Placing the blame on anyone who's neither openly-promulgating the chant or working in crowd control is ridiculous. And Belillo's comments seem to suggest that if TeamOps threw people out of the Fort, then I shouldn't care unless they have a Riders, Rebels, or Army membership card! If you're sitting in the Fort, cheering, chanting and singing with me then you're my brother. We're all part of Nicol's Army. If anyone was treated this way, either Rider, Rebel, or indifferent, I'd still be pissed.
It's about being interrogated in custody. If not, they'd have to throw out 90% of the confessions and incriminating statements they get on First 48.
Judging from the comments made by Bilello on F.B he still can't admit that the situation could of been handled better (as explained in detail in this thread). I bet he wishes we would all just go away. We should seize this opportunity and do something at the Man U game.
I bet he does. He's a nice guy. I just can't get over the fact that instead of having the conversation about the ysa chant they reacted like this. I've made the decision to no longer purchase tickets or financially support the side until minimally there is a very candid public apology for the way this was handled. I hope others join me but I suspect I will be in a very very small minority. It's tough to walk away from a team and game you love. I can live with mediocre seasons and little frustrations with the fo and thier policies. I am sick to my stomach that this event went down the way it did with no candid conversation about ysa with the supporters. Straw that broke the camel's back.
Ultimate conspiracy theory: they're trying to distract people from the fact that June's slipping away and there's no word of incoming DPs...
Maybe you all should just go away. Send your tickets back to Brian along with your scarfs and jerseys. I'd be willing to bet he could care or less if there was even a fort
I don't think anyone in the organization cares whether there will be a DP or not, quite frankly. The saga of "almosts" has become almost trite. A more likely conspiracy is that they timed this orchestrated action right before a long road trip so the abused spouse would have time to cool off and come home to Papa three weeks from now. I was at the TFC game, there were people yelling YSA at that game and you could hear it a lot more clearly, too, so why not then?
Well said. [conspiracy] Perfect storm prompted the decision to take action Saturday night: a) Rea$on: The FO wanted a distraction from the fact a DP is probably not coming this summer (based on Nicol's comments), indicating STH's clamoring for attacking help will not get what they asked for, possibly hurting the renewal rate. b) Rea$on: Season Ticket Renewal is coming up, the FO may be facing the prospect of potentially losing x% of their stable, less volatile soccer mom base at midfield who apparently complained about the swearing. c) Rea$on: Action was needed ASAP because the FO projected the road trip will lead to more poor results, making it harder to renew disgruntled STHs. d) Rea$on: Man Utd coming to town is a great STH sales opportunity; in the FO's mind, the people complaining about the swearing may be more likely to opt out of purchasing season tickets if they didn't take action. e) Rea$on: It may have been judged to be a greater financial risk to lose the x% midfield STHs than the Fort (who they feel will renew regardless) so the FO had to make a business decision (80/20 rule). [/conspiracy]
I have posed this question in response to two of Brian's postings on Facebook and have yet to receive a response - Brian Bilello was there in New Jersey as over 100 supporters entered the stadium, he stood and watched us while we all went through the gate and gathered as we were held back by security before going up the stairs to our section - if there was an issue why did he not address the crowd either (A) then or (B) pregame in our section of the stadium? Instead he applauded us and shouted words of encouragement.
Notably, while being given the run down by RBA security before entering it was made known that some swearing was acceptable, however if it became excessive there would be a problem. YSA was not an issue, nor do I believe that there were any others that surfaced that night. Amazing how differently two organizations treat the same product and the same set of fans.
While I don't use or appreciate vulgarity, I am appalled at how poorly the Revs FO handled this situation. You cannot expect a change like this to happen over night, and you cannot blame the Supporters Groups for failing to make it happen. It reminds me of a street in my town, a back road that connects two higher usage streets, and is often used as a short cut between the two. There is a fork in the road, and a few years ago the town decided to put a stop sign at the fork. For the next several months, about half the time I took that road I would see someone driving right through without stopping, as they had done for years before the stop sign was placed. It was over a year before people stopped regularly. If the Revs were in charge of that stop sign, they would have had a police car parked there for that first year to ticket everyone that didn't stop, and they would have blamed the people who lived on that street for the cars that didn't stop.
Remember back when Shalrie got arrested in training camp? All those righteous people saying that "the cop is always right"? It's easy to say walk away when the arrogant p$!ck isn't in your face. ------------ I sat in the AO section for the US/Spain game and the level of group-vulgarity was much, much worse. Much of the section responding to each of Spain's impressive goals with repeated chants of FU, over and over. The witch behind me would periodically rise out of her drunken stupor to shriek FU as loud as possible, just because she could. I think maybe that ugliness may have triggered some in power to decide that things were going too far.
Now THAT was funny in light of my previous attacks on it not being funny. The 24hr hold and knowing I'd see it again....nice.
Was going to write a long post, but I'll just say that I can't believe Brian's responses. People already hate this franchise for the normal reasons (No stadium, lack of willingness to invest, and poor on the field performance), why give them more? Regardless of who is right or not, stop trying to alienate the supporters. That second facebook response came off rather smug, and it's amazing how terribly they're handling this. Still debating on going to the Man U game (mostly to see real footballers) but after that, I'm done giving this franchise any money* until it folds, changes owners, or starts getting its shit together. * Does not include Match Day Live which is awesome
I don't know what the idea was with that Facebook statement about not deleting fan posts, but my perfectly clean post (not even a "dang" or "darn" in it) was disappeared from the page. Either the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, or they're just straight up lying at this point.
It seems to me that this organization has a serious credibility problem, and they would do well to address it sooner rather than later.
Brian, I've heard lots of people whom I respect say that you're a good guy, and you seem to be pretty smart, so I am generally inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt. So when you post things on public forums like facebook, you have to know that people are scrutinizing your words and your (by extenstion the people who work for you) actions. Did you see that video that has been making the rounds? My guess is either you haven't seen it (so you should refrain from commenting until you know what information people are referencing), or if you have, then you shouldn't just ignore it. True, the Foxboro PD does not work for you, and while a cop being a prick to someone is, sadly, hardly a new story, someone in your position should at least understand why people get upset about this, right or wrong. And you should also understand why people are so upset about Team-Ops behavior, even if a couple of leaders were "warned." I can't believe you actually believe that anyone can control the actions of several hundred people, most of them strangers. You have a choice. You can work with your fans, try to mend the damage and bring people back into the fold. It won't be easy, but if you care about the team (and your own job) as much as you say, you'll find a way to do this. A good first step would be to admit mistakes and take responsibility. A good second step would be to rein in Team-Ops, since they do actually work for you. When in past years it was said that "nothing could be done" about security, it only showed the total disingenuousness and lack of respect for your paying customers. We are not the idiots some people seem to think we are. Or, you can be the public face of an organization that, if it were a human being, would be an insufferable, arrogant bastard, while at the same time, being a miserable failure at everything in life it ever attempted. You are too late to salvage the damage you've caused with many fans, but you might have a shot at saving the patient's life by amputating the leg. What are you going to do?