This describes an evening in 2017. 

I was at a Rangers game last night.  Our great and generous friends, got tickets to the Fox Network suite at Madison Square Garden, and they invited Pat and I.  I haven’t been to a suite at the garden in quite a while, and certainly since they renovated it a year or two ago.  A ticket to the sold-out Rangers is pricey on any day.  Through StubHub the cheapest seat might be over $100 and a quality seat over $250.  To say that it is hardly available is not an overstatement.  The average fan might save for quite a while to be able to afford to go to one Ranger game a year.  Take his family?  Forget it!  Things have changed so dramatically in this country (world?) in the last 20 years.  I was an average person growing up in Brooklyn and if we wanted to go see the Rangers, Knicks, Yankees, or Mets, we would buy an affordable ticket and go see them.  We were fans, for God sakes, so of course we would go and see them.  It was a possibility.  And it didn’t bankrupt us, or make us think twice that to go see our team might make me do without something else in the near future. 

Things have changed. 

Once again those in charge have monetized whatever they are in charge of.  MSG and their prospective teams are owned by an enormously wealthy family, the Dolans, who have figured out ways of making even more money, and we the common people are paying the price.  Of course, the Dolans, (and the Steinbrenner’s, and Jets owners, Giant owners, Mets owners) are just taking advantage of the sports market, but it seems to me to be reflecting much of what I see is wrong with America.  The class divide just seems to be growing. 

When I was a kid if your dad worked you were okay financially.  You felt there was always enough, you felt safe because most moms were around to give you that great supported and loving feeling.  We might not have had a house like “Leave it to Beaver”, but we were fine, and we felt equal to everyone around us.  Of course, there were rich people who had more than us, but we didn’t see it in our face every day through something like the internet, or television reality shows.  We would go to hockey games at the old garden, and while we sat in the upper deck, and when we saw people below us with better views, we didn’t mind.  Our seats were like their seats, with two arms, and we were having a very similar experience.  There were even times when we could sneak down and actually feel what they felt by being so close to the action.  Things today have dramatically changed, and I think sports reflects our society, as it always has in the past. 

I’ve been going to MSG since I was a kid.  I feel so close to the Garden, since it has been a thread that has run through my life for almost 60 years now.  From the old Garden on 8^th Avenue between 49^th and 50^th Street to the current MSG where I saw the Knicks win their last championship in 1972 I always felt at home there.  I always had an inclusive feeling there, as I have at most sporting events.  You line up, follow the crowds, share the excitement and go to your seat.  When the crowd roars, you are swallowed up in the roar, and you just can’t help but feel that you are part of something extraordinary.  You are part of something, belong to something, and are sharing something with thousands of people.  To this day, tears come to my eyes when I think of how I felt, running on the floor when the Knicks won the championship in 1969.  Or reliving the feeling when countless times my friend Andy and I would high five each other as the Knicks did something amazing.

So last night we went to see the Rangers.  Pat loves the Rangers so this was a wonderful gift from our friends.  We got to the Garden, went through the metal detectors, got searched and surveilled by security and was walking in like we always did, when we were told that the main entrance was not for us.  The security guard showed us a small entrance which led to another world.  It was the Suites and Club entrance!  No escalators here!  No crowds pushing and sharing excitement here!  Just marble walkways, high speed elevators, and so many well-dressed employees of the Garden wishing you a good evening.  A walk through the hallways here is not the same as taking six different escalators to the upper deck (which doesn’t even exist anymore…. it’s now called The Bridge, and is also very high priced) Finally we arrive at Suite 56, the Fox Network suite.  We are greeted by a hostess, taken to the coat closet, shown where the private ensuite bathroom was, and then given a short tour.  Couches as you enter, opposite a giant HD TV, chafing dishes of food on the left, beer, wine, and soft drinks on your right (all included, not $7 for a bottle of water or $12 for a bottle of beer), and fruit and cheese in the middle.  At the front of the suite was 12 very comfortable, soft leather seats, with HD TVs built in, like stadium seating, which puts you into the Garden. Now you would think that this suite is exclusive, but in reality, there were dozens and dozens of them. I wanted to watch the game from the stadium seats, and not inside so I got a comfortable leather seat.  As I sang the National Anthem, I could not help but think that while the sentiment of our National Anthem, and Constitution, and Bill of Rights is all wonderful, the reality of what culture now reflects is very different.  Trump, corporate greed, the increasing financial divide, the ridiculous Kardashians, and Duck Dynasty (what a dichotomy), generalized dislike of those different from us, and the odd valuing of what we wear, drive, and insecure way we want to be seen makes me think that we have lost those values. 

I am speaking of all of us when I say that I too am part of the problem.  I truly enjoyed the perfectly made chicken tenders, delicious rice balls, amazing brisket sliders, and huge choice of cheeses, and dips.  I drank the red wine, and soft drinks. (True, for that night I drank the Kool-Aid)

Yes, I participated, and I suppose writing this today is my attempt to identify a blatant reality in our world and to assuage my feelings of guilt for this night when I was a participant. 

That was written in 2017. So now it’s 2026.  The rich got richer, politics got more outrageous, the economy is described as a K curve, one small group going up and one huge majority going down.  How is this possibly sustainable?