Andy Boyer

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Category: Sports (Page 8 of 18)

Baseball’s Balancing Act – Fans vs VIP’s

June 21, 2011 /

Now, to understand where this article comes from, you’ll probably have to have known me for a few decades.  So if you didn’t know me in 1988, you’ll need to imagine two high school kids going to a Mariners game, buying $3 GA tix, going up those big grey ramps at the Kingdome, and climbing the fence that separated the good ramp from the bad ramp.  Fast forward a few years later, when a friend (who I won’t identify) created fake press passes.  We were able to get into Mariners games for a few years before the jacka$$ screwed it up.  (And that’s a different story.)

So what I’m saying is, I believe that a team should let its real fans support it, even if they can’t afford to.  And the entire experience about attending a ball game should be about FAN EXPERIENCE.  No more no less.

Now, baseball is kind of unique because it is something passed down from generation to generation.  People like or dislike baseball when they are 3 years old because their parents like or dislike baseball.  And their parents like or dislike baseball because of their parents and etc… In the grand scheme of things, the Seattle Mariners marketing department has really had little impact on whether I like baseball or not.

Which leads me to my issue.

I’ve shared season tickets since 1996.  I really don’t care that much that the team has stunk for 10 or 11 of those 15 years.  It’s just something I pay each year, like insurance, energy bills and gas.  I own a little piece of real estate inside Safeco Field.  I go to my little 2 seat condo every 6th game, pay too much for a beer, and just enjoy my 3 hours.  And for 15 years or so, it’s been realtively peaceful.

So enter 2011.  On one hand, I’m excited again.  I’ve seen Pineda and Felix throw gems.  I’ve watched the Yankees and Phillies.  Dustin Ackley hit a home run.  Life is exciting. What could I possible complain about?

Ushers.  Yes ushers.  Or more accurately, ushers crushing fans.  Ushers becoming part of MY game experience.  Ushers who seem endorsed by the Mariners to make the ballpark experience kind of stink.

We sit right next to the VIP section – scouts, wives, execs, etc…. And most of the time, NO ONE sits in these seats.  I mean, no one.  Mariner wives seemed to be on a collective cruise in April and May, because they sure weren’t at Safeco.  And you didn’t see many scouts around charting Milton Bradley, Ryan Langerhans, or Michael Saunders.

Now the last 3 games I’ve attended, I’ve lost at least a half-inning each game as the same Mariners usher booted people who were minding their own business.  Incident #1: A group of 10 boisterous fans who were spending a fair amount of money at the concession stand on beer.  I give them full credit.  They recognized that there were a bunch of kids sitting near them in their assigned seats in Sec 128.  So as a group, they moved ONE section over to Sec 129, where there were 80-120 empty seats, so they could enjoy themselves without disturbing the kids.  I think that’s heads-up fan behavior.  And for this act of courtesy, they got booted.  For being in the wrong seats. Because in the 7th inning, there was still the chance that one of the wives would be showing up.  

Incident #2: Two fans are discussing the poor performance of Chone Figgins in 2011.  I’m not sure this is really a debatable point.  But there was one woman who took offense – Figgins’ fiance.  Not his mom, not even his wife.  His fiance didn’t appreciate that someone who was actually at the game, had noticed that the guy wasn’t exactly earning the money he was spending on her Gucci purse.  So, the fans got booted.  Apparently, you aren’t allowed to talk poorly about a player having a poor year if his fiance is in the same section as you.

Incident #3: 4 Phillies fans have tickets in Sec 129, row 30.  Now, that row is super cramped, so they shoot forward 4 rows to Row 26, where only a couple of people are sitting.  One of the Phillies fans starts a debate with a Mariners fan about how much better the Phillies have been since 2001 than the Mariners.  Again, I’m not sure how this is debatable.  The best response from the Mariners fan should have been, “But you live in Philadelphia.  I’m actually glad the Phillies exist so you have a reason to get up every day.”  Instead, they got booted.  Apparently debate between fans isn’t allowed at Safeco either. 

So my question… I love baseball. I like to go to a game and experience it the way fans in other cities do.  But, do I need to just accept that the Mariners VIP’s have thin skin? Or is this uber-usher out of line for continually looking for people to boot?

Supporting Data for Why Butler Couldn’t Do Anything in the NCAA Final Game

April 6, 2011 /

Anyone who watched the NCAA Final on Monday – or more accurately tried to watch it – acknowledges that it was one of the worst performances in a championship game in recent memory.  

Now, a few sports radio shows have lobbed theories that there was something wrong with the rims, whcih made the game unplayable.  And just about any sports organization that has reason to fear NCAA retribution has flat out denied that could be a reason.

I think the problem could be bigger.  There’s a reason we don’t see a lot of basketball games in 70,000 seat football stadiums.  It’s a bad environment for hoops.  And you get stuck using a temporary floor and temporary rims for your 3 most important games of the season.

This research is not complete, but here’s a first, albeit shallow, look at the last 10 NCAA Final games.  All I’ve done is taken the Team Field Goal % for the Winning and Losing Teams, and compare them to how the teams shot during the year on average.  Using FG%, and not Total Points, should take out some of the fluctuations that could arise from a shortage or abundance of foul calls during the game.

Quick math shows that Winning teams see their FG% drop from around 48.3% to 45.7%  And the Losing teams drop from about 46.4% to 37.1%.  So, if both teams see their FG% fall during the only games in which they play in 70,000 seat stadiums, maybe we have to assign a little fault to these temporary rims.  And if we are going to assign some fault to the temporary rims, maybe it’s possible the guys who set up THESE temporary rims in Houston were a bunch of numbskulls.  More data to come this weekend.

A Debate – What is Appropriate Fan Behavior at a Bar

March 27, 2011 /

This blog has been a lot of things over the years. Of course, it’s also NOT been a lot of things over the years.  But, it has always strived to be fair.  If we criticize someone for absurd behavior, we’ll turn the focus on ourselves if we commit the same behavior.

I’ve probably made fun of fans of other colleges at some point, so I thought I’d use an example from Saturday’s Elite Eight Game to spur some debate and show I can be fair.

The setup: The Ballard Loft is a very UA friendly bar.  And Saturday the Seattle chapter of the UA Alumni Club gathered to watch the Cats vs UConn game.  I’d estimate there were at least 75-85 Cats fans upstairs.  Now, I don’t spend a lot of time with this group.  But suddenly all of the UW fans I usually watch hoops with lost interest in the NCAA Tourney.  (I can’t imagine why.)  And it was the biggest UA hoops game in the last 5-6 years, so I needed to surround myself with supporters.  Btw, this is what makes sports so great.  The ability to show up and have a common bond with total strangers.  But I digress.

So imagine this scene.  You have a crowd of 75-85 energized UA basketball fans, decked out in UA gear, drinking beers, watching the game, cheering when appropriate and feeling anguish simultaneously….. And you have one guy in the corner.  He has a pom pom.  Every time UConn has the ball, he is shouting “Defense, Wildcats Defense.  Defense, Wildcats Defense.”  Every time Arizona has the ball he runs through one of his pre-programmed 4 or 5 A-R-I-Z-O-N-A cheers.  He is desperate to have the other 75 of us join him, but we’re watching the game.  Now every once in a while, the group of 6 people in the back would start a cheer and everyone would join.  And Wanna Be Wilbur would beem as if the crowd was “finally getting it.”  Then he would start up again and we’d all ignore him again.  Rinse, wash, repeat for 39:00 of basketball.

The suddenly, with a minute left, Wanna Be Wilbur and his buddy actually turned on the crowd.  And I submit that this is why UA lost that game.  In a tight ballgame with everything on the line, as every other UA fan in the bar – hell in the country – nervously wondered what would happen next and frantically shared with each other what we though would happen, Wanna Be Wilbur started YELLING AT US.  He told us how bad of fans we were for not cheering with him.  He kept up with how lame UA fans were at this bar.  How he couldn’t figure out what he was doing with such lame people.  The poor schmuck seemed not to realize that we were in Seattle, about 1,200 miles from the stadium, and that no matter how loud we cheered, Derek Williams was NOT going to hear us.

If you were at the Loft on Saturday you saw 75 drinking, cheering, excited UA fans enjoying a great basketball game.  You also heard an incredibly annoying UA fan yelling at his colleagues for not joining his one man Pom Squad.  The annoying UA guy broke all fan protocols by yelling at other UA fans.  I’d make fun or Oregon, UW, WSU, Duke, or Notre Dame if they had a fan who pulled that kind of behavior, so I have to make fun of us as well.  

So my debate question – If you are at a bar watching your team play a game, are you less of a fan if you don’t chant and sing at the TV screen, even if one guy in the corner holding a pom pom is begging you to? I say there’s appropriate stadium behavior and appropriate bar behavior.  Objections?

Fan Inspiration from Liverpool – You’ll Never Walk Alone

March 8, 2011 /

So it’s just a week until the Sounders take their 1st kick at Qwest Field, starting their 2011 story against the same villains that dispatched them from 2010.

Now we Sounders fans have a lot to be proud of, as we’re easily the best fans in the MLS.  So here’s some inspiration for what Qwest Field could look like in say, 2022.  This is Anfield, home of the storied English Premier Club Liverpool.

When I lived in Manchester in 2005, I was friends with Portugeuse guy.  He told me the story of a Champions League game in which he went up to Liverpool, decked out in his home side’s colors, and brazenly walked into the bar across the street from Anfield.  He was the only fan of the opposing side, and wasn’t shy about who he was rooting for.

He laughed and told stories and drank beer with all the Liverpool fans at the bar, and finally it became time for everyone to head over to the game.  Suddenly all the lights in the bar went off.  The curtains were drawn and the door sealed shut.  He felt hands on his shoulders in the dark and cramped bar.

He literally had no idea what to expect.  And suddenly, the bar erupted in song.  The entire bar shouted the words to “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”  And when they were done, they rushed to the stadium.  By the end of the experience, my friend was literally rooting for Liverpool over his hometown club.

Here’s a clip of what Anfield sounds like when 40,000 or so join a chorus.  Imagine if we could get Qwest to this level?

Here’s a link to a better clip that includes the words.  But, it can’t be embedded.

Cheeseheads with Attitude

January 31, 2011 /

If you didn’t have enough reasons to root for Green Bay over the Steelers this week, here are 3 more.  I love the “Cheeseheads with Attitude” and the host of videos they have on YouTube.   

Sports Stars, Suits and Cocktail Dresses

January 28, 2011 /

Wednesday night, Seattle’s top names in the sports community gathered in Benaroya Hall for the 76th Annual Sports Star of the Year Awards.

If you are any kind of fan, then you need to attend one of these.  Part cocktail party, part ESPY’s, it’s a unique collection of season ticket holders, athletes, corporate sponsors, coaches, front office execs, broadcasters and writers.  You feel like you “almost” recognize just about every person in the room, but no one looks in place in their suit and tie.

This year had its share of highlights, but the sentimental moment for me (predictably) revolved around Dave Niehaus.  There was the standard video montage, but it was made more special by the man who introduced the clip.  I can’t explain exactly what made it so cool, but seeing Keith Jackson – the real Keith Jackson – on stage seemed surreal.  I know he’s a WSU grad and former KOMO broadcaster.  But when a national legend takes time from his schedule to pay tribute to the memory of our local Play-by-Play man, you begin to appreciate the breadth of Niehaus’ popularity.  

Kudos to the Seattle Sports Commission for doing a great job pulling this event together.  They did a great thing by saving it when the P-I went out of business.  

It goes without saying that a room full of sports stars, legends and fans makes for a great party.  Try to fit this in your 2012 plans next year.

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