Ushersucks
Posted May 18, 2007 at 8:45 am by Mike SeelyWhen I was a small child, my father, grandfather and I would attend Mariner games with a determination wholly unwarranted by the team's uncanny ability to threaten the 100 loss threshold. What made these experiences worth it, aside from my now 92-year-old grandpa's awe-inspiring youthful exuberance, was the fact that the ushers would let us creep as close as we could to the field, in spite of the fact that we had super cheap seats.
Safeco Field is now reminiscent of those Kingdome dog days: last night's loss to the Angels was the most sparsely attended game I've witnessed since the dome imploded, which was plenty nostalgic. Not so nostalgic were the asshole ushers near the left field foul pole, who, despite entire sections reveling in emptiness midway through the game, would not let me and my companions sit there (not that there's anything wrong with those $7 center field bleacher seats, the second best sports deal in town, next to the Key Arena's upper rung). I recognize they're adhering to some sort of policy on high, but this is no way to build enthusiasm for a .500 team that trots out Miggy Batista every five games. Fuck.
Topics: El Beisbol
Comments
Dude, the Mariners are one of the lamer organizations in baseball—so focused on their profit margin (reported by Forbes, even into the losing years, to be the best in baseball) that they repeatedly refused to rent a power or left-handed bat during playoff runs (in 01, 02, 03). The ballpark (paid for by us!) is full of bells and whistles (including a retractable roof—a little research will show we need this less than any team but those in the Southwest—it rarely rains here during the season) and "family friendly policies (can't wear a yankees sucks t-shirt!) and yet they continue to put shit product on the field. For a while, their gig was holding on to clearly past-their-prime veterans, figuring they could use them to milk some ticket sales out of the sentimental suckers.
Posted May 18, 2007 at 10:10 am by amenThe irony is that their cheapness has led them to panic and overspend, because they saw the potential loss of business. They are going to shit themselves when Ichiro leaves, because the Japanese money is a huge part of what makes them so successful.
Anyway, all this to say that the usher behavior is in keeping with their overall approach, which is to say 'fuck you' to their fans and taxpayers. I'm reminded of a quote by Mark Twain:
"What is the chief end of man? To get rich. In what way? Dishonestly if he can, honestly if he must."
No offense, but this has been standard policy by all major league teams for about fifteen years...when I was growing up in the 1980's in San Francisco, we snuck down into the box seats all the time....but ushers stopped letting people do that at Candlestick in the mid-90's.
It's reasonable for teams to reseve seats for the actual ticketholders up until the end of the second inning or so...but after that people should be allowed to move down into unoccupied seats once it's clear that the ticketholders are not showing up.
Posted May 18, 2007 at 1:30 pm by mfw13My understanding is with the switch to Safeco came a lot more squeezing the dollars everywhere they could be found. This is a perect example, Mike. When my old man and brothers went to the games in the 80s and '90s at the dome, the same guy was hawking programs at every damn game. I asked him if he was excited to move over to Safeco. He shrugged, said they weren't keeping him on, "it's all about money over there."
Posted May 18, 2007 at 1:31 pm by Chris Kornelisagree that it's perfectly reasonable to hold seats during first half of the game. but we didn't try to move down until the 5th inning. at that point, the rules should get chucked out the door
Posted May 18, 2007 at 1:33 pm by Seely