This is how it works in 2018: multi-billion dollar sports business that micro-manages everything it touches, including the size of midfield logos and the socks worn by its employees, whiffs so horribly on the most basic level possible that the highest-profile event of the regular season is moved and the only ones worse for the wear are the poor shleps who spent their own money to watch.
The NFL done messed up.
To be fair, the league is on the unlucky end of a conspiracy of bad events that led to moving the Monday night Chiefs-Rams game from Mexico City to Los Angeles.
Azteca Stadium installed a new field this year, and had a series of events scheduled recently, including a concert that apparently did much more damage than expected. An unusually heavy rain season made everything worse.
And the league deserves credit! Sort of. Moving the game was the right decision. Even if the Chiefs and Rams were not among the leagues highest-profile and most successful teams, stacked with stars and MVP candidates on both sides, putting players at unnecessary risk with an unsafe field wouldve been an indefensibly arrogant mistake.
So, that was the easy part.
The harder part will be explaining how this happened, and how a league obsessed with control lost it here, but thats important only for the NFLs own housekeeping. The result will almost certainly be tighter guarantees and more control over stadiums for future international games (and, yes, there will be many more, including at Azteca, because thats how business is grown).
The important thing will be whether a league that is often and fairly criticized for viewing fans as profit centers is willing to do everything it can to make things right with those passionate enough to make travel plans for Mexico City.
Lets be clear. The league can only do so much. Every ticket in every sport includes a subject to change disclaimer, and as powerful as the NFL might be, it cant dictate to airlines and hotels that they change their refund or change policies.
But, this is an opportunity. The league _ and the Rams and Chiefs _ can at least offer a gesture.
Give anyone who bought a ticket for Azteca and cant make it to Los Angeles a seat at a game next year, with parking. Give them a pass to the teams official tailgate, and a ticket good for something to eat or drink once they get inside.
Nothing in this world is easier than spending someone elses money, and thats especially true about spending the money of a foolproof, taxpayer-funded, private business.
But this is good business, as well as a good gesture.
Moving the game was a league decision, and it was originally a Rams home game. So the Chiefs are a bystander here, but their fans are the most affected.
Any Rams fan from the LA area who had a ticket to Mexico City can cancel, stay home, and watch there.
