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"The sweetest image of this baseball season is the sight of Coamerica Park, filled from the box seats to the bleachers. At the end of spring training, the unemployment rate in metro Detroit had climbed to 23%, the average home price fell below $12,000, and the Tigers calculated that season-ticket sales were down 13,000.
"The financial forecast in Detroit has not necessarily brightened, but ... the Tigers have provided a jolt- electrifying for much of the summer.... They rank 4th in the AL in attendance, at 31,360 per game; are 5th in the majors in payroll, at more than $115M; and, through Sunday, were still in first.... They were also 48-26 at Coamerica Park, a record they attribute to the overwhelming responsibility they feel playing front of their home fans, many of whom are presumably using what little discretionary income they have to watch the team play. In his first spring training meeting manager Jim Leyland told his players,
"People are going to to be spending some of their last dollars to come to these games, and we need to give them our best effort. This is not the year not to run out ground balls."
They came for the game, sure, but more so came for the spectacle, to gaze jaws unhinged at this towering homage to all that is big and American and tax-amenable, to be able to say they were among the 105,121 to attend the first NFL game at the new Cowboys Stadium, the three-million-square-foot steel-and-glass middle finger that owner Jerry Jones has lifted to the recession.
"OURS IS BIGGER! proclaimed T-shirts everywhere, and this was of course true; the stadium is the largess column-free structure in the world...."
The Tigers might not win a home run derby against the Yankees or the Angels, but that doesn't mean they can't beat them in the playoff series.
"We know there are families in the stands who are fighting to keep their houses and feed their kids," "We take that seriously. We can't lollygag our way through a game. We have to give them a show. I really believe they are they reason that we are where we are."
"It's a wonder, yes, but the stadium may also be one of the great revenue generators. Fans paid an average of $159 for a ticket (by far the highest in the NFL) $8 for a beer, $13 for a Kobe beef burger, and- cha-ching!- $75 for the priveledge of parking in one of the vast oceans that stretch out in all directions."
"Cowboys Stadium received a sizable chunk of public funding- $325 M."
"the Tigers are focusing less on their rock-star clientele amd more on their blur-collar base." "The Tigers responded with more $5 tickets, new $5 meals and two extra $5 parking lots."
"Elaine Lewis, VP in charge of community and public affairs, says the team has given away more than 80,000 tickets this year and worked with more than 2,000 nonprofit organiztions."
"a small stimulus package for the area, a statement that will help our country be where we want it to be, create an attitude that creates jobs and creates buyers for products." Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones.
"We're going to have to sell our way out of this thing," and what Jones meant by that was clear: Recessions are for wusses."
"On a warm evening in the first week of September, 20-year-old Victor Moore is walking on Woodward Avenue, asking for spare change. He is beneath a Fidelity Investments billboard that reads, JOBS CHANGE/DREAMS DON'T, when a passerby turns him down.
"Then how about a ticket to the game tonight?" Moore shouts after him. "You and I could watch the Tigers together."
"Practice was over, and now the 49ers gathered in a tight circle on the far field of their facility in Santa Clara, Ca., last Thursday, each raising one arm to form a human umbrella. After a brief silence, a voice rose from within the group and asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In unisome the players answered, Yes...I...am!"
(All of the above quotes are from the September, 28, 2009 Sports Illustrated. It will be archived and available at SI.com)
"The financial forecast in Detroit has not necessarily brightened, but ... the Tigers have provided a jolt- electrifying for much of the summer.... They rank 4th in the AL in attendance, at 31,360 per game; are 5th in the majors in payroll, at more than $115M; and, through Sunday, were still in first.... They were also 48-26 at Coamerica Park, a record they attribute to the overwhelming responsibility they feel playing front of their home fans, many of whom are presumably using what little discretionary income they have to watch the team play. In his first spring training meeting manager Jim Leyland told his players,
"People are going to to be spending some of their last dollars to come to these games, and we need to give them our best effort. This is not the year not to run out ground balls."
They came for the game, sure, but more so came for the spectacle, to gaze jaws unhinged at this towering homage to all that is big and American and tax-amenable, to be able to say they were among the 105,121 to attend the first NFL game at the new Cowboys Stadium, the three-million-square-foot steel-and-glass middle finger that owner Jerry Jones has lifted to the recession.
"OURS IS BIGGER! proclaimed T-shirts everywhere, and this was of course true; the stadium is the largess column-free structure in the world...."
The Tigers might not win a home run derby against the Yankees or the Angels, but that doesn't mean they can't beat them in the playoff series.
"We know there are families in the stands who are fighting to keep their houses and feed their kids," "We take that seriously. We can't lollygag our way through a game. We have to give them a show. I really believe they are they reason that we are where we are."
"It's a wonder, yes, but the stadium may also be one of the great revenue generators. Fans paid an average of $159 for a ticket (by far the highest in the NFL) $8 for a beer, $13 for a Kobe beef burger, and- cha-ching!- $75 for the priveledge of parking in one of the vast oceans that stretch out in all directions."
"Cowboys Stadium received a sizable chunk of public funding- $325 M."
"the Tigers are focusing less on their rock-star clientele amd more on their blur-collar base." "The Tigers responded with more $5 tickets, new $5 meals and two extra $5 parking lots."
"Elaine Lewis, VP in charge of community and public affairs, says the team has given away more than 80,000 tickets this year and worked with more than 2,000 nonprofit organiztions."
"a small stimulus package for the area, a statement that will help our country be where we want it to be, create an attitude that creates jobs and creates buyers for products." Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones.
"We're going to have to sell our way out of this thing," and what Jones meant by that was clear: Recessions are for wusses."
"On a warm evening in the first week of September, 20-year-old Victor Moore is walking on Woodward Avenue, asking for spare change. He is beneath a Fidelity Investments billboard that reads, JOBS CHANGE/DREAMS DON'T, when a passerby turns him down.
"Then how about a ticket to the game tonight?" Moore shouts after him. "You and I could watch the Tigers together."
"Practice was over, and now the 49ers gathered in a tight circle on the far field of their facility in Santa Clara, Ca., last Thursday, each raising one arm to form a human umbrella. After a brief silence, a voice rose from within the group and asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In unisome the players answered, Yes...I...am!"
(All of the above quotes are from the September, 28, 2009 Sports Illustrated. It will be archived and available at SI.com)
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