Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit by Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause Common Courage Pr., 1998 Why JingleBob's views on Paul Molitor prove he's a flaming idiot ... ... hiya Jingles. Just wanted to get your attention and by your reading this post proves I was successful. BTW ... big winkee thingee compadre. Anyway, I did a book review and thought I'd pass it along. The book is "Field of Schemes"

"It was an interesting read ... if I had to define it, I'd equate it with a "victim impact statement" that's given during a trial. I've also read "Sports Jobs and Taxes" which, while interesting and informative, makes you realize why economists tend to be the life of a given party.

There's a good/bad scenario I found with the book as respects the numbers/figures used, the good being that they're dispersed throughout the text which keeps it from being too dry but the downside of that is that they do lose some of their impact because of it.

Getting back to "Sports, Jobs and Taxes" for a moment ... one has to really slog through the book, it's the mental equivalent of dancing with a parapeligic sumo wrestler (with apologies to any parapeligic sumo wrestlers offended). You really have to put a lot of effort to digest it and to maintain your concentration ... I'm not knocking the book itself, it's worthwhile reading and very informative but lacks the overall impact of "Field of Schemes"

The accounts of grassroot reaction of sports fans and the machinations of ownership will make you feel a great measure of disgust (spoken from the perspective of someone who already found sports barons to be pretty disgusting). "Field of Schemes" will shake your faith in sports so be forewarned. When you find out how important money is to ownership (and players) and how little "Joe fan's" opinions/feelings are, you will be rattled. We already know this as a fact of life, and is considered self-evident, but the depth of it (money vs fans) is still quite surprising. What makes it that much more difficult is the posture that ownership has. We have "the fans best interests at heart" while they blackmail their communities, comes through loud and clear.

Although it made for an enjoyable read I (personally) would've preferred a little more information on how communities suffered on an economic level than on a personal level, but that's just me. I might have also dealt a bit more on athletes/agents/unions "contribution" to this problem. We often hear how athletes claim they want "market value" for their services when in reality they act as "pitchmen" for these subsidies from which they directly benefit. Their role in this fiasco wasn't made prominent enough ... if athletes, their unions and their agents weren't so quick to pounce of every bit of extra money that comes into their sport perhaps this trend could've been slowed. I also thought the authors could've been a bit more vocal in voicing their own opinions -- after all, you don't begin a project such as this without strong opinions -- in the book, especially when you consider that this wave of "stadia mania" simply postpones dealing with the root cause that afflicts sports economics.

Ultimately, the book does succeed where it's important. You don't read "Field of Schemes" and come away feeling nothing. This book strikes a very emotional chord inside a sports fan. You'll never look at your favourite team the same way again. I feel that if enough people read this book that their eventually be a much larger groundswell support for doing something to bring some economic sanity to sport. The fan has spoken in that they've showed that they've reached their upper limit insofar as how much they'll spend to support their team. That's why ownership (with the support of their players/agents/unions ... likely the only issue they're completely united on) has sought such high subsidies from the taxpayers because fans have started to "just say no" ... soon, hopefully, the public, which has already done likewise will be able to unite effectively to debunk the propoganda of the sports barons and at the same time make it very costly for politicians to override the will of the populace.

Buy "Field of Schemes" and read it again and again, when owners cry poverty, reread pages 46-48 (hardcover), read from the subheading: "Anatomy of a Swindle" on page 60, or "Suite Deals" (pg. 48-51) or the ludicrousness of retro ballparks and other publicly subsidized nostalgia in the chapter "Bad Neighbours"

Two thumbs up to Mr. deMause and Ms. Cagan. Well done."

--Odie, October 13, 1999

Field of Schemes may be available for purchase on the net at one of these sites.