Hi everybody, Quick question - I'm attending the Revs STH pitch event before the Montreal game tomorrow (solely for the free ticket voucher - even if I could afford STs and wanted to buy them I don't live close enough to make 17 trips to Gillette worthwhile), and I'm just wondering what to expect for people who have been there before. Is it just ticket reps there making the hard sell, or will Heaps, Billelo or other FO staff be there to answer questions?
I got an email about it since I'm on a multi-game plan. I think you can show up without a RSVP but if you don't it might be first-come first-serve for the vouchers.
Let us know if you run across the following mantra ... "We hope to have something to say about an urban soccer specific stadium in the next few months"
How was the turn out for this? I got an e-mail to as a former STH, but 1) like other such events, it feels hastily put together seeing as they e-mailed me just a week in advance. If you want to really draw a crowd why aren't you giving people a lot of notice and calling them too to try and get people there. 2) They keep inviting me down to Gillette for things that are not games when the reason I didn't renew is because I didn't want to drive to Gillette 20 times a year for games. Does anyone see the flaw in this logic?
From a different thread ... but something of a post event update. Feel free to add more if anyone else attended.
If that "insert word that no man ever dare call a woman, unless he just finds her in bed with his brother, or has just cut him off while texting, applying makeup or chowing down on a ham salad rollup" has any part in this, it's certainly begun life as a complete failure. She's a worthless lump of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and very few rare elements short of a big mac. At least Burns, GULP, has played and knows the basics of soccer! I mean, Jesus, he was on our National team...but, she's a complete and utter waste. If I were a plant, I'd puke out any Carbon Dioxide she breathed out!
I'll go into a little more detail since I posted about it in the game thread: -The turnout was surprisingly high, every seat was filled. The crowd was mostly families with kids and a few scattered Supporter folk. -Prior to the presentation, it was announced a video would be played. I looked at the computer/projection setup (a PC with an older Windows OS) and predicted to the people I was with that there would be a codec error and the video wouldn't play. Well, I was right and it was really, REALLY hard not to laugh. Is it sad the lack of attention to detail is so predictable I knew they didn't test the video beforehand? -Billelo came out first and gave the standard boilerplate speech you've all probably heard dozens of times, and did not take questions. The rest of it was a 10-15 minute Powerpoint presentation done by one of the higher-level ticket sales people (I didn't catch a name and don't want to embarrass the guy anyway). He was clearly nervous and not a regular public speaker. The Powerpoint presentation was an absolute barebones powerpoint (a bulleted list with a plain white background, no animation and very few pictures). The outlined "selling points" of the Revs were essentially as follows (paraphrasing): Affordability and "Memories" - The Revs were seriously compared to, I'm not kidding, "dinner at Chili's" - (paraphrasing again) "I mean, I could drop a hundo on dinner with my kids...but I won't remember most of those dinners, I WOULD remember the experience at a Revs game." (Side note: "is it worth a hundo at Chili's?" is totally entering my friends' personal lexicon.) Presale Access - Hey, did you know that the last Taylor Swift concert at Gillette sold out in 12 minutes? Well I didn't, so I learned something. So basically, a selling point of the Revs is you get a better chance to buy more in-demand events. Early Bird Discounted Pricing Special ST-only events (Meet the Revs etc.) - they REALLY should have touched on this more. Dedicated Customer Service You guys will love this one: GRANDFATHERED INTO GOOD SEATS FOR THE EVENTUAL SSS. Yes, we were told that it's impossible to get seats in places like Toronto, Portland and Houston (ticket guy..."yeah, I could go on and on") because the new stadiums are such a huge attraction, so enjoy the benefit of being able to pick your seat without a problem at Gillette, and meanwhile give them money in perpetuity so if the SSS ever arrives, you'll be first in line! Billelo briefly touched on Heaps' hiring and the emergence of potential stars like Nguyen, Diego and Bengtson, but the actual team wasn't mentioned much in the presentation. There was nothing about, for example, the explosive popularity of soccer in the US in the past half-decade or the growth of MLS - you could do a whole separate part of a presentation about how soccer is the hot new trendy sport in this country, both for kids and "key demo" young adults, backed up by ratings figures for big soccer events and other market research, as well as YoY attendance growth for MLS and the ESPN2/NBC Sports deals. So you know, you could feel cool going to a MLS game. If it was me, I would have made a huge point about how STHers get a level of access to the team that you can't get with the Big 4, allowing a level of true personal connection to the team as opposed to "rooting for laundry." Honestly, I keep coming to Revs games because I genuinely like Heaps, Reis, Soares, Benny, Nguyen, Tierney et al as dudes and want them to somehow succeed. Wasted opportunity not giving huge focus to this value. This whole time, I was figuratively dying thinking about how I could have improved this presentation - a polished speaker, an engaging Powerpoint (or maybe something besides a Powerpoint, for example maybe a fewer player appearances/testimonails - guys that weren't going to do anything that night like Polak or Shuttleworth), making the SPORT and the TEAM the focal point. A lot of this is marketing 101, first day of class stuff and it wasn't being done. Oh well, it was still a net positive experience because I got: A free cookie, soda and Chex Mix. My Reis bobblehead. A free ticket voucher (which I might not be able to use because of the 3 games it covered, 2 were Wednesdays).
Ouch. Strike One. Ouch. Strike Two. And swing and a miss. As usual with this organization. But then again, people will defend their actions to the death, so go figure.
We don't need more professionalism from the FO. Just put a better team on the field and we'll have the support of Seattle or Portland in no time.
What was it that PT Barnum said? .... Yes. Yes it is. Another example of our 3rd tier status. We send in the team's PRESIDENT, to give an STH sales pitch to 30 folks. The equivalent, in title, to Patriots/Jonathan Kraft, Bruins/Cam Neely, Celtics/Danny Ainge Me, paraphrasing your paraphrasing ... We're better than a hundo at Chili's (I see T-shirts in the Fort) Presale TM Access: The Worst Seats at The Best Events Early Bird Discounts: You're gonna love paying now for our worms next spring Special STH Events: Meet The Players, before they're traded SSS Grandfatherization: Your 1,218 in line, for your new seats in 2023! Chex Mix, a cookie, soda, a bobblehead AND a free game ticket. You lucky bastard. I attended Sunday's game and all I got was a headache.