[NorthbankHighbury]

I brought my three week old daughter, wife, my brother in law and his four year old son along to the Wizard's game this weekend. My little girl aside it was my brother in laws first time at the Wizards and as somebody who was excited about the plan to build a stadium at Legends was happy to hear I could trade in unused season ticket to get him and his son into the game.

A family of five, and after talking about how great the Wizards are to their fans and how we enjoy our cheap seats on the Berm we arrived and within a minute I was infuriated. The remaining two thirds had been securely fenced off for a Swiss Re (http://www.swissre.com/) staff members and us regular season ticket holders were no longer permitted into the area we had become accustomed to.


Only one third of the Berm was available and the fans that normally populate the Berm were forced to crush themselves into it or retreat to the worst seats in the house – those behind home plate … and a net! There was literally one place for us to sit down, we managed to only because we had a three week old infant with us and people made room the best they could. Meanwhile the Swiss Re people had what I can only describe as an embarrassing abundance of space.


The Wizards took a big fat crap on their fans and season ticket holders this weekend. The message? We don't give a ******** about the folk in the cheap seats – we don't care about the families that bring children to the games and have chosen the Berm because it has space. They took what was supposed to be a General Admission area and made it private, changing the terms of our ticketing in the process and filled it with such an embarrassingly small number of people that they eventually took down the fencing and relieved the stewards at half time.


So there I was explaining to my brother in law that normally there is enough room to not sit cross legged and that the Wizards have just done something stupid when I just about exploded at the sight of a others I know from the Berm being turned away. I figured they might be feeling a bit more charitable but after talking to them I realize they were just as angry as I was.

• The Wizards resold space that is generally a General Admission area. I don't really care if they underestimated the number of people that were planning on attending the game or not – the point was people who bought a ticket to sit on the Berm probably arrived to find they did not have a spot. Sitting behind home plate is only good when its raining … if you sold season tickets for that area exclusively they would not sell any.
• General Admission is first come first served. Not the Wizards selling 65% of the space and everybody else fighting over the scraps from Swiss Re's table.
• The Swiss Re people barely turned out (surprise surprise) and ultimately the Wizards did open their mostly unused areas just before half time. This wasn't out of concern for the regular fans – if the Swiss Re people loaded the areas with people we would have been out of luck and out of space.
• If they had done this to the guys on the Cauldron there would have been an absolute din made but I think they thought the Berm people would go down more quietly. This is the only reason that we can assume they did this to the folk on the Berm ...
• The Swiss Re people where not held to the same standards as the regular Berm fans – people were allowed to stand on the Berm during play. Presumably because they had room to run around and actually play with … throwing hoops and the like … I shit you not …
• The security people turning away the regulars were really really rude!!

I really want to know why this happened? I appreciate the Wizards need to sell to groups – that its a business but damn, don't shit on your season ticket holders to do it. Don't crap all over groups that bring kids with them. I also think we deserve to be told if this is going to happen again – seriously, people are going to be unceremoniously dumped out of the areas they bought tickets to I think we should know up front so we can stop the pretense they we are valued consumers and accept that at the cheapest ticket tier we just don't count.


My wife was already mad about the a security staff run in earlier in the year and was already making noises about not wanting to come anymore. This killed it – she is flat out angry, which means when work is done and the weekend roles around and I have to choose between spending time with my daughter and wife or the Wizards then I just might not bother with a ticket either.


Bottom line is it seasons Swiss Re and whatever they paid trumped loyalty to the fans. A lot of kids collect autographs on the Berm and they were just excluded for some freaking corporation … lame.

[NorthbankHighbury]

These two pictures were taken just after kickoff as witnessed by the linesman. The first shows Swiss Re areas basically empty - although the pictures look like the top ends are somewhat busy some of the people you see are regular Berm fans ... standing behind the railings separating the normal Berm fans from the their normal turf. Note the fan density on the right hand side of the picture ... and remember that once you get far enough down the Berm you have a highly restricted view of the field due to the advertising boards that jut out of the Berm wall.

The second picture says it all really ... regular fans crushed and standing on the other 1/3rd of the Berm researved for them (if it was that much) and the Swiss Re folk ..... in space ...

[Ihateusernames]

I've never paid attention so I don't know if these threads bump but if they do, consider it bumped. That's wrong.

[Ihateusernames]

FYI, they DO.

[Sunni]

Its GA you don't have an assigned seat. You get what you pay for...........

The cauldron has a max number of tickets in the section, if you don't buy yours in time you are SOL.

[kcscsupporter]

i was wondering what the hell was going on over there. it looked really goofy from the other end. and yeah, that does sound like a pretty shitty thing to do. thumbs down to the front office on that one.

[jimbchr]

Man that sucks. I can see a logical argument for both sides. I do have a question however, how many folks on the berm are sth? Maybe the FO wasn't expecting much of a walkup crowd (KU & MU playing) and figured that was gonna be open. Who the hell knows? I'm just trying to figure out how a seemingly excellent FO can fv*k up so badly.

[Roush]

Originally Posted by Sunni

Its GA you don't have an assigned seat. You get what you pay for...........

If the Berm is indeed General Admission, then it's not fair to people who have purchased a seat with one set of rules to be told - AFTER VOIDING THEIR RIGHT TO A REFUND BY ENTERING THE STADIUM - that their expectation is no longer valid. The product that was delivered to the purchaser was not the product that was sold.




At least with the Mexican League friendly people had fair warning that they weren't going to get what they purchased and an opportunity to cash out value for their tickets beforehand.

[Wizardscharter]

Originally Posted by NorthbankHighbury

I brought my three week old daughter, wife, my brother in law and his four year old son along to the Wizard's game this weekend. My little girl aside it was my brother in laws first time at the Wizards and as somebody who was excited about the plan to build a stadium at Legends was happy to hear I could trade in unused season ticket to get him and his son into the game.

In defense of KCW are the following points:

*KCW should be about the money.
*Hard to turn away a corporation that may return every year forever. Business checkbooks are always bigger.
*KCW did allow you to use unused tickets. This is huge.
*If the berm was choked with people you would still be forced into less space. At some point that's part of the deal in the berm, even if that had not been the experience before.
*You still enjoyed a great game at what most consider to be a reasonable price.
*You chose to bring a baby to an event. Any time you chose to do that, any parent and EVERY parent should expect disappointment. It was your choice to have a baby, so if something goes awry with a baby involved, well, you've made your choice. The world shouldn't have to adjust to you. Parents and especially wives have difficulty with this concept. It's all, "my baby" and such. It probably should be that way. As mammals go we are the most helpless species for the longest time. Just saying...
*By your own admission, KCW did make an adjustment at halftime.
*When buying the cheapest seat, things will happen there that will not be issues in more expensive seats no matter what kind of job is done by the FO.
*The stadium is a joke. Shouldn't things like this be expected somewhat? KCW should do whatever possible to move back to Arrowhead next year and for as many as required to complete the build the new spot.

I really want to know why this happened? I appreciate the Wizards need to sell to groups – that its a business but damn, don't shit on your season ticket holders to do it. Bottom line is it seasons Swiss Re and whatever they paid trumped loyalty to the fans. A lot of kids collect autographs on the Berm and they were just excluded for some freaking corporation … lame.

Yeah, that's what pro sports do. OnGoal again, isn't about the fans. They are about the money. If they were about soccer, they would have been here from Day 1. They always have been about money. Once you commit that to memory, everything gets less disappointing.

I'm not panning the philosophy, they should be about money ultimately, keeping fans happy will always be something to use to get more money.

KCW had a chance to convert some space into bucks and they did exactly that. No shock. It should be clear that KCW isn't run in a top-level, first class sort of way. There's definite room for improvement in the communication separtment.

To the clear negative:

Regardless of who was in your party or where seats are located, you should expect better treatment. You have a firm right to be irritiated at some things. Unquestionably the FO should have handled it better. More respect should be expected by those already here and paying. This should hold no mater what price they pay to get in.

The startling thing would be that there should be some understanding of numbers attending that would lead to better planning. That seems both critical and easily handled. Basic stuff.

Mistakes happen. Things are normally unintended. There could be better communication before the season, before the game, and during the game apparently. No excuse for rude security, they should be fired. This is just one more "OOPS!" committed by a floundering circus rookie FO whose sole priority today seems to be what money can we get from public sources. Many things have had the tinge of not thinking things through fully at all levels. Very amateurish.

I'd add separately that I worked a charity event this weekend where either a staffer or a Wizards' XI Girl (I'm honestly not sure which) appeared with freebees to give away. She was nice and personable, but opportunities lost during her appearance were her arriving late, leaving early (in her defense traffic was low as was interest and it was always going to be tougher, but still), her offering a negative opinion of Metrosports that seemed to have long roots internally within the organizaion, and finally a blanket and detailed criticism of CAB as a venue.

Now, she didn't know me from Adam, didn't know if I agreed with her or not, and I can't say that the above is the best face to put on in a market like Blue Springs that maybe isn't as responsive to KCW fandom as other places. The city of Blue Springs has a group night coming up Oct 17th as well.

All of the above is indicative of details dropped. Should the future of KCW ever be in doubt on any level, the above is on the list why. It would absolutely crush my soul to read these things. As an owner, it would also occur to me that the teams' position in the standings is in some small way connected.

Details dropped.

[Sabotage11]

Before I make my statement, I should say that I know there's a difference between someone who likes to watch soccer, and someone who likes to play soccer. A lot of us like to do both, but there are plenty of people out there who just like to do one or the other.

Anyway, every year in Kansas City Corporate Challenge, Swiss Re beats my company at just about everything. Softball, Flag Football, Tug-of-war, etc.

Except soccer. They are awful. They mainly just put bodies out there to take up space. They want the "participation points," but they don't really care to win. After we played them one time, I asked one of there players if a lot of people there have any soccer experience and he said, "Most people have no idea this sport exists."

So, which leads to the berm situation. If the berm would have been packed with people from that company, I think it would have been justified. The team sold the tickets, so they made their money. But no one from Swiss Re showed up. And the regulars were left crammed in the corner.

Swiss Re probably handed out the tickets to their employees, but it looked pretty sparse over there on Saturday night. I just found it interesting that when I heard it was Swiss Re who rented the space and it was virtually empty. That made total sense to me.

If I had tickets on the berm, and someone told me that all the empty space was rented out to Swiss Re, I probably would have lost my shit. Knowing that company-wide, they have very little soccer interest to begin with.