New Jersey Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone, D-Hudson, is fighting for New York Giants and Jets fans, sponsoring legislation that would ban the sale of personal seat licenses at all state sports facilities.

He urged the New York Giants to rethink their plan to sell PSLs for every seat in the under construction Meadowlands football stadium and applauded the New York Jets for allowing 27,000 fans in the upper deck to buy tickets without paying the one-time license fee, according to media reports.

The Giants, who declined comment for the linked Associated Press story, plan to sell seat licenses for as low as $1,000 to fans who want upper deck seats. Those desiring better seats could pay as much as $20,000. The Jets PSLs range from between $4,000 and $25,000.

Teams have been charging for PSLs in increasing amounts to help pay the cost of building new venues. The fees come on top of the eventual cost of actually buying the tickets.

While the Giants and the Jets are working together on a plan that would give PSL owners dibs on concert tickets and other non-football events, the New York teams have received criticism for the initially-released details of their respective plans. Jets fans earlier during the preseason rallied outside the stadium in protest of the arrangement.

Fans and industry observers have become increasingly critical of the arrangements as the values have increased dramatically. The Dallas Cowboys, for instance, are charging up to $150,000 for their PSLs – on top of the $300 million in public financing the team received for its $1 billion playground.

Some may say “if the owners can get the money they are seeking then more power to them.” And the capitalist in me doesn’t necessarily disagree. But I think there are some dangerous precedents being set by these owners. Many of the most loyal sports fans are blue collar workers who can’t necessarily afford to plunk down four- and five-figure payments just for the right to eventually buy themselves the tickets to actually go to the games.

These owners have little to no ability to relate to these fans – and maybe they don’t need to. If they fill their stadiums anyway then what does it matter where the bucks come from.

But as these new, state-of-the-art stadiums open and the costs keep running higher and higher, many of the fans that helped build the sport, the league and their respective favorite teams to the levels they have reached are going to end up watching the games at local watering holes rather than at the buildings they dug into their pockets to help build.