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Its interesting, as I look at the title I was tempted to actually put sport never cared about fans, but it always seems to fall onto one main reason why they don't anymore..... MONEY. You may be thinking "Has a particular sport rattled Stevens cage"? Well it certainly has, the sport being basketball. However, the situation that the NBA has found itself in transcends most major sports that anyone reading this would be aware of. What is even more of a disgrace and a kick in any loyal fan or otherwise case is that no one in any of them situations believes that they are doing anything wrong. So I've decided to write down my frustrations and say, the best thing to do is, not go back and make us fans have a lockout of ourselves.

Consider this, every fan contributes towards players and teams generating huge sums of money, and then sports such as NBA and Formula One decide to minimise the amount of people that can watch by having a lockout or in Formula Ones case moving to SKY and making it a pay per view channel. The situation that got me thinking about the current state of major sports across the globe is the NBA because for once it doesn't seem to be the players that are the blame for the latest troubles. First thing to underline is the fact that it is never is easy to negotiate in regards to money but also it is necessary to say that it is commendable that such a thing exists in American sports. What I am referring to is the contract that exists between players and owners that gets mediated after a number of years. Sounds good in its premise doesn't it? The only problem is that it occasionally leads to a shortened season such as 1999 season where they lost roughly a third of the 82 games that they usually play in one season. As I say commendable but like anything commendable it can lead to it backfiring on occasion when owners and players take too long to reach an agreement.

So we reach the 2011 season and after 2 years of half hearted and then last minute negotiations leads to the basketball league and the team owners to start a lockout and only after court mediation does the lockout end on November 25th. The fact that it took this long lead me to think what I think about most of the sports that I watch or aware of: they don't care about the fans. Why take 2 years to decide a month before the season started to have last minute panic meetings. I can tell you why: greed. The basic disagreement that the owners and players have is the split between the money that the league generates. It was currently at a percentage of 57 to 43 in favour of the players and due to the economy and harshers times the owners wanted the players to give some money back. Sounds fair and the players for the most part seemed to agree. However, as time went on you begin to realise that the players wouldn't give up enough for the owners to be happy and the owners wanted to be the majority power in the negotiation. The owners wanted the percentage in fact to be reversed, 57% to 43% which was unanimously laughed at. You may be thinking why not be easier to negotiate, but every percent is worth millions of dollar in revenue therefore it was worth fighting for on both sides.

This leads me to point on the difference between American sports and other global sports. Franchises or teams in our terminology rely on the impact of players to increase teams market value. In football for example the only team that really benefits from that ideal is Real Madrid and the galactic philosophy. I am not suggesting this doesn't affect teams that lose their best players but the amount of money we are talking about is significantly larger due to the way the NBA is structured. The rookie system where the best young players get picked by the worst team is a way of teams generating better money and market value, something football for example doesn't consider.

A perfect example of how a star player helped a franchise is arguably the league's best player, Lebron James. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers and made them into a playoff team as well as a highly profitable team. He left for free to the Miami Heat, leaving the team without the league's best player and because he left after his contract they gained no star player in return. Therefore, after looking to it in that sense the idea of players giving 10 percent up is unfair. Let's not forget, this isn't just one player this is everyone in the league that gets the cut of the deal.

I know what you're thinking; the average Joe here still gets millions so why defend them? Looking at it objectively even if they make the money they do doesn't mean they shouldn't try to get the fairest deal regardless if they are wealthy or not. Its the way that they both dealt with the situation that underlined their lack of care towards the fans that give the franchises the money to keep these star players. I get the owners wanting more money to protect the teams that are suffering (only 8 teams in the NBA make money) , I get that they were wanting to distribute the money better and improve their standing, but the way the owners treated the players was a disgrace. It sounds laughable when I say to you that both sides never thought of making it 50/50 in percentages, because the owners wanted far more than they should have thought they were going to get back. Lets not forget, the previous owners agreed to this deal the last time it was made, regardless of the economic downturn we are now facing. This is also underlined by the fact that the NBA as a brand across the globe is the biggest it has ever been with last year taking the most global revenue ever in its history. It just goes to show that the people with the most money like the smell of it and want just that little bit more.

I know I've mentioned NBA a lot but it's not just that sport that's in trouble. Formula One have announced this year that they are moving to SKY and SKY have as per usual decided to scrounge as much money as they can by making it into a pay per view channel by forcing people purchase their Sky Sports Package to be able to watch Sky Sports F1. I find it laughable that they tried to build it up by saying that they will not be adverts during the broadcast, which is nice of them considering we would have to pay just for the channel to actually work. It doesn't seem to make any sense that they agreed to this but what angered many fans is that Bernie Ecclestones constantly mentioned the idea of increasing Formula One's global brand. He hasn't done that as I can guarantee that people won't watch it for a price and new fans won't try taking a gamble if they have to pay extra to experience it. It makes you wonder what the BBC spends its money on and although Formula One rights are expensive, it was constantly on their most watched charts and was one of the best produced programmes on TV (the presenters will now be split off now sky has all the races). It just goes to show that regardless of what the fans think or say they don't get treated seriously.

This problem unfortunately is getting serious in the sports closer to home as well. The downside of rich owners taking over clubs is not just because of the gap between none rich clubs but the effect it'll have when the useless FIFA decide it isn't fair on everyone else. What will the rich owners like Abramovich at Chelsea do if they decide they aren't allowed to spend 50 million there and 40 million there? It may be coming out of their own wealth but if they left, you've got 150 a week players suddenly not getting paid and being unable to be sold. It leads to the feeling that maybe the owners will get bored not having their own way and then what does that leave us with? Teams that can't sustain themselves like in La Liga. The television rights that they have been striking over the last few season is a prime example that everyone thinks about themselves and not the future of the sport they all represent. And it leads to the fans being shafted for paying for it all. For those that don't know Barcalona and Real Madrid out of television revenues of 400 million, get 100 million each, then the other 100 million gets distributed with the next best clubs Valencia, Sevilla, Athletico Madrid etc and then whatever is left gets shared between the rest of them. This means basically they will always be a gap between the clubs and that fans of the less successful clubs keep helping in fighting for their existence all the time due to lack of funds. Wouldn't it be nice if every fan and their club got given an equal share of the goods?

Surely the job of the sports is to look after the fans? Without them the revenue wouldn't be as high, at arenas, stadium and watching on TV. We are the reason the revenue is high in the first place. Yet another issue with big owners and huge wage bills is that the average Joe of this world is being priced out of the sport that they care about. Take Newcastle United the club I support. They couldn't sell enough season tickets this year so they cut them to half price in order to get the stadium full again. Owner Mike Ashley tried to sell the club this summer but failed by asking for too much money and the buyers becoming aware it included clearing our debt. It's something that Formula One came to release in that cutting costs mean more teams and more market value around the globe. Well, that seemed to be the idea until they are now going to sky. As I said earlier our broadcast is used for a number of different countries and now it'll lead to everyone paying sky for that privilege. I know that BBC still have 10 races but it just won't be the same, especially that sky will have every races and lead commentator Martin Brundell doing the races. I as a sport fan can't afford regular SKY never mind paying extra for the SKY Sports package. Will this happen with other traditions? No one ever thought that England wouldn't be on SKY yet they are. This isn't me having a tirade at SKY, I just think certain sports, like tennis at Wimbledon, should be free to watch and free from people like SKY running it for fans. Everything is about pleasing the one that afford certain things, yet surely the tradition of every sport is everyone being a fan regardless of where you come from and how much money you earn. When will it end though? Will Wimbledon be next? All England games on SKY?

So as NBA players and coaches decide to start the season on Christmas day this year, it will definitely be the best Christmas present for me being a fan. But realistically it's a very sombre one as well, as I am sure most fans of sports have become to realise, we are being driven out and we might run out of sports that care what we think when making their decisions. As we head in 2012, I hope I'm proven wrong.

Overall YRadio Score

50%