By James Kanady
Pissed Again
I have been a Kansas City Royals fan since their arrival in Kansas City. I excitedly checked my DirecTV system only to find out I could not access their game against the Atlanta Braves; the old channel, 671-5, was not accessible.
Huh?
A few years ago, Fox Sports Kansas City broadcast the Royals; then Bally Sports took over; and last year it was FanDuel, but it appears the latter is going out of business. I was not charged any extra in those years, but when I checked with DirecTV, I learned that to watch the Royals, I would have to upgrade my current package to their Choice plan. But here’s the rub, Ahab: it would raise my monthly bill to $173.98! The other additional channels in said plan are those I don’t care to watch. All I want is to see my team. But in this current media climate, these providers are out to shrink our wallets.
And not only baseball. Over the past two seasons, the NFL has held fans hostage beyond CBS, Fox Sports, NBC, ESPN/ABC, and the NFL Network. Games were also exclusively shown on Netflix, Peacock, and Prime Video. I cannot imagine what new broadcast partners will be added in 2026, but if the average person paid for all of them, they’d have enough money leftover to exist on spam and ramen noodles.
And I haven’t even spoken about actual ticket prices at stadiums. I bought Chiefs season tickets in 1989, Marty Schottenheimer’s first year as coach, when my wife and I were living in my hometown of Pratt. Two seats in the lower level on the Chiefs’ side of the field cost $16.50 per seat, and only $5.00 to park. It was a 4.5-hour drive to Arrowhead. I didn’t miss a game until after my daughter was born in 1994. I had those tickets for over 25 years, the prices gradually increased every year. They became too expensive for me, so at the beginning of the season, I would pick two or three games to attend and then sell the rest to others. But eventually they increased to the point I had to give them up.
And now in the Mahomes/Kelce era, I have no idea how normal people can afford to go. My sister checked on the price for my two seats last season, and each seat was $400 to $500, depending on the opponent.
That is insane.
Then consider the gift the state of Kansas gave to the Hunt family to build a new domed stadium in Kansas. Entrepreneur Joe Pompliano broke it down this way:
“Kansas is essentially giving the Chiefs $3 billion (stadium funding + mixed-use development funding + tax incentives), yet getting virtually nothing in return. The Chiefs get to keep 100% of the revenue from all stadium activities, including ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, naming rights deals, personal seat licenses, and more. That applies to NFL games and all other events (concerts, basketball games, etc.). Kansas will own the stadium, with the Chiefs paying $7 million in rent annually. But that money doesn’t go back to the state; it goes into an account the Chiefs can use for renovations, repairs, and operational expenses.”
This is the same state that ignores the true needs of its citizens by refusing to expand Medicaid. This is from a piece written by Sherman Smith from the Kansas Reflector: “If Kansas were to join the 40 states that already expanded Medicaid, nearly 150,000 adults and children would gain medical coverage and the state would unlock $682.4 million in annual federal funding. Instead, the $7 billion Kansans have contributed in federal tax dollars to support the national program have been spent in other states.”
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President, Ty Masterson gleefully denigrate what writer Sam Quinones calls The Least of Us. A few years ago, a campaign flyer was mailed calling people on welfare leeches.
Leeches?
If the poor and working poor struggling to survive on low wages are deemed to be leeches, why isn’t the Hunt family in that group? Why not corporate farmers who are huge beneficiaries of what is welfare for them?
Income inequality is a travesty in this country—especially in Kansas. But laws are continually manipulated by those who have extracted the wealth of a nation and moved it to the haves. The United States has morphed a Third World country and is getting worse. The elites act offended when the word class is used, but like billionaire Warren Buffet said: “There’s class warfare, all right. But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Which returns me to professional sports. They are now elitist, outpricing the fans. It’s becoming the Roman Empire’s Bread and Circuses. When the new Chiefs stadium opens in 2031, the cheapest ticket in the nosebleed section will cost what? $1,000 a seat? $1,500? $2,000?
The message to the poor and working poor in this country is a historical constant to this day: You are nothing but disposable units of production to create wealth for them. Sports in 2026 North America is yet another example of class division.
Perhaps it is time for us sports fans to consider Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
Perhaps (and it kills me as a lifelong Royals and Chiefs fan) it’s time to grow up and stop being a docile audience in favor of being an actual participant in healing this fractured culture. Like Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil told running back, Larry Johnson: Time to take the diaper off and go play.
Sound advice.
James Kanady is the resource/program development advisor and creator of special projects for New Beginnings in Hutchinson. He is a published author and avid reader.