CHIEFS' FANS UNDERWHELMED BY THE "BASH" & DOESN'T TODD HALEY CREATE A LOT OF HIS OWN PROBLEMS?
The Chiefs' practice Wednesday evening at Arrowhead was open to the public, free admittance, free parking, a fireworks show afterward, 15 whole minutes of free autographs before the practice began. What's not to like right? Well, to say the football fans from the Kansas City area were underwhelmed by the offer is quite an understatement. There were about 73,000 fans disguised as empty seats last night. For all the promotion put into this extravaganza, the Chiefs have to be disappointed by the pitiful turnout. With the club & upper levels closed for the evening, this is what it looked like last night at the Chiefs' "Back to Football Bash."
Kansas City Star/by David Eulitt
As cynical as I am, I was shocked by this turnout. I think the Chiefs & the rest of the NFL could be in for a surprise this season & little of it has to do with any residual resentment from the lockout. We're in the middle of what could be bookend recessions. With 15-18 million people out of work & millions more under-employed, NFL Football isn't the slam-dunk, can't-live-without-it entertainment it once was. I'll be the first to acknowledge the experience of attending games at Arrowhead is second to none, there's just nothing like it. Every time I stand for the National Anthem in that stadium, I get chills, the flyovers, the "Home of the Chiefs" Kansas City ending to the Anthem, it's a sensation you'll never experience sitting in your Lay-Z-Boy watching it on your flatscreen. From the time you drive into "the best smelling parking lot on earth" as John Madden called it, Arrowhead is the very best in what the NFL has tried to market for decades.
But the facts are this, the Chiefs are victims to a truly bad economy, uncertainty & fear of what comes next. They have created their own problems as well, partially from a poor understanding of how their fan base has been affected & from ignoring much of that fan base when Arrowhead was remodeled. As the economic problems began to surface, the Chiefs responded by raising ticket prices. many of the folks who sit in the club level could afford the increases, but a percentage of the upper deck fans couldn't swallow upping the price while they lost their jobs or saw much of their home equity vanish. Thousands of Chiefs' season ticket holders were facing job loss, home foreclosure or the reality their children weren't going to have as good a life as they had. All these factors make season tickets or even single game tickets, just impossible to justify.
With the hundreds of millions that were spent on Arrowhead, just how much was spent on those upper deck fans. Oh they got more toilets, more concession stands, but what did they get that made their stadium experience better than shortening lines at 2 stops? If anyone has an answer, please email it or leave it in the comments section.
The bulk of the money spent at Arrowhead was for the suites & the club level. Just go to their website & look at all your suite & club level options. Look at all the bars, all the venues. Did you see a game last season where the club level was even 75% filled? So for all the money spent on sprucing up the club level experience, the fans this was intended to hook, didn't respond. For about 15-years, every single club level seat was sold. Now it looks strangely vacant doesn't it?
The Chiefs aren't totally to blame here, the league is a big part of what has happened to attendance around the league. For as long as I can remember, the biggest gripe about buying season tickets was paying full pop for preseason games. These games are not revenue sharing events. Whatever the home team takes in, they keep it all. So for years this horrible marketing practice has stood. Does Major League Baseball charge the same for spring training games as regular season games? Does the NBA? How about the NHL? No, no & no. So why does the NFL bully their season ticket holders instead of rewarding them? Because they can, or make that could, because if this economic downturn continues, fewer & fewer fans will purchase season tickets. The same holds true for small businesses that have tickets. Businesses all over the country have adapted, they've had to if they want to survive. I told you two weeks ago how I got my Directv bill lowered by threatening to cancel their service. With a reduced season ticket base league-wide, who will fill those greedy NFL pockets?
Sponsors will be strong-armed into paying a higher rate because TV ratings should rise. People with a 50" HD flatscreen can stay home & enjoy the game for a helluva lot less. As fans decide to forgo that "Arrowhead Experience" in order to save valuable resources, stadiums league-wide will have more empty seats. But empty seats mean TV blackouts, TV blackouts mean reduced revenues, it's a vicious cycle. Let's you & your significant other have two lower deck seats & parking for the season, the tab is $2,400 & that's with Red parking, not Gold. Throw in $40 more per game for tailgating or concessions & the total goes to $2,800. Plus the $3.50 per gallon gasoline to sit in traffic for hours. Let's just call it $3,000 for argument sake. You can't cut out groceries, with their 10% price increase, or the utility bills from record heat this summer, but you can cut out Chiefs' tickets. The Giants had trouble selling out their season ticket base, finally having to waive some of the PSL's. Same in Dallas, Tampa, Jacksonville, Phoenix, San Diego, Minnesota & so on. There will be some backlash, but it has more to do with ignoring the fans while claiming "the game is all about the fans." Which is a complete load of crap.
One thing I'd like to see NFL fans do league-wide is refuse to buy all the licensed products the league sells at stadiums, on eBay, in retail stores & at NFLShop.com. Nearly all of it is produced outside this country. With the labor situation being what it is, the league should take a bold initiative & build a couple of plants right here in America to produce this stuff. Think that wouldn't be a public relations coup? Yes, it would cost more, but think of the goodwill & customer loyalty it would engender. Plus it's the right thing to do for a league that's driven more by greed. Oh who am I kidding, have some kid working for 80-cents a day make the caps & t-shirts, it creates a better profit margin, filling those NFL coffers.
Let's examine the public indifference displayed by head coach Todd Haley. People criticize me being too tough on Todd Haley. I don't make this stuff up folks, he creates much of this bad P.R. all by himself. Last Friday, when the lid was slammed shut by the organization in regard to the Jonathan Baldwin fight & injury, everyone was Haley would speak to it after the game. Mitch & Len said so on the radio broadcast & Mike Kelly & Trent Green said the same on TV. When Haley is asked about the issue right off the bat in the press conference, he looks at Adam Teicher in total disbelief like "why are you asking that question?" After he's asked the same question several times, the promise to address it has become a very arrogant "no." This is how he handles a lot of his public duties, he claims to have learned the coaching profession from Bill Parcells, but even the Tuna didn't act like this until after his 2nd Super Bowl win. By ignoring all the questions surrounding the Thomas Jones-Jonathan Baldwin fight 10-days ago, they effectively dump it all in Baldwin's lap. This kid is obviously having a lot of trouble assimilating into the professional ranks, why make it harder? Baldwin will have to speak to the media eventually & they will hound him about the fight, his attitude etc. I've even seen local sites interviewing people from Pitt, Baldwin's alma mater. I think this kid has made it tough on himself with a very immature attitude, but Haley & Scott Pioli have made it even tougher.
Yesterday in his daily press conference Haley made all of these comments in answer to just one question:
"We love our fans & I love our fans."
"It's all about the fans."
"They're smart fans, I owe it to the fans that this team is ready to play on September 11th."
"I think we've got great fans."
The question?
"In preparing for a game like Friday night, personnel use & everything else, is any consideration given to the fact that it's a home game & the fans are actually paying full price for it?"
I gave you part of his answer above, here's his initial response to that question:
"Do you want the honest answer? No......I'm just kidding."
The folks who just spent $280 to watch your team go thru, what was essentially a practice with Tampa Bay, fail to see the humor in that, but this is typical these days. So many people in authority have no clue as to how arrogant they sound. Plus despite their protests, they really don't give a sh*t.
O.K. I'm done, time to climb down off my soapbox. I feel better now, probably didn't change anyone's mind or make anything better, but honestly, my heart's in the right place. I love the Kansas City Chiefs, I flew from our home in Las Vegas to Kansas City 15-years in a row to see one or two Chiefs' games per season. I've just grown tired over the years being taken for granted by them & the NFL as a whole. By the way, here's our number one draft pick at last night's big "Back to Football Bash."
The Kansas City Star/by David Eulitt
You can email questions or comments to rich@richsfootballreport.com
Kansas City Star/by David Eulitt
As cynical as I am, I was shocked by this turnout. I think the Chiefs & the rest of the NFL could be in for a surprise this season & little of it has to do with any residual resentment from the lockout. We're in the middle of what could be bookend recessions. With 15-18 million people out of work & millions more under-employed, NFL Football isn't the slam-dunk, can't-live-without-it entertainment it once was. I'll be the first to acknowledge the experience of attending games at Arrowhead is second to none, there's just nothing like it. Every time I stand for the National Anthem in that stadium, I get chills, the flyovers, the "Home of the Chiefs" Kansas City ending to the Anthem, it's a sensation you'll never experience sitting in your Lay-Z-Boy watching it on your flatscreen. From the time you drive into "the best smelling parking lot on earth" as John Madden called it, Arrowhead is the very best in what the NFL has tried to market for decades.
But the facts are this, the Chiefs are victims to a truly bad economy, uncertainty & fear of what comes next. They have created their own problems as well, partially from a poor understanding of how their fan base has been affected & from ignoring much of that fan base when Arrowhead was remodeled. As the economic problems began to surface, the Chiefs responded by raising ticket prices. many of the folks who sit in the club level could afford the increases, but a percentage of the upper deck fans couldn't swallow upping the price while they lost their jobs or saw much of their home equity vanish. Thousands of Chiefs' season ticket holders were facing job loss, home foreclosure or the reality their children weren't going to have as good a life as they had. All these factors make season tickets or even single game tickets, just impossible to justify.
With the hundreds of millions that were spent on Arrowhead, just how much was spent on those upper deck fans. Oh they got more toilets, more concession stands, but what did they get that made their stadium experience better than shortening lines at 2 stops? If anyone has an answer, please email it or leave it in the comments section.
The bulk of the money spent at Arrowhead was for the suites & the club level. Just go to their website & look at all your suite & club level options. Look at all the bars, all the venues. Did you see a game last season where the club level was even 75% filled? So for all the money spent on sprucing up the club level experience, the fans this was intended to hook, didn't respond. For about 15-years, every single club level seat was sold. Now it looks strangely vacant doesn't it?
The Chiefs aren't totally to blame here, the league is a big part of what has happened to attendance around the league. For as long as I can remember, the biggest gripe about buying season tickets was paying full pop for preseason games. These games are not revenue sharing events. Whatever the home team takes in, they keep it all. So for years this horrible marketing practice has stood. Does Major League Baseball charge the same for spring training games as regular season games? Does the NBA? How about the NHL? No, no & no. So why does the NFL bully their season ticket holders instead of rewarding them? Because they can, or make that could, because if this economic downturn continues, fewer & fewer fans will purchase season tickets. The same holds true for small businesses that have tickets. Businesses all over the country have adapted, they've had to if they want to survive. I told you two weeks ago how I got my Directv bill lowered by threatening to cancel their service. With a reduced season ticket base league-wide, who will fill those greedy NFL pockets?
Sponsors will be strong-armed into paying a higher rate because TV ratings should rise. People with a 50" HD flatscreen can stay home & enjoy the game for a helluva lot less. As fans decide to forgo that "Arrowhead Experience" in order to save valuable resources, stadiums league-wide will have more empty seats. But empty seats mean TV blackouts, TV blackouts mean reduced revenues, it's a vicious cycle. Let's you & your significant other have two lower deck seats & parking for the season, the tab is $2,400 & that's with Red parking, not Gold. Throw in $40 more per game for tailgating or concessions & the total goes to $2,800. Plus the $3.50 per gallon gasoline to sit in traffic for hours. Let's just call it $3,000 for argument sake. You can't cut out groceries, with their 10% price increase, or the utility bills from record heat this summer, but you can cut out Chiefs' tickets. The Giants had trouble selling out their season ticket base, finally having to waive some of the PSL's. Same in Dallas, Tampa, Jacksonville, Phoenix, San Diego, Minnesota & so on. There will be some backlash, but it has more to do with ignoring the fans while claiming "the game is all about the fans." Which is a complete load of crap.
One thing I'd like to see NFL fans do league-wide is refuse to buy all the licensed products the league sells at stadiums, on eBay, in retail stores & at NFLShop.com. Nearly all of it is produced outside this country. With the labor situation being what it is, the league should take a bold initiative & build a couple of plants right here in America to produce this stuff. Think that wouldn't be a public relations coup? Yes, it would cost more, but think of the goodwill & customer loyalty it would engender. Plus it's the right thing to do for a league that's driven more by greed. Oh who am I kidding, have some kid working for 80-cents a day make the caps & t-shirts, it creates a better profit margin, filling those NFL coffers.
Let's examine the public indifference displayed by head coach Todd Haley. People criticize me being too tough on Todd Haley. I don't make this stuff up folks, he creates much of this bad P.R. all by himself. Last Friday, when the lid was slammed shut by the organization in regard to the Jonathan Baldwin fight & injury, everyone was Haley would speak to it after the game. Mitch & Len said so on the radio broadcast & Mike Kelly & Trent Green said the same on TV. When Haley is asked about the issue right off the bat in the press conference, he looks at Adam Teicher in total disbelief like "why are you asking that question?" After he's asked the same question several times, the promise to address it has become a very arrogant "no." This is how he handles a lot of his public duties, he claims to have learned the coaching profession from Bill Parcells, but even the Tuna didn't act like this until after his 2nd Super Bowl win. By ignoring all the questions surrounding the Thomas Jones-Jonathan Baldwin fight 10-days ago, they effectively dump it all in Baldwin's lap. This kid is obviously having a lot of trouble assimilating into the professional ranks, why make it harder? Baldwin will have to speak to the media eventually & they will hound him about the fight, his attitude etc. I've even seen local sites interviewing people from Pitt, Baldwin's alma mater. I think this kid has made it tough on himself with a very immature attitude, but Haley & Scott Pioli have made it even tougher.
Yesterday in his daily press conference Haley made all of these comments in answer to just one question:
"We love our fans & I love our fans."
"It's all about the fans."
"They're smart fans, I owe it to the fans that this team is ready to play on September 11th."
"I think we've got great fans."
The question?
"In preparing for a game like Friday night, personnel use & everything else, is any consideration given to the fact that it's a home game & the fans are actually paying full price for it?"
I gave you part of his answer above, here's his initial response to that question:
"Do you want the honest answer? No......I'm just kidding."
The folks who just spent $280 to watch your team go thru, what was essentially a practice with Tampa Bay, fail to see the humor in that, but this is typical these days. So many people in authority have no clue as to how arrogant they sound. Plus despite their protests, they really don't give a sh*t.
O.K. I'm done, time to climb down off my soapbox. I feel better now, probably didn't change anyone's mind or make anything better, but honestly, my heart's in the right place. I love the Kansas City Chiefs, I flew from our home in Las Vegas to Kansas City 15-years in a row to see one or two Chiefs' games per season. I've just grown tired over the years being taken for granted by them & the NFL as a whole. By the way, here's our number one draft pick at last night's big "Back to Football Bash."
The Kansas City Star/by David Eulitt
You can email questions or comments to rich@richsfootballreport.com
Once again you are so f'n negative about this football team. It's getting old man.
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What's getting old is 2 playoff wins in 41-years. Are you satisfied with an entertaining football team or are you interested in actually winning a Lombardi Trophy? Continuing to give one management group/coaching staff after another a pass for not achieving that prize is unacceptable to me.
Sorry, that's why I'm so critical.
Thanks for reading.
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I'm with you, we had to give up our club level seats we bought in '90. Now we sit downstairs in the west endzone. We might surrender those if one of our foursome doesn't get a job pretty soon. Too many other things that have to get paid before the Chiefs.
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