This space intentionally left blank
Earlier this year, I wrote a couple posts about the Sounders. Since then I’ve been thinking about the M’s, Sounders, Seahawks, sports in Seattle generally, and today, with the M’s and Sounders lined up (and me with a last-minute windfall ticket to the Sounders-Fire game), I was going to start putting it all together along with a nice recommendation of the Sounders.
On my ticket, though, there’s this:
The ticket holder will not transmit or aid in transmitting any picture, account or description (whether text, data or visual) in any media now or hereafter existing of all or any part of the Events.
So I’m not supposed to tell you anything, much less throw a picture up (and if anyone took a photo of themselves having a good time, or updated their Facebook status, well, woe to you).
And it’s not that I can’t do it anyway, and tell them to shove off. It’s that now, as petulant as I’m sure this seems, I don’t want to. What a venomous little provision.
Comments
58 Responses to “This space intentionally left blank”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It’s just fantastic how professional sports organizations aggressively promote the idea of fandom “for the love of the game” while simultaneously doing everything they can think of to make sure they control any potential monetization of that passion.
I agree with Derek 100% (though he may not agree with me). It’s an incredibly ignorant business position for the Sounders to take as well.
I don’t think Derek’s stance is petulant (his word) in the least. It’s principled, and I wish every Sounder fan in the city would take a similar approach.
question?
Why are the Sounders to blame for their ticket policy, but MLB is credited with the one the Mariners have?
and both have the similar legal wording
the issue may be the word “transmit“.
Good catch! That probably does not include blogs or talking. It would include unaccredited radio journalists who visited the game, though. Or someone calling in on the radio talk show.
The soccer haters are hilarious here. 30k fans ev every game is a pretty amazing number to ignore. Someone must be talking about soccer around here. As a fan of both teams and supporter, its great to see the M’s be competitive. In some way, the succes of the Sounders may have pepped the M’s to catch the winning fever, so as they arent a losing product next to the successfult Sounders. Earlier in the year, at the first M’s/Sounders doubleheader, a bunch of us from supporter groups Gorilla FC and NES went to the M’s game to cheer on the Mariners. It was a blast, and the M’s beat the Rangers!
The back of my season ticket to tomorrow night’s M’s game says “The holder agrees that (a) he or she shall not transmit or aid in transmitting any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the game.”
Enforceability aside, there is a very strong legal argument that the M’s langauge is actually more expansive than the Sounder’s as it includes a catchall for “other information concerning the game” that the M’s doesn’t.
And the Sounders also actively encourage blogs and descriptions of the games.
Last line of the second paragraph should be “that the Sounder’s doesn’t.”
In re-reading these posts, I am amazed that only one other person bothered to read the back of an M’s ticket before piling on the Sounders and suggesting that the franchise lacks business savy because of the boilerplate on the back of the ticket.
Since I don’t have a Sounders ticket in my possession, I can not see if they have equivalent language but this is the scary part to me…
(c)The Club and Major League Baseball shall have unrestricted right to use his or her identity, likeness and/or voice in any audio, video, or photographic recording of the game and associated promotional activities.
They can turn you into a freaking cartoon character pimping the game. All those rally fry fanatics better be careful…
I’m not sure about that … the overlap question could I think go either way. The soccer fanbase question was answered over 30 years ago, when the Sounders drew crowds of over 40,000 in the Kingdome.