Please make this a sticky. As a fan of the Dallas Burn since the day they were announced, thank you for taking the Burn back to the Cotton Bowl. For me, that is enough said, except for SCORCHED EARTH ! GO BURN SCORCHED EARTH !
Amazing decision from Wagner, Elliot, Swift, etc.... Thank you all for realizing the mistake and correcting it. That takes some guts and I respect this organization that much more.
Wow. I believe that was my first word posted on BS when the move to Dragon Stadium was announced, and now it's the first since I've known of the move back to the CB. Wow. God, I hope this means that ROB will be more inclined to stay. Mr. Elliot has officially whitewashed my brain on the new coach issues (especially if Ronnie stays). I also hold out hope that ALL the fan clubs that graced the CB before Southlake came about - will be back in full force, come 2004. So, with the obvious addition of my thanks to Mr. Elliot and Mr. Wagner, I'd like to add official props to Jonno and Chamo for their leadership within the Inferno organization. And I'd also like to add unofficial thanks to El Jefe for the initiation of the game countdown sticky at Dragon Stadium. Now, to change my sig...
I also want to thank Dan Hunt, John Wagner and Greg Elliot for having the "cojones" to rectify the mistake made by moving the team to Southlake last season. This move makes me much more optimistic about the new stadium in Frisco. They now seem to understand that they need to listen to "us" the fans if they want us to buy their product. Thanks for listening and taking action.
I think I'll thank them by giving them a little of my money which I wasn't planning to give them otherwise.
Devil's Advocate. If the Library/DallasCup crowd had not blown off SuckLack, we would still be there. Wagner wants us loud, he wants us involved, but if we, The Zealots, were truly a variable in the MacroEconomic equations, machinations, and calculations of Lamar, Clark, Daniel and John, the move would have never happened in the first place. HSG appears to be sincere about taking care of us in Frisco, and for THAT we should all up the level and rancor giving thanks and praising that consideration. But again, I *GUARANTEE* you that if they hadn't lost the Library revenue, and if the Corporate Sponsor packages (those 3000 ghost attendees that facilitated the 40% inflation in claimed attendance) had NOT blown off Sucklack, then the return to the CottonPitch would have NEVER HAPPENED. It is convenient for HSG and Elliott to talk about the move in terms of listening to the fans and our desires, but the loudest voice was their year-end revenue balance on the pro-forma. And the lack of returned calls from the Corporate Sponsors refusing to do business in Sucklack. Large blocks of missing revenue that are completely unrelated to the opinions of the fans themselves, especially the 10% of the fanbase represented by US; no, those large blocks of revenue were the reason for the return. There was basically no PR pressure for the return in the mainstream press. Steve Davis wrote 2 nice articles damning Sucklack, at the END of the season. Said articles shocklingly seeming to have been lifted almost word for word from stuff we wrote and read in February. Imagine that. Other than those 2 articles, there was no TV about how bad Sucklack sucked. Our squealing and misery would have never overturned the decision, and we should be careful about deriving a false sense of satisfaction if we choose to believe "we really had large effect on the decision to return." We had some effect. But not enough to turn the tide. I again want to recount the conversation with Garber and Fitz-gerald (why does he hyphenate it anyway?) in the ISD chambers after the final vote on the Chasm deal.... I told Garber point-blank that if they didn't make it LOOK like a Soccer Stadium they would KILL the attendance. I told him point blank that the lack of any consideration regarding Pitch Integrity in the CISD/HSG operating agreement was a travesty. Garber's response was that Wagner had been too busy getting the Frisco deal done to deal with that issue (read: didn't care to, or didn't think it would matter), and now that Frisco was done, Wagner's next move would be "dealing with the Field Turf and Line Markings issue". I volunteered an effort to raise $25k to paint the lines. I begged and pleaded to AT LEAST remove the endzones if we couldn't remove the whole field. We all know what didn't happen. What was never going to happen. Rigid Panda Abortion integrity was viewed as a non-factor by HSG, and an inalienable right by the yokel AD and their CISD paymasters. BAD miscalculation. The construction of the T's & C's in the CISD agreement were atrociously amateur. Highly unprofessional. NOT Major League by any stretch of the imagination. I tore through it and found the holes in 20 minutes within 3 hours of it's annoucement. I could have created the proper protections in less than an hour. People in Columbus and KC might not be surprised, but I was shocked at the Amateur level of execution in this agreement on the part of HSG. Being tied up with Frisco will never suffice as an excuse in my mind for the travesty that was the Sucklack decision, especially on paper. The CISD should have never been allowed to run the show, nor should have the amateur decision to move without adequate protection been made in lieu of the easily constructed and necessary language that any self-respecting Professional Sports Executive would have *#*#*#*# for breakfast. A decision to place a Major League franchise in a High-School venue as a 2nd class tenant was made without Professional Execution. Bottom line. One other thing.... as many have already discussed, the current Horn-LandThieve shakedown of Laura is also interesting timing. Much will be deduced regarding the return to the Cotton Bowl when we discover what the lease terms are. It would be in HSG's best interest to leak the terms before an interpid individual decides to go the FOIA route to discover same. =bs
No argument here. Once again no argument here. What was amazing to me was that the Southlake savings were made using infantile projections that did not take into consideration 2004 or even 2003 past game one for that matter. Anytime a forecast is made the forecast must be adjusted with actuals as they occur if you have any intention of having an accurate forecast. You mentioned before that if it was not reported by BELO then HSG did not consider it news. I have to agree with you. The photo of sweeper33 in the DMN with the paper bag over his head and his sign pleading with HSG to paint the lines was very much on the mind of Wagner when the Inferno met with HSG earlier this year. You weren't the only one that warned Garber and the HSG brass about the Southlake "mistake" that night.
I haven't received an ECG in months. I thought my subscription dollars equalled an issue every month! GET TO WORK YOU LOUNGING WIZARDFAN!!! -bs
I'm working on ECG#23 right now. It'd go faster if I received a publishable rant/column *hint*. And, yes, I can count. ECG#22 has been delayed and will be out shortly. We publish 7 issues per year, and as per tradition our December issue (ECG#24) will be published some time in January or February.
I wouldn't thank Wagner. I would thank the fans who voted with their pocket book. Those are the ones that got us the Cotton Bowl back for one more year. Don't think for a second that financials weren't the main instigator in going back. Also, thank you players for being outspoken, thank you fan clubs for fighting the cause, thank you Swift for making a statement, and of course, thank you Elliott for continuing the fight. I would thank Wagner for one year of misery. Either way, we got it back baby!
I'm going to thank them by buying 20 extra tickets (along with my regular season tics) to give out this year.