President Obama recently lamented the resistance to his stimulus package by wondering, "What do they think a stimulus is?  It's spending."  I thought it was a concerted effort to stimulate the economy.  The portion of the equation we stress is up for debate.  Do we stabilize the currency by keeping the money supply stagnant and controlling spending?  This would set market interest rates, as opposed to Fed-forced low rates which intend to give more money to bad borrowers.  Or do we print money for short term spending, hoping the next guy takes it on the chin when it's time to pay it back?  I'm still waiting to find someone willing to be "the next guy."

Our Nation has spent.  It is spent.  The spending is designed to show growth.  With growth, comes the desire for more growth.  Eventually, the bill is due.  Now is eventually, but the solutions seem to be tailor-made for 2002.  We must show growth.  If we don't show growth, then our elected officials must not be doing anything.

Sports teams like growth.  They love season ticket waiting lists.  People waiting means that the price can be raised.  Any balkers are pushed aside for those who feel priviledged to pay the higher price.

Most Major League teams, as noted on this blog space, have excercised smarter cost policies.  Payrolls are down.  Some teams have marketed themselves better with creative ticket packages.  Revenue sharing from new revenue streams has teams in an okay position to weather the storm.

As noted on this space before, the NFL got their season in before most of this fit hit the shan.  So the NFL needs to learn a lesson.  The NFL needs to protect its properties.  The shield is no bunker.

One NFL team has stuck to its bi-annual policy of raising ticket prices.  The Ravens cite 15% increases in salaries and benefits as the need to stay with this strategy.  Keeping prices and payroll in the top third are seen as critical to staying relevant.

The modern NFL has a lot of costly extravagance.  New stadiums complete with skyboxes were nice in 2002, when companies were willing to dump tens of thousands of dollars of profits into sports.  Frankly, this fat can be trimmed.  Teams should scale back on their circa 2002 business model to weather this current storm.  2009 will be interesting to see if any franchises wind up learning this lesson.