I'm as big a pro football fan as anyone, but the NFL is becoming hard to take.

I love the product on the field, but it's becoming one of those multi-national businesses that make decisions based on computer regurgitated numbers and another hit from the corporate money fix. They know they've hit the Mother Lode and they'll keep mining the gold, no matter who gets hit by the dirt, especially the fans.

For years I've been consumed with rage over the NFL's policy of requiring season ticket holders to also have to purchase tickets for meaningless pre season games if you want tickets for the meaningful ones. They know they've got a captive clientele and they can tell that clientele, "my way or the highway." The NFL knows if you don't renew your season ticket, there's 10 others who are waiting to buy it. They have the hammer. But, why not think ahead to that day when things aren't so rosy. And, what about doing something for the fan who buys the ticket and those who, even though they don't have season tickets, still wants to see a game in person. You can satisfy both by not requiring the purchase of pre season game tickets to get your regular season tickets and making those tickets available to non season ticket holders. I doubt that most season ticket holders would opt not to include the pre season in their packages. My biggest gripe is having to pay 40 to 50 dollars to watch scrubs play. There are laws against rip-offs or bait and switch tactics, but apparently that applies to everyone but the NFL.

There's another law that seems to have bypassed the National Football League. I call it "sports extortion." It comes in the form of PSLs-Personal Seat Licenses. The NFL is not alone in this practice, but they seemed to have turned it into a art form. Let's see if I understand this right. You (the NFL) are going to let me (the fan) buy a PSL, which gives me the right to buy a ticket. So, I get to pay money to pay money. Sounds like charging twice for the same thing. Racism and sexism is illegal, but apparently pricism isn't. Again, it hurts the fan. That fan who has already been priced out of buying NBA, NHL and baseball season tickets, but can dig up the 400 to 600 dollars for 10 NFL home games, now is being asked to shell out thousands just so they can still try to dig up that 400 to 600 dollars for their tickets. This doesn't happen everywhere around the league, only when a team gets a new stadium or builds preferred seating or renovates their stadium. And, of course almost every team falls into one of those categories.

You want to know the worse thing about PSLs? In some cases, PSLs let you pay, to pay, to see a bad product on the field. The Oakland Raiders have PSLs. How would like to pay, to pay, to see a 4 and 12 team. They were god awful and if there was any degree of civility in sports at all, Al Davis and NFL should have either made admission free or paid those who stayed through each week's embarrassing performance. PSLs are morally wrong and on the street, making someone pay for something they're already paying for is illegal. They call it extortion.

You have to give the NFL credit, they also sock it to the rich guys. The new Cleveland semi expansion team will cost between 350 and 500 million dollars. What does that get you? Nothing more than a pass to Club NFL and the right to pass that cost again along to the fans. Players, coaches, offices, workout equipment and cheerleaders are all extra. I feel sorry for Cleveland. They didn't deserve to lose their team. Now, just to show you they really care about Browns fans, the NFL is going to let you back into the club. But, oh did they tell you it's going to cost you more.

In the Cleveland case, the NFL had an obligation to put another team there and to do so at a fair price to the owners and fans. When Jacksonville and Carolina came into the league 4 years ago, the franchise price was 160 million dollars. Add inflation and the new TV contract and you still don't come up with the half billion dollar range price tag for Cleveland. Browns fans have suffered enough and their reward should not be PSLs and higher ticket prices. Agreed, they have a new stadium and with that comes some deserved increases. But one Personal Seat License is one too many.

I'm not anti-NFL. They do a lot for charities and I admire and marvel at their business success. But that success, along with greed and arrogance is leading them down the path to dispassion and insensitivity toward the fan. I just don't want to see the fans treated like the homeless looking through a fancy restaurant window at rich people eating.

I feel better now.

I'm Ron Barr

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