Look, it would be hypocritical to attack ticket brokers. They advertise here at All-Baseball (thank you!) and for some, they provide a valuable service. I'll save the rant against the Ticketmaster monopoly for another day and point to this page of College Football bowls.

Notice the link to "Get Tickets"? I haven't seen ESPN do that before. Is this new or something I missed? Is this simply another revenue stream that ESPN/Disney is exploiting? I understand the need to make money and don't begrudge anyone that tries to do so. I paid when ESPN Insider had content I wanted, like Jim Baker. I lapsed as an Insider, but have come oh-so-close a couple times. I miss Rob Neyer's daily column and occasionally, I'll see content that makes me say "Oh, see, it's worth it."

ESPN now has a "Premium" model of pay-per-view, intrusive wall-to-wall advertising, and now a click-thru model? Add in targeted advertising and there should be enough revenue streams there to feed the Mouse. Is there a point where it gets to be too much? Should pay sites avoid ads?

It's an interesting debate and proof that no one's figured out the best way to make money on the net. I guess it's not those Nigerian letters.