Romance Books and Sporting Events

I have a small bookselling business and I am struck by the huge supply of romance books. Just out of curiousity (I swear it was just that) I read a couple. They are all slight variations of the same storyline. Girl meets bad boy, girl is separated from bad boy, girl rejoins bad boy(who is really misunderstood) and lives happily ever after. It struck me that romance books and sports share a lot in common. Now first let me admit my bias. I think both are goofy and a waste of time and money. Like romance books, sports have the same story over and over - boys (usually) chase some ball or puck around for about an hour in an arena costing an average of $188 million.

Both sports and romance books fulfill fantasies - the sports fan (who often played - or wished they could- in their youth) and the reader (who often had - or wished they had - romance in their youth) relive the excitement of participation and both sports and romance audiences are insatiable. Both neglect to enrich the fan in any way as no one is any smarter, stronger, or richer for having read or watched the same event repeatedly.

According to Wikipedia, In North America in 2002, sales of romance novels generated $1.63 billion and comprised 34.6% of all popular fiction sold. Over 2000 romance novels were published, and there were 51.1 million romance novel readers. I could not find the total cost of sports but when you factor in school gymnasiums, coach salaries at the school level, sports injuries, costs of city stadiums and player salaries, gambling on the outcome, newspaper sports pages and their reporters, and the number of fans buying tickets to watch the ball chasing, I am sure you would be impressed.

The $185 million cost of renovating the New Orleans Superdome was mostly covered by refinancing existing bonds and FEMA money while the city has hardly been touched. The priorities of this country are really screwed up when fantasy has a higher priority than reality.