Niners Nation After Dark: 2011 NFL Lockout And Fan Involvement

A couple days ago somebody posted a FanPost asking people to like a Facebook page titled "Sign The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement NOW." This follows in the foot steps of the Sports Fans Coalition, which is a group dedicated to mobilizing fans in opposition to events, decisions and so forth that will harm the fans. Right now that is primarily dealing with the potential 2011 NFL Lockout. Additionally they address issues like public funding of stadiums and blackouts of local sporting events.

In the FanPost linked above, there has been a bit of a mixed reaction. While some people vocally support these kinds of movements, others view them as a waste of time or something that is basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. I wanted to see what other folks think of movements intended to mobilize fans for a specific cause. My general view has been that I'd rather people try and fail at something like this than do nothing or just sit around complaining. While it's entirely possible these kinds of actions will fail miserably, they have no chance of succeeding without the initial effort.

Some folks here at SB Nation have provided a good example of fan mobilization. The NBA's Sacramento Kings have been struggling for years to get a new arena built and now the Maloof brothers have confirmed they have been in talks with the city of Anaheim to relocate the team down there. The folks at Sactown Royalty and some other folks developed a campaign titled "Here We Stay." It culminated during yesterday's Kings-Clippers game at Arco Arena with most of the arena chanting things like "Here We Stay" and "Stay In Sac" as the Maloof brothers sat courtside.

This movement might not keep the Kings in Sacramento and given the recent history of the team I'd be surprised if it kept the Kings in Sacramento. Nonetheless folks can't say that at the end of the day the people just didn't care. This is not to say that you don't care about the future of the NFL if you don't join a Facebook group or something like that. Rather, it's one more way to show how important this is to the fans that the league and players not screw this up.