A rant again

I think it's time the management sides with the fan for once, or at least isn't just so quick to jump on the side of the complainer, and hears out two sides to a story for once- because I just don't get the logic. First of all, at the issue's core, at its nature, is the fact that a professional baseball team should not have, as part of its policy, a fundamental nature to side with people complaining against fan support and cheering for the team, so long as there is no drunkenness, vulgarity, threatening, or massively foul language as part of the cheering. As long as people want to support the team, that should be supported at all costs for that mere principle.

But it just doesn't make business sense on top of that. Why are the ushers instructed to respond so quickly to a single complaint? Well, it's because the team doesn't want to lose the business of the complainer, sure. But think about it. The people who complain, if accomodated by the staff, might come back to 4 or 5 games in a season- whoop de do, congratulations team, I guess. And I guess, yes, if they are told, "People are allowed to cheer, it's a baseball game," the team may lose the patronage of the one, two or three people for those 4 or 5 games.

But by alienating the diehard fan, making them question their purchase of season tickets or their fanatical support, the team risks losing several people who attend over forty games per year. Forty vs. five to ten. Speaking on strictly business terms, it just doesn't make sense. When all else is gone, when the gimmicks arent there, when there's no cool giveaway item, when the game is at 5 even though the website says 7, we are the ones who will be there, always there, spending our money on the team. We will be the ones wanting to spend money on every jersey raffle and every new piece of Spirit merchandise, and the ones being loyal to companies who sponsor the Spirit, encouraging them to keep sponsoring the team and therefore making the team more money.

They will be the ones who call the crappy stupid local dinky radio station that covers the games jsut to tell them that they are so glad they carry the games and hope they continue to do so. They will be the ones who spend months researching to make their final exam grade in AP English reliant upon a research paper and presentation about independent baseball, enlightening a now curious teacher and a roomful of students with money to spend. They will be the ones who always tell their friends how great it is to go to the Spirit games. They will be the ones counting down the days til freaking exhibition games and pounding on the gates chomping at the bit to get in as soon as the gates open for the first game of the year and there til the very end of the season, the last ones to leave, be the ending bitter or sweet. They are the ones who will be there, they are the ones who are the core of the Spirit's fan base, and it is them, not the people who complain, who need to be supported.

Of course, maybe the reason is right there in front of me. Perhaps they KNOW that no matter what experiences I have at the game, the next day, I will want to go back. I will still be there, no MATTER WHAT. Those other people, they might not come back, but I will. They are (and I guess rightfully so) taking me and people like me for granted. They can cater to the others knowing full well that we'll still be there.

But you know what happens when you take things for granted. Soon those things won't be there.

At the rate the organization is going, this team might not be here for long. And although the thought of that possibility has made me tear up in the past, and if they left right now I would be devestated, if they keep alienating their diehard fans, I would be more than willing to say good riddance.

Nick Lopardo told me to leave and he'd give a full refund of the season tickets. But what he doesn't understand, what people other than the core of us don't understand, is that I wouldn't want that regardless of the bad days. If it meant never going to a Spirit game again, I wouldn't give up my season tickets for as many Red Sox tickets as you want to give me, hell, I wouldn't give them up for $2000. I've had too many good experiences there and have made too many great friends. And I care too damn much about the team. But if the level of passion and caring put in by the fans exceeds that of the staff, we have a serious problem- and soon it will all be levelled off.