USSM Goes To Safeco 2010
You didn’t think we were going to let a little thing like a terrible team stop us from having another USSM/LL event at Safeco Field again, did you? Of course not. Jeff Sullivan, Matthew Carruth, and I (and hopefully Derek…) are making our annual trip to the park, and this year, it will be better than ever. Saturday, September 4th, an afternoon and evening of baseball. Details are below. (Hint – click on “full screen”, it will make the doc much easier to read)
If you’ve been to any of the ones we’ve done at Safeco previously, you’ll notice the big difference this time – the Q&A is going to be held in the 300 level, rather than the Ellis Pavillion as before. By hosting that portion of the event in the seats, we get around the capacity problem we’ve run into previously. Where the Ellis Pavillion only holds 275 people, forcing us to turn interested attendees away, we now have the ability to sell a ticket to anyone who wants to come. We can pack the house with USSM readers, which is a pretty exciting opportunity.
Of course, since we’ll be taking up the 300 level for the event, the timing of the Q&A has also been moved up, and will now be held from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. That’s right – you’ll get into the park before the gates open, so you’ll get to talk baseball with members of the Mariners front office while BP is going on, and no one else will be inside. Once the gates open at 5:10, we’ll have to disperse so that those with tickets can, you know, sit in their seats, so we’ve arranged a special area where we can spend the two hours prior to game time just hanging out and talking baseball.
One of the things I’ve always wished we could do better about the prior Safeco events was have more interaction with the attendees outside of the Q&A itself. This time, we’ll have two hours leading up to game time to socialize and talk baseball in a less formal setting. And then, of course, you get to stick around and watch the game.
A 90 minute Q&A, a two hour USSM “mixer”, a good seat to the Mariners game on a Saturday evening, and a USSM t-shirt for $20? Good luck finding a better deal than this. These are always a good time, and I think this should be the best one yet. Don’t delay – buy now, and buy a lot.
My goodness, what an amazing bargain!
Geoff Baker goes in for 4 tickets. Sitting two chairs to Baker’s left, Pedro Calderon lowers his sunglasses, casts a sidelong glance at Baker, then signs up for eight. With HDTV you can actually see the beads of sweat swelling over Baker’s prodigious eyebrows.
Derek Zumsteg, watching from the side, is doing his damnedest to stifle his guffaws.
Wait, wait… we get shirts?
I’m a little worried about the snuggly fleeces.
Will we be done out of them by our extra special early entrance?
I’ll ask. I’d imagine you could probably always just go downstairs after the gates open and walk past one of the hander-outers, who won’t know that you’ve already been inside for two hours.
This is a blessing and a curse. The day before I go to Italy for two weeks.
Means I can go, but also means it’ll screw up my jet lag planning.
Oh well. Totally worth it. See you guys there!
Wow, $20. Your making me think about this Dave. This could be very entertaining.
Think we can get them to let Dave throw out the first pitch too?
eh, just load up on the melatonin.
This might actually get me to brave the 300 level.
(I normally can’t sit up high due to vertigo)
Tickets bought. We’re playing the Indians; we might even win!
the 300 level at Safeco is so much better than the Dome … and worse comes to worse, we’ll hold your hand as you ascend.
Got mine. Sweet deal.
Thanks again, Dave & Co. These events are always fun.
Oh, sad… My video game obsession (working at Penny-Arcade Expo already) conflicting with my baseball obsession…
This is very tempting, assuming I keep quiet so people don’t throw rotten vegetables at me or something. A chance to apologize to Dave in person for occasionally being an ass on his website! Sweeeet.
Just need to dig out the hat that Dave Sims signed for me on Dave Sims Hat Night.
We’re down! Thanks for the great opportunity!
What if we are already season ticket holders? Do we have to buy more to be able to get in with everybody else?
Yep. Only those with USSM tickets can get in before the gates open. If you want to come, you can either sell your regular tickets for that night’s game, or if you’re attached to those seats, buy a ticket to this and then go sit in your normal spot for the game.
Well go ahead and disregard my email, that just answered my question.
Thanks. I don’t like it, but I get it.
One more quick question. Is there anyway that we could attend the events, then give the 300 level tickets away to someone before the game? I have no idea how this would work.
You’d have to give your other tickets to the person you’re exchanging them with so they could use those for entry to the park, then you guys would just switch once both are inside. Once your USSM ticket gets scanned to allow you into the event, no one else will be able to use it to enter.
This makes sense. Thanks a bunch for the help Dave.
Dave,
Will you guys be taking and screening questions in advance? I attended both the event last year in the Ellis Pavilion as well as the event at Benaroya. I imagine this will be done since walking around the 300 section to get people on a microphone would be a big waste of time in the limited time available.
Also, I mean I cannot obviously speak for everyone, but will you keep the questions just Mariners related? I don’t want to insult the people who asked questions that were not Mariners related (particularly at the Ellis Pavilion event), but I feel it was a huge waste of time when I am mainly concerned with just hearing what they have to say about the team itself, not issues in baseball.
Good questions. I agree with the first one, unless we use some high-tech solution (texting the questions to a moderator?), pre-screened advance questions are almost a necessity.
As for the second, I personally would like to see a wide range of questions permitted, not just Mariners questions. I was at the event at Safeco a year ago, enjoyed it thoroughly, I don’t even remember what the non-Mariner questions were but I thought almost all of the questions were good (except for that guy who still chaps my hide, the guy who shouted out his question instead of waiting for Dave to come to him with the microphone, and whose question was a repeat of a question which had already been asked and answered, a dumb question at that — all of this is another way of saying that pre-screened questions are a good idea.)
Of the 3 or 4 days I get to be in Seattle (from Montana) all year this happens to be one of them.
Wooo!
Got my fancy tickets printed already. $22 per ticket with the service fees. I kinda feel like I’m ripping someone off, so I’ll have to buy one of the speakers a beer.
Yay! I made it through the web sites and printed my tickets.
See everyone there!
This ia an excellent deal, just wondering though it is so cheap that maybe that Dominic guy that hates Brock so much might show. Any refunds if he does?
Put me down as a maybe…I’ll knoe for sure around the middle of the month when vacation plans firm up.
Also…any word on what Dave’s new day and time will be with Brock and Salk after the move?
NVM, just checked their podcasts and it was on today. Good stuff as usual. The present team sucks, but hey…at least we have a future.
There should be a way to get USSM shirts even if you can’t attend…
Where do you buy tickets??
Is there any reason my 13, almost 14, year old son could not attend with me? He reads this site as much as I do and really tries to understand a lot about what is discussed here and at other sites, such as Fangraphs. Thanks…
Same day as Bob Dylan @ Bumbershoot. God this sounds awesome as well. GREAT TIMING GUYS. 😎
Your son is more than welcome.
I ordered my ticket a long time ago, so refresh my memory. Do I need to print off a ticket somewhere? (Laptop/notebook, no printer, gotta go to the library, if so)