"Free Market Guy" is at the top of my resume. But I can get absolutely Hamiltonian sometimes when I see the nonsense that people choose.
Sugarchuck and I both bemoan the infernal disco stylings that dominate sporting events today. I can't bear to see our superb Colorado Avalanche play anymore. It's too depressing: every time a whistle blows, they dim the lights and blast Led Zeppelin or some 70s crap you're trying to forget.
The Wall St. Journal (news page) pens a nice paean to Nancy Bea Hefley, organist for the LA Dodgers. Her contract is secure, but her playing time has been trimmed to almost nothing.
But with the likes of Metallica and Dr. Dre replacing Mrs. Hefley's chirpy organ stylings, Dodger Stadium is a much different place from the days when Mrs. Hefley had free musical rein. Since joining the team in 1988, Mrs. Hefley has mastered the art of the well-timed musical snippet. When pitchers from the rival San Francisco Giants were taken out of the game, she often tapped out "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" After a Cincinnati Reds pitcher was hammered in the first inning, she ushered him out with a song from the musical "Wonderful Town" whose refrain goes: "Why oh why did I leave Ohio?"
[...]
Her role has been usurped by a deejay who sits directly below her. He plays a selection of hip-hop and rock, interspersed with devices designed to pump up the crowd and the stadium's volume -- all with the click of a button on his laptop. Now, even the familiar "Charge!" refrains have been prerecorded by Mrs. Hefley and uploaded onto the deejay's computer.For the Dodgers, the decision was pure business. "Our fans -- and our players -- have been vocal in their requests for a more up-tempo experience," says Lon Rosen, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
The market is never wrong, but sometimes the people who claim to be catering to it are. "Our fans - and our players - have been vocal in their requests..." Only the ones who want a change would be vocal. When those like us start complaining or, better yet, stop buying tickets then the pendulum will swing back.
Remember the advent of ATM fees? I'm a big fan of pay as you go, but the marketplace balked and many banks now offer to pay other bank's fees to get your business. Ignore the power of the market at your (financial) peril.
Posted by: johngalt at August 11, 2004 01:29 PMYou are right on. Also, one must consider that major league sports are cartelized and subsidized enough to distort any semblance of market economics. Case in point, the $5 hot dog and $4 can of Coors.
Posted by: jk at August 11, 2004 02:02 PMOf course the market can be wrong! All good liberal arts majors remember from their reading of Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" that majority is always wrong, (for further proof see the 2000 presidential election or comparte Brittany Spears record sales with Luther Allison's). While I share Brother JK's abhorrence of the aural and visual buggering that takes place during sporting events these days, I have to think our distaste is largely due to our entry into middle age. Once upon a time, some 19th century mudcat sat stunned, thunderstuck at the idiocy of dragging an organ into a baseball game and playing the damn thing between innings. Someday our young 21st century ball fan will stroke his grey whiskers over some post-post modern assault and lament the passing of the dj's blaring hip-hop between innings, back in da day... I do hope that in the ball game of the future, what goes on inside the lines would look as familiar to us as our current game would look to Walt Whitman.
Posted by: sugarchuck at August 11, 2004 07:11 PMYou make some good points, but I personally never found Luther Allison to be all that attractive...
Posted by: jk at August 12, 2004 11:19 AM