Kansas City Wizards 09 FAIL Thread!

Considering one of the good/consistent security guys this year says he doesn't want to deal with it, what's it tell you about the rest of the game day operations department?

Something, either MLS or something else, is up the ass of the Wizards operations group, causing the craptastic security tonight.

 

The same security guy that Kuhn is talking about (I think) also said that he pulled his guys out of the front of the cauldron for a time b/c he didn't want his guys to be the ones throwing people out - in other words, the securiy meltdown seems to be on the Wizards and not the actual security.

As I was driving out to the CAB tonight, I was a bit down because this was to be my last game of the year as next week I will be out of town - Now, after this Wizard staff meltdown, I don't feel so down about missing next week's game. (though I will probably watch the game on the computer.)

If the goal was to strip the stadium of atmosphere and simultaneously piss long time season ticket holders off, I would have to count tonite as one of the season's successes.

 

what happened?

 

Sounds to me like there should be an all hands meeting on State Line tomorrow to clarify what the tifo policy is, what exactly happened Saturday night and in what order, who has been sh-tting the bed and what action is required to rectify it. Clearly, when one part of an organization is not only encouraging but providing a supply of streamers, and another part of the same organization is cracking down on it like a Central American junta, someone either missed a f-ing memo, or the brass is not presenting a unified front on the issue. Either way, something going on this long is a systemic problem that, for whatever reason, has not been sufficiently addressed. If what I heard about security is true, it suggests that they are getting such wildly conflicting instructions that they refuse to deal with it anymore. Call it a red flag, a cry for help or whatever, it demands attention.

They should probably have a refresher in March.

 

I will be the one to put the big thumbs down on the parking lot experience. Parking is always a suck-tastic experience for me, since I am not one of the tailgaters. When the parking lot flunkies wait until 15 minutes before the game kicks off to allow cars to park in the lot directly in front of the hotel, that's too freaking late. I complained many times to the FO about the parking lot attendants not allowing people with blue lot passes to park in the BIG EMPTY lot directly west of the stadium until really really late, but it didn't really help. I end up just arriving about 15 minutes before kickoff to insure I can park in the other lot. One time I went around their cones and got run down by an attendant saying the other lot wasn't FULL yet. SO FREAKING WHAT? It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but if you have to drive around the other lot to try to find a spot that isn't being used by tailgaters, that's a big pain AND it's dangerous to people out walking around. Either have attendants direct all the traffic, or move the damn cones and let it be a COMPLETE free-for-all (which it really is anyway).

This whole CAB situation is starting to rub me the wrong way. The view from every seat in the stadium sucks, the parking lot situation REALLY sucks, and now the team play sucks too. The slight home field advantage we had last season is GONE. And now we are stuck here well into the 2011 season? I think I will wait until the stadium situation is resolved before I renew my tickets again.

 

While the security got out of hand in a hurry, it all started with someone nearly hitting Kasey Keller in the head with streamers. I don't think you can justify a malicious action like that as adding to the game experience. While it is "just a little paper," I think we can get into a keeper's head without making him worry about getting hit by objects thrown from the stadium. That's bush league and makes us look stupid.

Most importantly, security needs to cool it with their snap responses. Yelling at people and chasing them out of the section just makes a spectacle of their efforts, inciting still more unrest. Deal with these issues quietly, professionally and as quickly as possible. I'm trying to watch a game here.

 

Yunno I never had a problem parking - in two years at CAB, and I arrive anywhere between 6pm and 7:15 for games ... most of the time I manage to park right by the tailgate. Never had an issue ....... getting out can be a little slow, but then 10,000 people is going to generate a little traffic. 20,000 at the new stadium is going to as well.

The reason I quit coming at 7:15 and aim for 10-15 minutes earlier than this is all the soccer mums seem to want to time arriving for the last few seconds, want to pull into a spot and walk into the game and have the Wizards kick off ...... its just not always going to work out.

Frankly when that Red lot is open early and I get waved into it it pisses me off -- I like parking near the exit and the tailgate

After Arrowhead ... its hard to get bent out of shape.

 

That happened after they started escorting people out. I was already up behind the Cauldron when it happened and I left after they chased someone up the stairs.

 

OK well what I had been told was that the streamer wasn't thrown anywhere near Keller and they grossly overreacted to it.

You know, I thought we did a pretty good job at Arrowhead with the self-policing system that one year; maybe we should go back to that. It's just too hard to see who did what when you're located outside the section--we know this because security seem to guess wrong every time they throw someone out. We have plenty of people with a vested interest in the growth of the section who have a much better view of the trouble area and, if they are in doubt, can gather information quickly and accurately from likeminded supporters. Yes I know some people didn't like the system because they felt they should just be able to watch the game, but in truth it is a system that has worked well in other parts of the world, and we can always come up with a rotation so it doesn't always come down to the same people.

Outside that, I would be fine at this point with a categorical ban on streamers--they are apparently too difficult to regulate.

 

Streamers are stupid. Always hated them.

I never understood why soccer fans -- alone among almost all sports -- seem to think it's OK to throw stuff on the field and interfere with play.

Ridiculous.

 

I'm fine with that.

Overall my problem was the fact that the team provided us with streamers and THEN proceded to be Nazi's about throwing them. Previously there has been repremands or other things done the first time someone threw one. It also probably would have been fine if Wyche went up to Robert and told him they had to be strict tonight or something, that would have helped the issue as well....

 

They could have also used the megaphone that Jeff and others have to lead chants and simply say into the megaphone "don't throw the streamers during the run of play . . ."

This is actually what is so frustrating - because the staff chose to ignore a simple solution that could have dealt with the streamers, the situation escalated. In hindsight, the only thing that could have happened after the initial choice to throw people out was escalation. What a collective inability to creatively solve problems.

 

depending on which time a streamer was thrown you're talking about...there were 2-3 that were thrown directly in front of me that were thrown at keller, one person tried saying they were thrown at the net but well to far gone at that point to get away with that excuse

 

Honestly, outside of last weekend I feel like security at CAB has been consistently better than the way things were at Arrowhead. They've done a good job making sure that we have the same security guys assigned to our section each week. We've built a decent working relationship & understanding with our security guys & I think that the supporters generally know where "the line" is.

I think we already do as much self-policing as we did at the 'head. Maybe the growth of the section and resultant splintering (for lack of a better word) has left certain groups/individuals not on the same page with everybody else...

From what I saw on Saturday and what I heard from people in other parts of the section, the problems on Saturday were due more to with the Wizards staffers than the normal security guys. The Wizards staff were the ones snapping to get people thrown out and getting in people's faces... as noted here and in the other thread, that just causes things to escalate.

If you're going to change the rules and acceptable behavior that we've established over the past two seasons, you have to let people know ahead of time. A little communication was all that was needed. Instead we got Chris Wyche's macho, dick waving, jack-assery and everything went to hell.

 

Ditch the Streamers alltogether, Kasey was nearly hit, I watched one nearly hit him in the head, a mere foot from his skull.

MP

 

Yeah I was down on the sideline behind Keller shooting pictures, I know I saw a streamer hit him at one point, not that he had much of a reaction to it. After all it didn't hit Montero so nobody was falling from that one.

I cant say I know or saw what happened with security in the section, I thought I heard some type of verbal confrontation going on over there, but had no idea what it was about.

 

Which would have done what to him, honestly? The only reason streamers shouldnt be thrown onto the pitch is because a player could step on a roll that didn't unwind properly and twist their ankle or fall, not really because getting hit in the head with a wad of paper is a tremendous hazard. Also the officials don't like the stoppage of play to clean them up. That's pretty much it afaik.

 

OH NO! Was he traumatized?? I hope he recovered well from that near miss.

 

For whats its worth I think the streamers are pointless and stupid. Not sure how lobbing a stream of paper onto a net shows your love for your team and things got really silly in the LA Galaxy game. More trouble than they are worth.

That said, the real question is why they were handing out, if they were not to be used. What about this game merited the fish bowl security?

 

I've also heard of streamers metamorphosing into beach-balls and deflecting shots in for goals.

 

I'm wondering if someone was at the game (MLS Brass maybe) that led to that.

 

Rumors of an observer from league headquarters. Something about "4th from the top"?

There was also some discussion postgame about whether 4th in charge at MLS is even a paid position...

 

Not rumors.

OnGoal and the Wizards were undergoing an operational audit on Saturday night.