Sports' forecast: gloomy

It has been tough to think negatively about sports recently. After all, the NFL playoffs have been exciting and controversial. Underdog Ohio State shocked Miami in double overtime to win the Fiesta Bowl and the national championship. Mario Lemieux has battled back from hip surgery and cancer to lead the NHL in scoring. IU has started Big Ten play, and the Indiana Pacers sit atop the NBA's Eastern Conference, led by perhaps the best two-way player in the game -- Ron Artest .\nWhile all appears sunny now, dark clouds loom on the horizon for much of professional sports. As always, the problem revolves around money. This may seem like beating a dead horse -- for decades owners have bemoaned their hard luck and their inability to make a profit while paying outrageous salaries to themselves and their players. This time, though, things may be hitting a point of no return.\nThe NHL appears to be the American league in the most danger. \nThe Ottawa Senators, which possess the best record in the Eastern Conference and average over 16,000 fans per game, were unable to pay their players on Jan. 1 and filed for bankruptcy protection just over a week later. \nMany factors led to the Senators' insurmountable debt, including a bad lease deal, the lack of government handouts many U.S. cities and states give their teams and the severe handicap of having to pay players in U.S. dollars while bringing in revenue in the lower valued Canadian dollar. \nThe other major American leagues are also hurting, albeit to a lesser degree. MLB threatened contraction last year and the Montreal Expos will likely be sold and moved to the Washington D.C. area after a 2003 season that sees some of their "home" games played in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The NBA has had a team relocate in each of the last years. The NFL, the strongest league financially, faces a possible relocation of the Indianapolis Colts to Los Angeles. \nWhy have things gotten to this point? In America, the problem is rooted in overexpansion. All four leagues have expanded with reckless abandon over the past twenty years. When a new NBA team begins play in Charlotte during the 2004-2005 season every league will have at least thirty teams. Owners have seen expansion as an easy way to fill their pockets with the high expansion fees paid by the incoming owners. New teams necessarily dilute talent, which inflates statistics and the importance of star players to the team. These players sense their increased value to their franchise and demand pay "comparable" to their value. Some owner is seemingly always willing to pay this new value, which increases each year as new free agents try to get what they feel is owed to them. Higher salaries cause owners to raise ticket prices, concession prices and parking rates to cover increased expenses, a move that prices more and more fans out of the game. \nEventually, enough fans stop going and stop buying. They simply stop caring, which leaves teams in a financially precarious situation.\nWhat can be done? While contraction might seem like a dirty word it may be a necessary first step. Fewer teams would equal fewer mediocre players in the league, which should equal better teams, better games and increased interest. \nBut, owners also need to win disgruntled and outpriced fans back. To do so, they should take lessons from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Pacers president Donnie Walsh. Cuban has done everything to peak interest in the Mavs, from giving face-painted fans free seats in their own section to sitting in the upper deck to working out a promotion for free chalupas if Dallas scores over one hundred points. The Pacers provide $10 seats to all home games, a move that allows financially challenged students to go to Of course promotions and cheap seats can only go so far. However, for franchises in trouble, even five hundred extra fans gained by the allure of discounted tacos could possibly save a franchise.