There will always be ways to improve the fan experience in sports, and the NFU will be there to advocate for your interests. Many issues will be raised on the NFU Forum and some will rise to the level of NFU Initiatives after being approved by union-wide vote. We are launching with a few initiatives that we think most fans will agree on.
A common practice in professional sports is for teams to tank in order to get a shot at a higher draft pick. This race to the bottom evokes a spiral of despair and disappointment in diehard fans as their teams' fortunes go down the drain. Thus, in the spirit of competition, we move to initiate The Toilet Bowl Challenge, wherein the team with the worst record in any of the major sports will deliver $1,000,000 to representatives of their fanbase, to be spent at the discretion of said fanbase.
To combat outrageous ticket prices, we seek protection from ticket scalpers via price-capping for a select section for every game. These would be non-transferable, face-value seats to reward diehard fans with an affordable day at the park. At time of purchase, a short list of names will be connected to each ticket and ID will be required to confirm that the ticketholder is on that list. This saves fans money without diminishing team profits by cutting out middle-man speculators on third-party markets.
We strongly believe in, and seek to protect the integrity of, our national pastimes. Thus, we move to institute a new penalty: If a team is found to have substantively cheated in a manner antithetical to the nature of the game or in a manner that changes the outcome of a game or games, enabling that team to win a title in any of the major sports, said team will be stripped of its title.
If substantive cheating is uncovered during the course of a season or post-season, the offending team will be disqualified from winning that year's title. This punishment will not replace other penalties the league may impose.
It is absurd that fans who pay for deluxe streaming and cable packages are still forced to resort to shady VPN workarounds in order to watch their own local teams play. We support all measures that would combat local media blackouts, especially during playoff games.
We need select members of the NFU at the collective bargaining meetings representing the voice and interests of the fans. Too often, these meetings are focused ostensibly on how to best divvy up the fans’ money, not about improving the fan experience. Our members are best suited to advocate for and protect the fan experience.
For years, the founding members of the NFU have been advocating on numerous issues in an informal manner, including:
We support the concept, recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, that NCAA athletes be able to share in the billions of dollars of profits they generate, by being allowed to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness, based on the singular skills that many of them possess.
NFL athletes, in countless cases, have sacrificed their long-term health for our entertainment and for the enrichment of team owners. Therefore, we support comprehensive, free healthcare/insurance to all former NFL players.
For many years, founders of the NFU advocated for a playoff system to rival March Madness. We celebrated the NCAA move to a 4-team playoff, but we have always contended that more teams would enable small market schools to have an opportunity to face off with major football programs. As such, regarding the NCAA football playoffs, we are in support of expanding the field to 12 teams, as has been recently proposed.
We will consider all proposals that would discourage the numerous delays on MLB games. We celebrated the recent introduction of automatic intentional walks, a move that we had been discussing for years. More must be done.