Back in 2003, a friend of mine named Brent High made national headlines when he started organizing “Faith Nights” — Christian faith nights, that is — at minor-league baseball games in Nashville, Tenn.
In a 2005 feature, USA Today described High as one of the “fathers of religious promotion nights.” A year later, in 2006, the major-league Atlanta Braves called up “Faith Days” to the Big Show, and ABC News, CBS News and The New York Times — among other major media outlets — did lengthy reports on mingling sports and salvation.
Skip ahead to the present day, and USA Today has published the skeleton of a potentially enlightening and even interesting follow-up on faith-based sports marketing. Unfortunately, the skeleton is 435 words of lame, bare-bones, quasi-reporting.
The 2011 headline (in case you missed it five years ago):
Pro teams adding religion to promotional fan days
The top of the story:
Pro teams are increasingly promoting Christian, Jewish and Mormon fan days, because they help drive group ticket sales in a recession.
Pro teams are also getting religion because groups approach them and promote the events.
But some religious and secular groups don’t think such fan day promotions are appropriate.
Who are the Christian, Jewish and Mormon groups approaching teams and promoting the events, and why are they doing so? No idea. The story doesn’t bother to quote anyone identified as a Christian, Jew or Mormon.
Who are the religious and secular groups who don’t think such fan day promotions are appropriate? Well, of course, there’s space in the story to quote the critics. The (fairly predictable) religious critic:
(T)he Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wants equal time for other religions.
“The ultimate test of this kind of policy would be to have a Muslim Family Day — and gauge the public reaction to it,” says spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. “Given the heightened state of anti-Muslim sentiment in our society, I have a feeling there would be some objections to that.”
Has CAIR approached any major-league teams about organizing a Muslim Family Day? Would CAIR be willing to commit to buying a certain number of tickets? Is Hooper a baseball fan? Are there any Muslim baseball players who might give testimonials after games? Again, no idea. This story is about as deep as my beloved Texas Rangers’ pitching rotation most seasons.
Oh, the (fairly predictable) secular critic:
Teams have pushed ethnic heritage days for years. But religion? That’s problematic, answers Blair Scott, spokesman for American Atheists. It’s not illegal, but Scott believes it’s unethical.
“They’re out to make a buck. They’re taking advantage of people’s religiosity to make that buck. “
Scott doubts he’ll ever see “Atheist Day” at stadiums.
“When you have a Super Bowl party in the atheist community, two people show up. We don’t tend to be big sports fans.”
“They’re taking advantage of people’s religiosity to make that buck.” Again, I’d be curious to know if Scott is himself a baseball fan. It doesn’t sound like it. As for taking advantage of people, wouldn’t it make sense to seek a response from someone — anyone — on the getting-taken-advantage-of side? A Christian, Jew or Mormon perhaps?
Moreover, USA Today might demonstrate a bit of enterprise and ingenuity and quote someone other than professional critics in a story like this. Why not go to the ballpark and find a Muslim fan to interview? Or an atheist fan?
The story would still be biased and unbalanced without input from Christian, Jewish and/or Mormon fans, but injecting real voices into the piece might drop it a few notches on the Lame-O-Meter.
 | Posted at 3:33 pm |  Print
| Permalink | Trackback |
Comments (10) |
April 8, 2011, at 3:54 pm
Bobby, great points. The fact of the matter is this. Major league sports will allow any group of any persuasion to have a theme night IF THEY CAN SELL THE TICKETS! Yes, some of the team executives I work with are Christians and are really passionate about our Faith Days personally. Other executives I work with are anything but Christian but still love our events BECAUSE THEY SELL 20,000+ tickets!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
1
April 8, 2011, at 4:18 pm
Hello. Earth to Scott. That’s why they exist, to make money and this is a capitalist system the last time I looked.
Other than that, good questions Bobby and good comments about the lack of answering some obvious questions.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
4 
0
April 8, 2011, at 4:42 pm
Last year I wrote about the Faith and Family Night at the Astros’ Minute Maid Park here in Houston. A central part of the program was to be Lance Berkman’s talk on his Christian faith (Baptist, I believe), which connected the Christian theme to the team itself. As far as I know, there aren’t any Muslim players in the MLB today.
Like or Dislike:
3 
1
April 8, 2011, at 4:49 pm
Wow, Brent, news (and even blog posts) travels fast in the Google age! I don’t suppose USA Today contacted you for this story?
You made me smile, Jerry.
Kate, appreciate the link. I interviewed Berkman about his faith in ‘04 when I did a feature on the Astros’ full-time chaplain for the AP. Not that I ever went out of my way to find story angles that would get me into the press box for a game …
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
April 8, 2011, at 6:51 pm
I’m an atheist, I love sports. So do my atheist friends. Whoever Blair Scott is, I recommend he get out more.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
April 8, 2011, at 6:57 pm
Dave,
Maybe Scott and the USA Today writer both could get out a little more and meet some real people.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
April 9, 2011, at 2:54 am
If that’s true (Seeing Dave’s comment #5 makes me think maybe it isn’t.) it would make a fascinating story.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
April 9, 2011, at 11:11 am
2003?
I’m afraid these events have existed for many years before 2003. I know I went to Mormon night at the Yankees and at the Mets in the 1990s, and I believe I’ve heard of the same thing happening with other religions and in other places. Its old news.
The media sometimes are really late on picking up on this kind of thing.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
April 9, 2011, at 2:14 pm
First, the above comments attributed to Dave were made by some other Dave. This is the original Dave.
It doesn’t matter whether the Muslim or secular critics were baseball fans. What matters is whether their criticisms held water. I agree that, as presented, they did not.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
April 10, 2011, at 9:56 am
Original Dave: well, yes it does matter whether Muslim or secular critics are baseball fans. If they are not (like Mr. Scott) then their arguments are uninformed—and the franchises don’t care WHAT they think since they aren’t buying tickets anyway.
What I think is interesting is the idea that some religious cultures are good at selling (well, buying) tickets. How come?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0