The lesson he learned from his success was that for true fans, the value of one-of-a-kind rewards will always exceed the value of money.
For 21 years, Madden, an all-conference lineman in college who suffered a career-ending injury before playing a down of pro ball, has been educating football fans about the value and charms of these unpretty behemoths who never get the girls, the publicity or the money.
As the new Yankee stadium, the as-yet unnamed Dallas Cowboys' new home and the Mets' Citigroup- (and taxpayer-) funded Citi Field are receiving their finishing touches, the tanking economy has many fans rethinking the value of super seats and super stadiums.
Again, a lot of our Facebook fans cited the value of patience.
Among the limitations, scores can bounce around from year to year for any one teacher, notes Ross Wiener of the Aspen Institute, who is generally a fan of the value-added approach.
An avid sports fan, he recognized the value of sports for promoting Parmalat's new kind of milk, financing World Cup skiing, Formula One car racing, and later, the Parma's Serie A soccer team.
While the benefits of this new type of fan are clear, the value proposition to the average consumer is dubious at best.
The API's answer to this is to double down on existing, loyal newspaper fans: "The real value to newspapers comes from serving … 'core loyalists', the group of heavy users who visit a news site about 18 days a month, two to three times a day.
In short, in the minds of most fans, the entertainment value of college football surpasses the seedy dealings that occur behind the scenes.
