is ruining most pro sports. Witness major league playoff games that finish at 1:00am eastern.
Please continue to drive this story, and dig as deeply as possible. In my mind, the current decline of the Bucs is traceable directly to the Glazers’ purchase of Man U, and more needs to be made of it.
While we’re on that subject, isn’t there an NFL ban on team owners having stakes (or at least majority stakes) in any other mafor league franchise? Am I wrong on that, or did the Glazers simply find a loophole to get around it? If there is a ban, this situation with the Glazers and Man U is exactly why it exists.
And Scott: Thanks for the heads-up on the Bucs organization trying to stifle commentary on this issue. It is the ROOT core of all things bad regarding the Bucs, and it needs to see more daylight.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Tony… eeerr… “Joel:”
Yes, there is such a ban on cross-ownership, but it only applies to North American teams. That’s why you see a lot of NFL owners all of a sudden claiming they are kickball fans and investing in kickball teams abroad.
Roger Goodell has gone on record as saying the Glazers kept the NFL in the loop in regards to their involvement with Manchester United and the NFL gave the Glazers their approval, even though the Glazers did not have to seek approval from the NFL.
Thanks so much for the compliment. Please tell your Bucs friends about Joe.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Joe,
Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps the worden should consider expanding the ban to all sports franchises worldwide.