With $4 hot dogs and $12 parking spaces walloping the wallets of sports fanatics across the country, it's time to wonder when those strapped-for-cash spectators just won't go through the turnstiles.

You just wait. One day, John Q. Public will pass on mile-long lines for a $5 watered-down soda. No more herding into tiny, repulsive bathrooms, either. And, these fed-up fans will certainly have no more of the $55 seats located just beside the parking lot instead of next to the 50-yard line.

You see, American sports are simply pricing out the middle-class family of four, and are instead catering to upper class, white-collared business folk. Just look at the newly built arenas: There are more luxury boxes than fairly-priced, decent, second-tier seats for Mom and Dad with two or three kids.

The days of old when day-night doubleheaders existed for a measly $10 bucks and a nice batch of nachos would only run about $2.50 are as gone as the Los Angeles Rams. Nowadays, deep-pocketed fans must face the fact that owners and general managers alike feel that they must carry the burden of $252 million contracts.

But when will the fan stand no more? When will attendance plummet to levels so low that the stodgy, filthy rich owner is forced to lower ticket prices?

Attendance in the four major sports (sorry, NASCAR) are down, and ironically enough, average ticket prices are at an all-time high. For the first time in the sport's history, an average ticket for a basketball game is over $50. So if you go to Madison Square Garden for a Knickerbockers game, bring the Benjis.

And with every sport diluting it's talent level due to expansion, there are even more meaningless, regular season match-ups than ever before. However, fans still have to pay $75 to get a half-court seat fourteen rows up at the First Union Center, even if the Sixers are playing the Bulls.

So when will the breaking point come? When will fans recognize that it's their dollar that fuels the fire?

Not soon enough, I say. The NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL have long made its respective fan bases a virtual field of sacrificial lambs with plump pockets. Sure, no one forces the fan into an arena, but the owners sure make 'em pay for it.

So what's the best way to stop this ever-growing caveat? Impose a cap on every team in professional sports, and level the playing fields by making revenue sharing a must as well.

It's time to let teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos have meaningful games in August again, and the best way to do that is to harness the all-mighty buck of teams like the Yankees and Mariners.

And, why can't the owners recognize that they in fact hold the power when it comes to bargaining with an athlete?

I mean, sure, if the Yankees didn't give super shortstop Derek Jeter almost $200 million some other team would have, but it isn't like Jeter would have quit baseball if he could only garner a cool $100 million.

By slowing down the rate of which these mega-contracts grow, it will prolong the need for a true remedy down the road. And, where else would Jeter and other athletes like him go? No where at all. They'd take what the owners gave them or be forced to sit out.

But once again, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner bucked up and threw another curveball into the financial realm of professional sports.

Now, when the next whiz kid comes out of high school hurling a 105 mph split-finger fastball, he'll get millions for just stepping onto the mound.

And you — but not me anymore — will pay his contract by springing for the best seat your hard-earned money can buy.

Sure, I love sports, so please don't get me wrong; I just don't like being taken advantage of. Something's rotten in the state of sports, and nothing besides a complete overhaul on how the game is paid — not played — will suffice.

Pay ball!