This article is on point. In regards to baseball specifically, the owners and players both are living high on the hog and seem to forget who is actually carrying the freight. We the fans. I understand a lot comes from advertising…to us fans who buy said products. The home run chase bailed them out last time, they won't have that this time….

For clarity, I'm a Mets fan so money is no object for my team, and even at the risk of losing our primary advantage, I wholeheartedly agree something needs to be done.

Salary cap must have a floor. Then what do you do with the Rays? What happens if it's a Rays / Brewers WS?

My worst fear is they drag this out all 2027, and that at the end of it not much changes in the grand scheme of things.

Agree with this completely.

I'm losing interest, little by little. And it sucks to realize that.

Obviously part of me knows there's been greed in sports forever, but it also seems like they've squeezed as much revenue out of the rock as they can and we're just tired of being squeezed.

I'm still big on Aggie athletics, but don't have the same excitement about the full slate of games every week like I used to.

Yes, hockey seems like the only sport that feels the same as it did in 2010.

I gave up on Aggie Football in 2019 or so. I'm sick of "wait till next year." Ive been waiting for 50 years, not sure how the old Ags managed. But I finally realized it probably will never happen. They pulled me back in last year, but I didn't get hyped for this season. NIL and corporate BS has turned me off. Not to mention the playoff. 4 team? Seems reasonable. 8 teams? Probably better. Expanding to 24? No thanks.

Now baseball is a different story. I still watch my Rangers almost every night. I posted a similar anecdote in the Rangers thread a while back, but here it goes. I hate the new ballpark and the hype music, and the dancers, and the echo, etc. But, I went to 15 games this season (thanks Ballpark Pass) and had a great time, most of the time. I had to shut out all the BS and just enjoy the game of baseball. At the end of the day. I was fortunate enough to watch 15 games, in person, of the greatest game ever invented. (17 games if you count the games in Detroit and Milwaukee).

I dont watch NFL, NBA, or NHL. However, I actually just started a hockey for dummies video on YouTube. I went to a Penguins game in Pittsburgh last year and enjoyed it. I guess it's time to learn it and give it a shot.

When my son was first born (almost twenty years ago), I used to always be able to find cheap tickets for a Wed afternoon game. There would always be some business man who put their tickets in the low sections up on stub hub for like $20, because they had to work and they just wanted to get something for their tickets rather than let them go to waste. I did this for almost a decade and my son and I went to a lot of games with great seats. That doesn't happen anymore. Besides there being virtually no day games, people don't dump unused tickets anymore. They want top dollar for them, for every game. It used to be a really fun thing for my son and I, but it doesn't happen anymore.

I realize that's not directly because of the team owners, but I do think it speaks to who season tickets holders are now days. It's no longer just some decently successful guy who loves baseball. It's now all corporations, and they don't really care about the tickets going unused.

CampingAg said:

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I've been wondering why for the last couple of years why I care less and less about sports. I just chalked it up to getting older, having kids, and the Rangers moving from my favorite place in the world into a lifeless dump. But I saw this, and I think it hits the nail on the head for me. Anyone else in the same boat? Figured the discussion might be good offseason fodder.

I hate to say it folks but I think sports as a whole may have peaked. Everything about sports just feels so forced and unnecessary, a desperate attempt for a private equity firm to squeeze more juice from the lemon. You have college football who is going to expand to a 24 team…

— B. Long (@blong0108) October 1, 2026

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Would you feel differently if the Aggies had made a playoff run like Miami did and the Rangers had gone back to the WS in 2024 or 2025?

Sometimes it's just because your teams suck that you start to wonder why you're so sports-obsessed.

No. That has nothing to do with it.


I totally agree with the OP.

And They could fix a lot of it if they would just fix the atmosphere in the actual stadiums. The production crews suck the life out of it.

I've redirected to minor league baseball games and high school sports. Both of my kids are in high school at a good school with strong community support. And both play. So I find myself at the school a couple of times a week watching the kids play. I'd rather go to a high school volleyball game where I can sit with friends and cheer on the girls than get my ears blown out by a DJ at Globe Life or Kyle Field.

I've been to probably ten football games this year. One at Kyle which was a mistake. And the rest high school.

the comment in the tweet about "private equity firm" seems very appropriate

scd88 said:

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I agree sports has peaked. So much feels rigged like the NBA. College sports has a lot of bias involved with it.

I used to enjoy the **** out of going to the Dome and watching the Astros play in the dead of summer. The AC was the coldest in town, the dome dogs kicked ass, and they never carded for Dome Foam.

A&M games were a blast, too. Remember when not every game was on TV and, gasp, one had to rely on South and Elmendorf along with one's IMAGINATION to follow the game? Speaking of, the games went by faster, too, because there weren't 3:20 TV time outs. College football is a beat down to watch as it takes forever. I'm there in Kyle, though, because I have an unhealthy addiction to Texas A&M sports.

The playoffs is still mainly a beauty contest. My son calls it an invitational.

I will say hockey is on the come up, though. You Stars fans have it good. Hockey is a great sport.

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I think the biggest thing is imagination. Sports like most everything is being over analyzed that the joy is put to the back burner.

Who wants to imagine 15 players playing for 12 other colleges being the next star at Texas A&M? Who wants to be in an environment that is trying to entertain you perfectly with 15-30 second moments for 3 hours. You never hear yourself think. You never get to pause and just enjoy being there. You never get to be present. You are visually stimulated (giant tvs), auditory stimulated (music), you are sexually stimulated ("cheerleaders), and every 2 minutes someone is trying to sell you something.

It is a testament to the joy of sports it survives even with all of that.

The broadcasters even feel like every second has to be filled with their voices.

NIL and the portal has just about killed my interest in college football. I'll still watch some, but I don't set my Saturdays around college football anymore, and almost never watch College Gameday from start to finish (that show has its own problems). When you think about what these young men are getting paid and the product that ends up on the field, you get not great football played by overpaid players. I'll just stick with the NFL and watch a better product.

Back to baseball, the cost of going to a game has curtailed how often I go. I used to try to attend 2-3 games a year. Now I'm lucky if I go to one. The cost has managed to suck the fun out of the game.

I only played baseball until middle school, and even then, just LL. I played one season of 7B football and we scored 2 TDs the WHOLE season.

With that, sports are fun to watch, but not a priority with me.

I watched the NBA in middle school when the Rockets won and I enjoyed watching random games; mostly because I also played NBA Jam with my friends and we played pick up games whenever. But once I realized that the rules that were being taught to me vs. what was called professionally started me to question why follow. When most of the good players retired, I kind of stopped watching. Since then, I laugh when I see NBA clips and how flagrant the rules, to me, are being abused.

NFL has been interesting to watch, as my grandfathers watched it casually. I watched the Oilers and when Bud Adams took them, I stopped caring. When the Texans came, I mostly watched to laugh at the futility. I will watch the SB (every year since 1995ish or so), some of the playoffs, and a random game or so when I doing stuff around the house. Usually cleaning the house and it's background noise.

For MLB, we used to go to the dome, as my dad worked in a building next to it and so we have free parking. Randall's sold tickets for $2 a piece and we'd go to random games all the time. As the Astro's went to 100-loss seasons, we'd go because, again, cheap entertainment. Then as they started winning, we watched. By then, my kids were playing baseball and wanted to follow teams (beyond the Astros) and have consumed it. But going to the games (again, Astros), the prices went from like $75 for all of us (or more) to like $300+ for all four of us. Coupled with a AAAA team being trotted out? Sugarland looks more enjoyable and entertaining.

For college sports, I only ever got into A&M (since birth) and even then, just football and some baseball (baseball not until actual college). Again, A&M was 'cheap' as a student and as a grad student, still 'cheap', as I could get low/free tickets and had access to tailgates. Now? Super pricey and, to me, fully corporate. Before? Individually run and 'personal'. Now? Rent-a-tent corporate. Kills the fandom, at least to me.


I think the issue with sports now is that the idea of infinite growth is finally hitting the reality wall. So you have business people HAVING to show growth when there is no more growth possible. I conflate it with the Cowboys disease: don't care what's shown on TV or on the field, as long as we're making money. If you actually change the money they make, THEN they might make changes. Until then? Keep on keeping on.

~egon