"Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My!"

Sports nicknames are an untapped educational resource gold mine!  As an early primary school age child I had a social studies foundation without attending any class.  Knowing the teams I had a good idea geographically where teams were located and by their nicknames I often knew something about the city/region.  As evidence here are some things I knew/learned growing up.

Canadian Teams:
Edmonton Eskimos:  Canada's "northernmost" major city, approaching the edge of the tundra and land of the Inuit
Edmonton Oilers:  Alberta is Canada's oil capital
Calgary Stampeders:  home of Canada's largest stampede and one of the most famous in the world.
Swift Current Broncos (junior hockey):  western/cowboy/ranching area
Steinbach Wheelers:  Steinbach is also known as "The Automobile City" because of it proportionally high number of automobile dealerships
Kleefeld Stingers:  Manitoba's honey capital
University of Manitoba Bisons:  beast of the prairies, Manitoba's official symbol

American Teams:
Local animals:  Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks, Phoenix Roadrunners, California Golden Seals
Midwest/plains ag scene:  Nebraska Cornhuskers, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies
Industrial connection:  Pittsburg Steelers, Hartford Whalers, Indianapolis Racers, Houston Oilers, Milwaukee Brewers
Geographic features:  Miami Hurricanes, Phoenix Suns, Colorado Rockies (NHL), Minnesota North Stars, New York Islanders (located on Long Island)
Wild west:  Dallas Cowboys, Oklahoma Sooners (I didn't know what a Sooner was but recognized the "wagon"), Denver Broncos, Houston Colt .45's
Cultural heritage:  Minnesota Vikings, Boston Celtics, Penn Quakers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, New York Yankees
Indigenous heritage:  University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, Florida State Seminoles

The above illustrates what I knew/learned as a school ager and not meant to be an exhaustive list.

Being familiar with sports nicknames helped me on the civics portion of my naturalization oral exam.

Sports team nicknames are a readily available educational resource with the bonus being that many students follow sports thus connecting the classroom to the "real world.".

Tickets Getting Out of Reach

I started attending sporting events around 1980.  As a sign of my increasing chronological existence I have fallen into the stereotypical pattern of referencing "the good ol' days."  One of my beefs has to do with the cost of tickets to professional sporting events.  My complaint is not that the ticket prices have gone, because that is to be expected but it is the disproportional increase in ticket prices that upsets me.  Rather than just rambling on about how much better the past was I present some numbers comparing the average income for fans, average baseball ticket and average salary for a professional baseball player.  I have chosen baseball as for a long time it took pride in offering an affordable family entertainment option (i.e. ample availability of "cheap seats" often less expensive than movie tickets).

1980:  average income $13500, average baseball ticket $4.50, average player salary $20000
2018:  average income $62175, average baseball ticket $72, average player salary $4.2 million
Increases:  average income 4.6X, average baseball ticket 16X, average player salary 210X

Numbers don't lie, sports ticket prices have increased at a rate disproportionally higher than inflation and the cost of living.  Old guy theory/complaint:  validated.  Player salary increases:  that's another rant.