Raptors and the Cost of Seats

I like watching basketball on television. It is a fast-paced game that requires a level of skill and fitness from all of the athletes on the floor, attributes that are not always apparent in other sports. I wish I had seen more games live. In fact, I have only seen two professional matches - one involved the Harlem Globetrotters years and years ago and another just last fall when I saw a game played by teams from a second or perhaps even third tier basketball league. The odds of me making it to a big league game in a major city are somewhat remote. The odds of me making it to a Raptors' playoff game are infinitesimally smaller.

It has been reported that, if one wants a really good seat to watch the Raptors compete in their first ever championships series - it will cost up to $30,000 for your seat. I like basketball and I would really like to see the kind of show that a professional basketball team put on but I think I would rather buy a new electric car than go to a playoff game. At least in an electric car, I would get more than one seat for my money.

I understand that professional sport is business just like any other business. I get that the sole function of such a business is to make money for the owners. I also understand that both the corporation and the scalpers who will sell the tickets for even more have a limited number of games in which to make that money and therefore they need to gouge as many people as possible.

Part of me wants to scream out that it is just not fair, that in a society like ours we should all have access to the same type of opportunities; that surely there are people who deserve to go but won't be able to because of the cost. I have no doubt there is a little boy or girl whose life would be forever changed for the better if only they could go to a Raptor's game. But the reality is that going to a playoff game is not a human right. It is a social privilege accorded to a relatively small number of individuals, individuals who have both the capacity and desire to pay that amount of money for a few hours of entertainment. For that amount of money, they also get the vicarious pleasure (hopefully) of winning a game and I suppose, some sort of bragging rights around the office water cooler the next day.

For the rest of us, we will just have to suck it up and pretend that it really doesn't matter to us.

But in some ways, it should matter to everyone. In this hyper-inflated world that we live in, where some people are rewarded with millions of dollars for jumping or running or skating better than the rest of us; where we value possessions and "star" quality over hard work, commitment and basic human decency; in a world where bad behaviour is forgiven if the person has sufficient political or financial power, we need to recognize that maybe, just maybe our priorities are a bit misaligned.

Someone has to win the NBA championship - I hope it is the Raptors. I, like thousands of other Canadians who will not go to the game, and do not have access to the right cable channel to watch them on television will still quietly cheer them on. But I do not think I am alone in wishing that I go afford to go to a game. A little electric car might have at least two seats and its value would last much longer - but it would never be as exciting.