Every Jets fan has two sides. We are all schizophrenic; we alternate between paranoid, neurotic, sobbing Suzys and rabid, take-on-the-world hope mongers. That’s why I think it’s so interesting to look at our prospects for the season through the lens of the paranoid fan, and through that of the optimistic one.

The Jets aren’t just having trouble filling seats in their new stadium, they’re having trouble filling seats in their current stadium. It appears that with a recession, rising ticket prices, the prospect of ,000 PSLs on the horizon and the general gloom and doom of being a Jets fan, many have not renewed their season tickets.

One way or another, many or most of these seats will be sold. The question is who is going to buy them, and then, who will be sitting in them?  Corporations will buy them and they will be filled by what I’d like to call “corporate fans,” a class of affluent people who aren’t particularly emotionally invested in what they are watching, but are there for a spectacle.

So now lets take a look at the expected effects of these so-called “corporate fans” through the lens of the optimistic and the paranoid fan.

Optimistic – At least the seats will be filled! In times like these it’s hard to be choosy about what kind of fan you have sitting in your seats. Just because they don’t “bleed green and white,” and they have deeper pockets than many, doesn’t mean they can’t be productive as 12th men. You don’t have to follow the Jets for 25 years to be able to yell out the J-E-T-S chant, or make as much noise as possible on third downs.

These people know what they’re signing up for when they buy tickets to a football game – they’re certainly not expecting a croquet match. And who knows, maybe they will help to erase the Gate-D reputation that has stuck with Jets fans for years. Or encourage the food suppliers at the stadium to make the edible fare, well, edible.

If I’m going to get charged for a hot dog I would like it to be a grade above disgusting. Just because you have a high amount of disposable income doesn’t make you a bad fan. A fan should be judged by his mentality, his involvement with his team, and his loyalty. Judging someone by how deep his or her pockets are is as unfair as it is stupid. If they want to buy the tickets that other people can’t afford, by all means let them brave the misery that is the Meadowlands – maybe their experience will make real fans out of them.

Paranoid – The middle class is the life’s blood of the sports industry. We watch the games, follow the players, eat the disgusting stadium food, buy the apparel, and stick with our team through thick and thin. If you push out the common person, you push out the culture of the team. You remove the thunderous roar of the crowd and replace it with the melancholy whisper of a few disinterested fans who are only showing up because they managed to score sweet seats.

Corporate fans are for box seats, quiet air-conditioned booths with flat screen TV’s and a buffet. The common man braves the elements, rain, cold, sun, clouds, in his plastic stadium seat ready to shout his heart out for his team no matter what. If you push him out, you end Jets football as we know it. You erase a fan base forged through forty years of dashed hopes and missed opportunities, who have waited season upon season for someone, anyone, to bring us out of the desert and into the promised land.

If you want an example of what happens when you build a sports team around corporate fans look at the Trenton Thunder.  A lot of people go, but nobody really cares. The atmosphere is different. I loathe the day that that happens to the Jets. I believe we are the best fans in all of professional sports. The culture, the camaraderie, cannot be replaced. If you keep true fans away from the stadium and replace them with people who aren’t truly invested in any particular outcome, it will destroy the fabric of Jets culture that has been woven since the days of Namath. And that will be a sad sight to see.

Now, I don’t think corporate fans are the end of the world. I do think, however, that it’s an issue that has to be watched closely, it would definitely be a sad thing to see Jets fans pushed out of our stadium because of ticket prices. What do you think?

From thejetsblog.com. Please read the complete article and let us know what you think below.