None of you are going to regularly watch and support your school if they consistently suck.  Period.  You are, however, going to regularly watch your squads when they’re good.  Players drive on-field/court performance.  That’s why schools recruit top-tier athletes with such vigor.  Therefore, it IS at least as much about the kids on the field as it is about the name on the front of the jersey.

That’s a little overstated, as there is always a part of the fan base that will show up no matter how poor the product on the field may be.  But it’s hard to dispute the rest there.

The problem I see with taking an absolutist tack is that logic suggests otherwise, which makes it easy to knock down.  It also means that if you lose, you don’t have much of a fallback position.  Admitting that both sides have skin in the game, but that pay for play isn’t an acceptable course of action for some other reason or reasons may be harder to refute.  It also leaves you in a position where it’s easier to manufacture a compromise if events require some give and take.

**************************************************************************

UPDATE:  It’s all about the front of the jersey, right?