More On Messed Up College Athletics

In this weekends Play magazine Joe Nocera wrote an article focusing on the addition of sky box seats to the University of Michigan's stadium.

Skyboxes are luxury seats that are generally located between the lower level seating and the upper level seating. They are private rooms for big spenders. Big companies buy the boxes and use them to impress clients. I've watched 76ers games in a luxury suite, which is the same thing. When I walked into the room a woman was giving out massages. The fridge was stocked with soda and beer, there were chips available and sandwiches and pizza.

Michigan is renovating its 80 year old stadium which will cost the school $226 million. The sky boxes are being installed to pay for the work.

One Michigan fan, John Pollack was less than enthusiastic about this:

Mainly, though, Pollack argues that the University of Michigan simply shouldn’t be the kind of school that sells skyboxes to high-rollers; it should be better than that. “Michigan doesn’t need to keep up with the Joneses,” he said. “We are the Joneses.” He added, “One of the great things about college football, especially Michigan football, is that it is a great public space — a place where autoworkers and millionaires can come together to cheer on their team.”

This is not a maneuver unique to Michigan. It's a fact of the new sporting landscape. The Jets and Giants are building a new stadium in the meadowlands to the tune of $1.3 billion. They'll be offering prime suits that cost $1 million. Those suites, according to Sports Business Journal will allow the owner to watch both the Jets and the Giants home games.

In the Times article about Michigan, the University said it would have to raise tickets by 15 to 20 dollars if it didn't build suites.

I guess its their version of trickle down economics.