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With America mired in a fiscal crisis that’s seen our financial institutions and once robust automotive industry looking as unstable as Pac Man Jones at a Vegas strip club, the sports industry as a whole will not be spared from the current economic ugliness.

Sports have historically been relatively recession proof in the modern era. The games provided a therapeutic diversion from the dot-com industry’s Britney Spears-like meltdown a few years back. The country’s celebrated athletes, through their on-field exploits, helped soothe the nation’s bruised psyche and collective broken heart after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It would seem to offer the same for the falling Dow Jones and the sub-prime mortgage crisis that’s left many folks more battered than boxer Oscar De La Hoya after his recent thrashing at the hands of Filipino sensation Manny Pacquaio.

Although the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys  have leased all of their exorbitantly priced luxury suites in their sparkling new, billion dollar cathedrals – as major corporations clamor for sponsorship opportunities – the commercial successes of these marquee, A-List franchises do not illuminate the entire story.

With unemployment rolls swelling like Plaxico Burress’ attorney’s billable hours, the average Joe (not to be confused with Joe the Plumber),  are undoubtedly being forced to examine the best uses of their disposable income. Franchises, and entire leagues, are feeling the heat.

The NBA, a global powerhouse, closed its west coast office recently and cut 16% of its overall staff. This year’s Super Bowl will not feature an ad for General Motors for the first time since Chris Webber called that fateful timeout against North Carolina in the 1993 NCAA Basketball Championship game.

The NHL is in a hiring freeze. The National Football League, the undisputed champion of America’s rabid sports culture, recently announced 150 layoffs. NASCAR employees are experiencing the firings heat as well.

With the absence of Tiger Woods, coupled with the sport’s dependence on sponsorship dollars from commercial and investment banks, Golf looks to fall faster than Kimbo Slice and the sudden bankruptcy of the upstart mixed martial arts organization Elite XC.

Speaking of Woods, General Motors has just dropped Tiger as a spokesman, stating that they can no longer afford his annual $7 million payout to endorse their line of automobiles.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the company that runs its thriving Internet division, got rid of 5% of its workers last week. The WNBA’s Houston Comets, the best and most important American women’s franchise in the history of basketball, folded in early December without so much as a ripple on the national radar. One has to wonder about the entire league’s viability in the tough years ahead.

Rumors are circulating that the Arena Football League will cancel its entire 2009 season. They’ve repeatedly delayed the release of its season schedule and free-agency period. In an a recent LATimes.com story, Los Angeles Avengers owner, and former league chairman, Casey Wasserman said that the league needs to take the time to become more efficient because of the poor economy.

“It’s important for the Arena Football League to think about the next 20 years,” Wasserman is quoted as saying on the LA Times website. “And the economic model, combined with the economic environment we’re in currently doesn’t allow us to take that perspective. By suspending play for the year – in cooperation with our players and our partners – it allows us to get the perspective to try and make the decisions that are in the best interest of the long-term viability of the league.”

T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire energy magnate, donated $63 million to Oklahoma State University’s athletic department in October. The huge sum, however, was given to prop up a fund that had lost an astounding $282 million since July.

Pickens’ made the single largest donation to a university’s athletic department in 2006 when he forked over $165 million to Oklahoma State. That money, coupled with another $57 million that was raised, had ballooned to $407 million this summer. But when the stock market crashed and the investment fund was cashed out, only $125 million remained.

Athletic programs across the country have scrapped plans, for the time being, of scheduled long term capital projects like building or renovating facilities.

These scenarios are proof that the, once assumed, recession-proof world of sports is having as many financial issues as Michael Vick right now.

As for the little guys, fans have been gouged over the years with the likes of $20 parking, $8 hot dogs and $5 sodas, not to mention the crazy ticket prices for seats at sporting events.

Now that money is tighter than a pair of spandex shorts on pitcher CC Sabathia, I know I’ll keep the few dollars I have in my pocket this year, watching my New York Knicks with my daughters in the family basement.

And maybe when Barack Obama eventually gets this mess straightened out and future Knickerbocker Lebron James is bringing an NBA championship back to Madison Square Garden, I’ll have a little something extra to blow on a few nights at the game with my wife and children.

This story is filed under: Leave Me Alone, I'm Watching the Game!, Sports