Lannie Stemple is so poor she can't afford a phone.
The 69-year-old resident of Big Pine Key, Fla., lives on monthly cheques from Social Security for $934 (U.S.). That adds up to $11,208 annually, or $15,315 in Canadian funds. In any currency, it's merely scraping by.
There's never much left over for luxuries but ... well, there is one.
Call it her passion, Lannie's love. Hard to imagine, but Lannie Stemple scrimped and saved like few us would, so she could ... attend the Miami Dolphins season opener last Sunday.
"I have enough for the $56 ticket, parking, gas, some food," she told the Miami Herald before the game. "I saved the money by skipping a meal a day for almost two months during the summer. I love the Dolphins and going to one of their games is the highlight of my year.
"The sacrifice I made was worth it. And besides, I figured I could stand to lose a couple of pounds."
There you have it — the new NFL diet.
Or, the new NFL ticket sales campaign.
Or, fodder for the continuing study of how modern society is going to hell in a pigskin basket.
Yes, there are several ways to look at this. Is Lannie Stemple someone to be admired, or pitied? Or is she really that unusual at all?
You can view Stemple as an example of someone who puts the most into and gets the most out of his or her sporting passions. You'd better believe that she enjoyed herself, despite her Dolphins' shocking 21-20 loss to the second-year Houston Texans. Could a freeloader in a luxury box, lacking the emotional and financial commitment made by such a diehard, possibly cherish the moment as much?
"Granny living high on the hog on government money," is another, crueller interpretation, the sort you might expect from one, or the other, of the parties currently lambasting each other in the Ontario election campaign. But, come on, she's clearly an example of one of the "little people" willing to make personal sacrifices in her own interest. No one, least of all her, is saying she should get a free ticket, or a free ride, or pity.
I suspect there are plenty of Lannie Stemples out there, all over the wide world of sports, the mostly anonymous sorts who provide the lifeblood for the industry, young and old, rich and poor.
TV and corporate sponsorship, season ticket sales and monster stadiums may have become crucial to the various bloated operations, but without the grassroots interest of the "real fans" none of it would stand up, year in and year out.
Sure, people claim, with good reason, that they can't afford to buy a Leafs or Raptors or Blue Jays ticket.
But if they were determined to buy just one a season, say, just about anyone could. Actually lining up a ticket for the Leafs or Raptors can be the hardest part of the equation — never mind paying the price.
The Jays have deals on seats that are dead cheap and there are, of course, plenty of good seats available at the SkyDome, too. At an average of 22,819 per game, Toronto is currently running at No. 23 (of 30) in home attendance. Tampa Bay, where the Jays are currently sharing the bill, is in danger of finishing last, behind the Montreal Expos — something no one would have thought possible when the season began.
Team Marketing Report says the average price of an NFL ticket this season is $72.33 (Canadian), compared with $59.63 in the NBA, $56.77 in the NHL and $25.53 in MLB.
Expensive? Yes, but attendance last year in the NFL was 16 million or so. The NHL and NBA each drew about 20 million and baseball attendance exceeded 70 million.
That's a lot of Lannies, a lot of fannies.
@
The 69-year-old resident of Big Pine Key, Fla., lives on monthly cheques from Social Security for $934 (U.S.). That adds up to $11,208 annually, or $15,315 in Canadian funds. In any currency, it's merely scraping by.
There's never much left over for luxuries but ... well, there is one.
Call it her passion, Lannie's love. Hard to imagine, but Lannie Stemple scrimped and saved like few us would, so she could ... attend the Miami Dolphins season opener last Sunday.
"I have enough for the $56 ticket, parking, gas, some food," she told the Miami Herald before the game. "I saved the money by skipping a meal a day for almost two months during the summer. I love the Dolphins and going to one of their games is the highlight of my year.
"The sacrifice I made was worth it. And besides, I figured I could stand to lose a couple of pounds."
There you have it — the new NFL diet.
Or, the new NFL ticket sales campaign.
Or, fodder for the continuing study of how modern society is going to hell in a pigskin basket.
Yes, there are several ways to look at this. Is Lannie Stemple someone to be admired, or pitied? Or is she really that unusual at all?
You can view Stemple as an example of someone who puts the most into and gets the most out of his or her sporting passions. You'd better believe that she enjoyed herself, despite her Dolphins' shocking 21-20 loss to the second-year Houston Texans. Could a freeloader in a luxury box, lacking the emotional and financial commitment made by such a diehard, possibly cherish the moment as much?
"Granny living high on the hog on government money," is another, crueller interpretation, the sort you might expect from one, or the other, of the parties currently lambasting each other in the Ontario election campaign. But, come on, she's clearly an example of one of the "little people" willing to make personal sacrifices in her own interest. No one, least of all her, is saying she should get a free ticket, or a free ride, or pity.
I suspect there are plenty of Lannie Stemples out there, all over the wide world of sports, the mostly anonymous sorts who provide the lifeblood for the industry, young and old, rich and poor.
TV and corporate sponsorship, season ticket sales and monster stadiums may have become crucial to the various bloated operations, but without the grassroots interest of the "real fans" none of it would stand up, year in and year out.
Sure, people claim, with good reason, that they can't afford to buy a Leafs or Raptors or Blue Jays ticket.
But if they were determined to buy just one a season, say, just about anyone could. Actually lining up a ticket for the Leafs or Raptors can be the hardest part of the equation — never mind paying the price.
The Jays have deals on seats that are dead cheap and there are, of course, plenty of good seats available at the SkyDome, too. At an average of 22,819 per game, Toronto is currently running at No. 23 (of 30) in home attendance. Tampa Bay, where the Jays are currently sharing the bill, is in danger of finishing last, behind the Montreal Expos — something no one would have thought possible when the season began.
Team Marketing Report says the average price of an NFL ticket this season is $72.33 (Canadian), compared with $59.63 in the NBA, $56.77 in the NHL and $25.53 in MLB.
Expensive? Yes, but attendance last year in the NFL was 16 million or so. The NHL and NBA each drew about 20 million and baseball attendance exceeded 70 million.
That's a lot of Lannies, a lot of fannies.
@
