On a cool afternoon in late September, thousands of ordinary people drive hundreds of miles from their homes to attend what they believe will finally be an event sportsman who will enter the record books. As fans enter the crowded parking lot, their eyes light up as the enormous structure known as Arrowhead Stadium looms above them in the fall sky. When they pull into the parking lot, their clock reads 11 a.m., two hours before kickoff. They excitedly get out of their vehicle and open their trunk to reveal grilling and good times to come. These everyday people are beginning to carry on the legacy of pregame tailgating, a rich tradition that encourages fans to meet complete strangers with only one thing in common: football. Yet what appears at first glance to be simply an experience, of watching big games and supporting your team, is in fact a complex business arrangement based on the concept of making money. Indeed, “since the beginnings of professional sports, leading a team has always been a reasonable investment” (DeMause VII). Just as every team implements a certain series of plays to score, every franchise implements a series of strategies to attract the average fan. What may look like a satisfying Nathan's Hot Dog and an ice-cold Pepsi to fans is the product of complex profitability calculations done in a business office far from the events on the field. Professional sports in general, and the National Football League in particular, are not what they seem from a fan's perspective. As Kansas City's players take the field for kickoff and the pregame celebrations come to an end, fans begin to settle in, allowing their team to focus on the midfield. paper...... to have a team made up of star players and a winning record. If a team is lucky enough to have all of this, it will only be a tie. To fully win this game, they need more than a stadium and a team. They need to acquire as many night games as possible and without fans willing to buy team merchandise, no team will have the chance to become the team of legend. Only with a combination of the tactics above can a team truly maximize its profits and significantly increase its fan base..