I have been a season ticket holder since 2007, and plan on being one for the foreseeable future. I have only been to 3 home games this year, and won't make one until August. In the past I would move around my social commitments to make games, this year I am willing to let Revs games fall where they do.
I'm in the same boat. I'm a 15 year guy. I have averaged only missing 2 or 3 games a year. I would shift things around so that I would be at every possible game. This year I have made it to 3 games. I'll probably miss a few more down the road this season. This team just makes it very hard to make me motivated. That said, I'll renew because I'd rather have a team than no team.
I hear what you are saying, and in a lot of ways I feel the same way. I was a STH for the first several years, and then was part of a group under someone else's account. In the last few years I haven't been able to make it to vary many games due to the perfect storm of losing a job, gaining a baby and a bunch of other stuff. I still watch the Revs whenever I can and I genuinely want to see the team succeed (both as a sports team and a buisness), but like a lot of you, it gets more and more frustrating as time goes on. I don't think anyone actually wants to see the team moved, contracted or otherwise taken away. I would agree with your premise that once the Revs go, we ain't getting another team back for a long, long time. Despite the fact that the Krafts basically poisoned the well, they are all we have. The best we can hope for is that somehow they get the message and see what other cities have done and finally get with the program. I'm not optimistic at all, but we can always hope. It has been discussed many times over that the reality is that no one could buy this team from the Krafts and make it work, so that is not a realistic option.
Set your view to 50 posts per page, like everyone else. -edit- looks like they took that option away. Sorry.
Ditto. I've been the point guy for 14 seats, shared among long time friends, since 1996. At the end of every year, in good years and bad, I send out a renewal note for next season and think to myself ... no one ... and I mean no one ... is going to sign up for another flush of their disposable income down the Revolution tube again. And yet, strangely, they do. I figure we've spent more than $200,000 over the last fifteen years on season tickets, old $10 parking fees, stadium food/beer, kits, away games, and blocks of additional extra event tickets. The folks I'm with seem content to waste hundreds of dollars not attending games, for the games where we all meet up and connect pre and post game. It's totally a social thing at this point. Now that we're just about on our last Revs gasp, I'm thinking there might be a better use for our $200 grand over the NEXT fifteen years and, as chairman of our group, will work on a preemptive powerpoint proposal to our executive committee come October.
Couldn’t afford to go the first season in '96 but started going regularly in ’97, was given a season ticket in ’99 as Christmas present since I was going to every game anyway, I then bought an extra one to bring people to every game with me, back when I felt liek I should try to get people into the sport. That eventually turned into three more season tickets being added to my account. I missed three games, all for weddings from ’97 through ’06, missed a few more games after that usually due to illness, until before last season. That was when I made the decision to drop my season ticket. The product on the field (and general game atmosphere) isn’t worth the time investment for me anymore, more so than the money for tickets. I’d rather be doing something else with that time. I managed to hit three games last year (all wins by the way, I’m a good luck charm!), I don’t see myself going to any games this year. That would a first since the opening season. Not sure what it would take to get me back. I know the Revs would have to play at least a damn good ¾ of a season before I hopped back on the bandwagon, even then I can’t stand Gillette Stadium, so might be a playoff only type thing if I did come back. I can’t help but think that if the Revs had added one more player and won a cup or two instead of lost 4 of them during those years that I could have handled losing for a few seasons, mentally giving them a pass since they brought home a championship.
ok so last week I got a call from my ticket rep asking how this were going, If I was going to the meet the revs in august and if I was going to re-up for next year. I basically told them that I think the Revs organization has failed to deliver a good product and the Stadium does not make for a good atmosphere therefore I highly doubt I will get them next year and if I do, it won't be until after preseason when I see what imrovements they have made if any. Not surprisingly I was told they were hearing this alot from the STH's they have contacted. Anyone else hear from their Reps? voice similar opinions?
I started going to the revs in 2006 at the insistence of Highschool friends. I had season tickets for. I attended almost every game in 07, And got season tickets for 08/09. This year I knew I was going abroad for 5 weeks and figured if i miss a few games other than those financially season tickets were not worth it. Although my work has offered me the night off when the revolution plays, I have chosen since I have come back to the states to work instead of going to Krafts Cavernous Stadium of Doom. It is extremely doubtful I would renew next year unless there was a major shakeup in the backroom, there were multiple changes to the gameday roster that made me feel good, or there was an announcement of the actual parcel of land that will become the revs next stadium. Even then, I work in the restaurant industry. The majority of my income comes on weekend nights, and I am losing around 150-200 dollars every time I go to a revs game on a Saturday. I love the sport, and don't mind that if I am rewarded with a team which might have a chance of winning.
I got a call last week from my rep. He asked if I had any suggestions and I told him I thought it was important to have fans on both sides of the field. I mentioned how the exhibition match against the Brazilian team had some good fan noise even though the total attendance wasn't high. Suggested maybe they could move the Fort over some. He said they are thinking of putting tarps around the stadium like they do at the fort and then people would be able to sit around the entire stadium. I said I liked the idea.
good that the reps are hearing it from ticket holders. do they usually call around mid-season to check up on people? i cant remember that happening before. i had season tickets for 2 or 3 years prior to this season. didnt renew this year mostly due to finaces. could have done them late, but this season was shaping up to be terrible. havent made it to many games this year at all. id like to renew next year, but there has to be some hope. since things have been steadily getting worse over the last few years, big things will have to happen to restore hope. i will honestly be very suprised if the organization makes enough moves for me to consider renewing next season.
I'm out after 6 years. I refuse to renew next season. I love the players and coaching staff but I think the FO and the Kraft Family suck! Everyone needs to remember the time before Kraft owned the Pats, when his greedy ironclad lease nearly strangled the team to death, nearly forcing them to relocate to St Louis!
Actually, it was that ironclad lease that prevented them from moving to St Louis. It forced Orthwein to sell, and Kraft was the only buyer (since he owned the stadium).
True...but, he did suck every dime out of them he possibly could. Also, lets not forget Krafts fleeting relationship with Hartford!
Exactly my point that he is a douche! http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/130309/patriots-sign-deal-to-move-to-hartford
Who knows how serious they were about this move, but it sure seemed pretty serious at the time. I remember when the Southie deal fell through and the Krafts said they'd be looking at alternatives to Boston. I spotted Jonathan after a Revs game and asked him stuff that no one had asked at all with this whole thing -- would they keep the Revs in the old Foxboro Stadium, even if they built a new stadium for the Patriots somewhere else, like Worcester, Providence, or maybe even Hartford? I had never seen an expression like this on Jonathan's face. He looked like a cross between sheer panic and absolutely livid. I didn't think that it was such a bad question, but he snapped, "I'll be happy to talk about the Patriots, but I am NOT going to discuss anything having to do with any kind of stadium! Is that clear?" Much later on, when all the Gillette/Hartford drama had been played out and the timeline of all the negotiations was made public, it turned out that at that particular time, that was the very week when a lot of the Hartford negotiations were going down. Kraft was probably wondering, who the hell is this guy, and how could he possibly know what only me, my father and our lawyers know? I'm gonna have whoever leaked this killed! It was a pure coincidence that I happened to throw in Hartford into the mix as an afterthought. At the time, a lot of folks thought they might have ended up in Providence or Worcester.
This is our second year of being a STH. We only have two tickets, my son sits in the Fort with his friends, and my hubby sits in the "snobby seats" of section 109. I go occasionally (usually at home with younger soccer-hating son). My dad treats us every year to one game in the Clubhouse section. We get free tickets to one game every year through son's soccer league. (Yes, we are their "dream demographic"!) Hubby is currently 80-20 against renewing because the product on the field just isn't worth the drive. Son wants to keep his ticket, and it is our reward (bribe) to him for keeping his GPA up. He's not old enough to drive yet, so even if he's a STH he will have to depend on friends to drive him down. Our rep called last week and left a message. Haven't called her back yet. We were treated to a game in the Revs Suite, and I picked LA. I filled out the STH questionnaire and under improvements/suggestions strongly stated they needed to make some big-impact signings and try for a DP, since many other MLS teams are doing it and we continue to fall behind. And yes, I put my name on it, so it wasn't anonymous.
I was a STH for the first 4 years, 96-99. Then I moved to NY. I caught 1-2 Revs matches per year at the Swamp and intend to attend the next visit to NJ. It's sad to see what the Krafts have made of the incredible loyalty they were gifted through years of Frank Stapleton, Walter Zenga, Mark Watson, Leonardo Squadrone and the list goes on... Gillette is a far worse place to see a match than the old place was, and one would think that if they could get a stadium built in the NY metro area, they could do it in NE if they were really trying. I wish Stevie Nicol would get raptured out of the place. Then the organization would be revealed for the lucky fraud they have become. Without his incredible ability to make chicken salad out of chicken sh8t, this franchise would be as dead as the Hillsborough Disaster...er, Tampa Bay Mutiny. I am a Mutts/RBNY hater through and through, but it's very tough to maintain a loyalty to the Revs' dubious laundry when my local team can put up a great Stadium and sign the decade's most exciting player (albeit past his prime) while the Revs' only display of real commitment in years has been their signing of Shalrie. RBNY has had a far steeper challenge than the Revs have, and even they have managed to start turning things around. I still wait with my fingers crossed for a 5-borough NY Team to support. I can't blame a single STH for canceling. And contrary to the posters above, boycotting concessions is not enough. All it does is convince the haters that you all are cheapskates. All the media will understand is empty seats. Lord knows that's all they care about in NY. The Krafts need to understand that their incredible neglect of the team, especially in light of their Patriot riches, makes them look like LOSERS. Only empty seats can convey that message in definitive terms. If I were still a STH up there I would be absolutely mortified. They might as well make "kick me" the shirt sponsor.
Nah, I don't take it personally. In hindsight, I think he was genuinely stunned that someone mentioned the "H-word," and the possibility that someone might have leaked the story when it was about as hush-hush as you can possibly be at the time. Imagine if I did know something and somehow it got out to people in the non-soccer world, like the late Will McDonough at the Globe. Man, if he thought Southie was a PR disaster.... Of course, without knowing all this when it happened, my attitude was more like "huh? what the hell is his problem?" and then I moved along without any more thought to it and took my chances on talking to Evans Wise without an interpreter.