Another Section 101 Call to Arms
Ahhh, the Post-Intelligencer. Longtime reader and the Seattle P-I teamed up to give the Mariners a quick 1-2 combination in this week’s Answer Guy column:
Q: Jeffrey Wood of Le Pecq, France, asks: “One of my brothers is over here in France now and we’re wondering: What in the world are the M’s thinking? Putting seating in the Center Field Landing at Safeco Field to make more money when a third less than a full house is showing up is poor planning at best, a kick in the trick knee at worst. That landing was one of the greatest open spaces at Safeco before much of it was filled with those bleachers … Is there a short-term chance that the Center Field Landing will again be a friendly and family free-for-all within smelling distance of the outfield grass?”
AG: Don’t bet on it, unless fans of the open landing speak up loudly.
As mentioned in a June column, the temporary bleachers (Section 101) were installed based on a decision made in March to satisfy expected demand for Safeco seats this season and to provide a new revenue stream for the team.
The bleachers will remain for the rest of the season and might return next year, reflected by how tight-lipped the team is being about fan response to the bleachers.
M’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hale does say: “We’re not going to provide a specific count and analysis of the comments. Suffice it to say, we’ve heard from a number of people about the temporary bleachers and we’ll take the comments into consideration with the other factors we’ll use to make a decision about the status of the bleachers in 2005.”
Interestingly, the temp bleachers have marred an area of Safeco Field the M’s still tout on their own Web site: “The patio of the Bullpen Market in center field has become an event within an event as thousands of fans gather there for festive atmosphere before and during the games.” Not any more…
I love that! HA! It’s like they’re poking the team in the eye.
Take Answer Guy’s cue: go! Speak out loudly!
I like that Hale’s response is that they’re not going to say anything about the size and nature of the response they’ve gotten. I would be willing to bet that if she had bags of telegrams from all the children in the world supporting the bleachers, she’d be giving a press conference sitting on one, surrounded by piles of the others.
I’m also pleased to note that Mssr. Wood, Official U.S.S. Mariner Reader-in-France, is keeping busy agitating from abroad. You may note that some of our other official endorsements, like tede, Jen Van Dijk, and Paul Covert, keep on forcing their way to a second endorsement. Not so much Jen, recently, but she’s mad at me, so I understand.
Comments
3 Responses to “Another Section 101 Call to Arms”
Mad at you? How can that be? It’s not like you’re blunt or derisive or sarcastic or …..
Um … hmmmm …. lemme think about this some more ….
I know the team has sold tickets to the section, but it’s not like people can’t be moved nearby – or even to better seats, now that attendance has collapsed and there are plenty of empty seats.
(FYI: Seattle is still 11th in total attendance this year – and that’s not people attending games, that’s tickets sold. Last year they were second. The previous two years they were first.)
Somehow, I think Howard Lincoln should not be concerned about whether they’ll have enough seats at Safeco next year for all the fans. But he must be convinced that everyone will come back now that he sent a letter kind-of acknowledging how bad the team is. What an arrogant jerk.
I’ve been doing my bit for agitating from afar too. Following Ben Christensen and this, I’m pretty sure I’m the Mariners least favourite fan 5000 miles away.