My Annual White Sox Marketing & Game Experience Complaint List

[Jerko]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

At Sunday's game, I paid $17 for a sandwich and beer and took them to my seat for the start of the game. It turned out the sandwich was dry. It did not have the mustard or mayo that I requested on my order sheet.

Late in the game I bought nachos. The nachos were stale.

Typical.

Probably selling the same batch they had for opening day.

[Hitmen77]

Originally Posted by TaylorStSox

We can all talk in circles until we're blue in the face, but what this really comes down to is attracting the casual fan. The Sox dropped the ball on that 20 years ago when they decided to rebuild the park in Bridgeport and not the South Loop or Near West Side. They should have marketed against the Cubs by promoting night games vs day games in a modern ballpark with the skyline as the back drop. They could have tied it in the success of the Bulls and Blackhawks (present).

The only place to go from here is to market the team to families based on affordability vs. other forms of entertainment. That will probably only help marginally. Hell, build a water park in one of the parking lots. That will get the kids back out.

I want to say that it was Harold Washington who told the Sox that the city would accept only the Bridgeport location for a new Sox stadium. That's my recollection - that it wasn't the Sox decision to stay at their current location.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not certain I'm remembering this correctly.

Originally Posted by kittle42

Amen. Location of park v. Wrigley was horrible idea given the lack of neighborhood entertainment and the perception that the neighborhood sucks.

It was even worse during the 1st decade of New Comiskey's existence. To many people in Chicago, all they knew was that the new park faced crime-ridden housing projects. The area has gotten much better since then, but there's still essentially nothing around the park to attract the casual fan.

I have to wonder, though, if any location for the new Sox Park would have been good enough. Even if they had built the park in the South Loop, people would still say that "it's not Wrigleyville" and "there's not that much right around the park to draw casual fans".

....I don't know....there's no denying that Wrigleyville is a huge draw for the Cubs and that the Sox would benefit if they had their own Wrigleyville-type area around their park. I just think maybe this issue is a bit overrated as the core of this team's problems. After 2005, people didn't seem to be complaining about the neighborhood or how "ugly" the park is. I just think that if the Sox hadn't spent the last 23 years with only 2 stretches where they were considered legitimate playoff/pennant contenders (1991-94 and 2004-2006) - and each of those with only 1 playoff appearance, the ballpark location wouldn't be as big of an issue.

[Lip Man 1]

Hitmen:

You are correct, Washington insisted on the location.

Lip

[TomBradley72]

Originally Posted by Jerko

Probably selling the same batch they had for opening day.

I remember going to Sox games when the "souvenir" cups we're from the previous year (last years schedule, etc.)

[dickallen15]

Originally Posted by TomBradley72

I remember going to Sox games when the "souvenir" cups we're from the previous year (last years schedule, etc.)

Or back many many years ago when I was a kid and would get a coke with the saran wrap on top, with the flattest coke of all time underneath.

[bunkaroo]

I'm pretty much at the point where I will likely give the remaining tickets I have to friends. I know they're not going to win a division, and that's fine. But I can't see spending money to get there and park to get stale food and watch a team that has about a 20% chance of winning on any given day. Really sad. I haven't watched a full game on TV in 2 weeks. Last year I watched 90% of them in full.

[Hitmen77]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

Dump, personally I don't care for EE myself but as you suggest his ideas were brilliant especially connected with the TV aspect. SportsVision was ahead of its time but failed because of the economy, the newness of the idea and because as you said Chicago was the wrong market (two team town) to try it.

EE was part of the effort to move to Florida in large part because of the TV revenue that would have been generated by such a move. According to Helyar in his book, "The Lords of the Realm," the Sox without selling a single ticket had they moved to Florida would have been the second most profitable team in MLB just because of the TV deal they could have had. Again as a Sox fan, I hated that idea but I have to give EE credit, he knew TV money was going to drive the sport and as history has shown it is, just ask the Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, Rangers and Dodgers.

EE was right about predicting that the big money in baseball will be regional "SportsVision"-type networks.....but only to a certain extent. Remember, EE didn't set up SportsVision as a basic cable-type network, it was a PREMIUM pay channel. It was $15/month in 1982 - that's equivalent to something like $35/month in today's dollars. That type of fee to see broadcasts of a local MLB team would be a total failure today too.

To be fair, their options were limited in '82. The Sox had no good free TV options and Chicago was a few years away from being wired for cable TV. So, SportVision had to be broadcast via the much more expensive "over the air" pay channel route. So, it's not all EE's fault. Nonetheless, they totally overestimated the willingness of fans to pay premium channel prices to see the Sox. Chicagoland started getting cable over the next few years after SportsVision's launch and the channel moved over to cable. But, if I remember correctly, they still kept SportsVision as a premium channel even after they moved it to cable. By the time they made SportsVision a basic cable channel, it was too late - the Sox were mired in their 1986-88 irrelevance, the Cubs had taken over this town, and EE was more interested in moving to St. Petersburg than in making the Sox competitive in the Chicago market.

I'll never forget seeing EE on TV back then talking about SportsVision and pretty much telling Sox fans that they just better get used to it and stop complaining about it. It was infuriating and insulting to hear. Typical marketing charm from the current Sox ownership.

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

King, as I talked about in my two part history of the Sox and the media since the 1950's, being in first place for three months after a losing season the year before and without even having back to back winning seasons since 05-06 is not the way to get skeptical fans to come out. Winning means, as other have said, a legit contender for the playoffs, not only by winning a crappy diivsion with 85 wins or so, but a legit contender for the pennant. And having that opinion for a few years in a row.

Originally Posted by Whitesox029

As I think someone already mentioned, when we say that winning draws, we're not talking about a team that unexpectedly contends for 5 months, collapses down the stretch, does nothing in the offseason, and predictably stumbles out of the gate the next year, thus fulfilling the prognostications of most experts. We're talking about a team that makes the playoffs 5+ years in a row, to the point where it's considered a foregone conclusion by everyone that they will be in contention. Every year we go through the same thing-- "no one's picking the Sox, but if this and this and this and this all go right, they could surprise some people". No. People will start showing up (this especially applies to April and May) consistently when the conversation in February is consistently about "Who's the Sox' biggest challenger for the division crown this year?"

You guys are absolutely right.

This is what people fail to understand when they point to the Sox 2012 attendance as "proof" that fans won't show up even when they win.

The team came off an utterly disappointing and infuriating 2011 season, did nothing in the offseason, and pretty much acknowledged they were not in it to win when they hired a manager with zero professional coaching experience for "on the job training". This means they went into 2012 will weak season tickets and advance ticket sales.

....and yet people seriously lay the blame on Sox fans because the team didn't suddenly erase 5 years of ticket sales decline in a few months with their typical "we'll get hot in June and collapse in the end" performance.

[Tree Hate Me]

I usually get to the ballpark 5 to 10 times a year (less lately since we have a toddler) and Saturday night was my first game of the year since I had the flu around Opening Day. A few observations:

Good
-Park staff was generally cheerful and helpful.

-I'm late to the party on the whole "Pirates" video intro deal, but I thought the new one was OK. I still prefer the old one though.

-Midwest Beers stand has a tasty selection. My friend and I went through a few Barfly and Mad Hatter IPA's.

-For the first time I saw the "Rise Above" texting program actually work. A drunk guy was horsing around in the aisle in the 3rd inning and wound up falling into a man and his young son who were seated. Apparently the drunk wasn't very apologetic and continued up the steps to the concourse. Security personnel came down the next inning to let his friends know someone had better take responsibility for their drunk pal, or else he'd be tossed. His sister was sitting behind us and was pretty lippy and defensive about it, saying she had a "group of a hunnert people" there and wondered if she had to "buy the guy an f-ing hot dog or something" to make amends.

Shortly after this the sister got a call on her cell that the drunk had been ejected from the park. Based on their conversations for the rest of the game this was not a surprise to her group. Bravo to Sox security for taking care of business.

Bad
-At the top of our section (108) I didn't see anyone checking tickets before or during the game, and we got to our seats around 5:30. The big group mentioned above kept coming down in waves throughout the game (they were very busy going outside to smoke and/or buy more beers) and more often than not they would come back down the wrong aisle and have to inch their way past 8 or 10 people to get to their seats. The product on the field isn't much to look at lately, but it's hard to do so when you're craning your neck around a bunch of goofs every inning or so.

-Postgame parking lot attendants continue to be less than helpful. They just can't wait to get you out of the lots so you can sit in bumper to bumper traffic on the side streets around the stadium and go nowhere for 20 minutes.

[ChiSoxFann]

Originally Posted by TomBradley72

Keep in mind- this is the org that kept washed out pinwheels, etc. on the 300 level for 10 years following the 2003 All Star game-

And the tattered Luke Appling mural outside Gate 3 for many years before replacing it recently. I remember being on Sunday Night Baseball in the early 2000s and they showed that gate (with the Frank Tomas, Joe Jackson, Carlton Fisk, etc murals) and the Appling one was all tore up for national TV to see. Embarrassing.

I will agree with the poster who said the pricing structure is much better. I was pleasantly surprised to see 28k on Konerko bobblehead night even though it was kind of cold and the team is crappy. Park staff even seemed a little more cheerful than usual in the 500 level.

[Harry Potter]

I've already written about my issues with the vendors, or rather lack thereof, at the double header yesterday http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/v...9&postcount=10

I was wondering if anyone else experienced the sudden, and unannounced, change to the scan in / scan out policy today and the Billy Pierce statue giveaway.

As the fans have done in the past, me included, we would scan our ticket, receive our item, have the red-shirted gate worker near the Fan Pass exit scan our ticket, we would return said promotional item to our cars, then have our ticket re-scanned when we entered the park for good. This cycle happened for the Baines bobblehead on April 27th and the Konerko bobblehead on May 11th.

Only today, this was no longer the policy. Someone higher up decided to change the rules but never told us fans until it was too late. As a result, you had a LOT of angry fans who expected to be able to return to the car with their statues and continue tailgating in the gorgeous 70 degree weather this afternoon.

Was it a problem with the hand-held scanners today and this won't be an issue at the next game? All I know is when talking to the red-shirted gate workers they did not know and seemed to be as caught off guard as the fans were. Even the security guards up front who check your bags were unaware of the change. They kept telling people they could scan out and come back - like we've done all year.

It's one thing to change the policy unexpectedly but the least the organization could have done was either put a sign up at the gate or tell people of the change before they scanned their ticket. This is yet another example of the lack of communication between the organization and it's employees and between the organization and the fan base.

After about 45 minutes, a worker finally told the fans they could go to guest services behind Section 133 and request a pass that would allow you to leave the park, return to your car, then re-enter. Of course, the guest services people were completely caught off guard when a large group of fed up fans showed up all at once and asked for passes to leave.

[Mr. Jinx]

Originally Posted by Harry Potter

I've already written about my issues with the vendors, or rather lack thereof, at the double header yesterday http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/v...9&postcount=10

I was wondering if anyone else experienced the sudden, and unannounced, change to the scan in / scan out policy today and the Billy Pierce statue giveaway.

As the fans have done in the past, me included, we would scan our ticket, receive our item, have the red-shirted gate worker near the Fan Pass exit scan our ticket, we would return said promotional item to our cars, then have our ticket re-scanned when we entered the park for good. This cycle happened for the Baines bobblehead on April 27th and the Konerko bobblehead on May 11th.

Only today, this was no longer the policy. Someone higher up decided to change the rules but never told us fans until it was too late. As a result, you had a LOT of angry fans who expected to be able to return to the car with their statues and continue tailgating in the gorgeous 70 degree weather this afternoon.

Was it a problem with the hand-held scanners today and this won't be an issue at the next game? All I know is when talking to the red-shirted gate workers they did not know and seemed to be as caught off guard as the fans were. Even the security guards up front who check your bags were unaware of the change. They kept telling people they could scan out and come back - like we've done all year.

It's one thing to change the policy unexpectedly but the least the organization could have done was either put a sign up at the gate or tell people of the change before they scanned their ticket. This is yet another example of the lack of communication between the organization and it's employees and between the organization and the fan base.

After about 45 minutes, a worker finally told the fans they could go to guest services behind Section 133 and request a pass that would allow you to leave the park, return to your car, then re-enter. Of course, the guest services people were completely caught off guard when a large group of fed up fans showed up all at once and asked for passes to leave.

Sounds just like the mess that was getting a "stamp" on your upper deck ticket to go to the lower deck as a season ticket holder. Nobody knows what the **** is going on. This is easily the worst run franchise (from a fan friendly perspective) that I've ever seen, Dollar Bill Wirtz notwithstanding.

[ChiSoxFann]

Originally Posted by Harry Potter

After about 45 minutes, a worker finally told the fans they could go to guest services behind Section 133 and request a pass that would allow you to leave the park, return to your car, then re-enter. Of course, the guest services people were completely caught off guard when a large group of fed up fans showed up all at once and asked for passes to leave.

My sister ran into the same problem yesterday. She mentioned how it was a hassle trying to get out and back in the stadium and then I read this thread this morning and see she's not the only one. I don't recall everything she said, but she did say they told her to go to guest relations and they, of course, had no idea what was going on. She eventually got a smokers pass or something by the Baccardi at the Park entrance, which gave her 20 mins to get the statue back to the car and come back to the stadium.

Also, I'm never one to complain about loud music/sounds at a sporting event, but that ad for that Disney movie with the monster screaming between innings was really annoying.

[Milw]

Here's one thing the Sox could learn from the Cubs: if the product on the field is pathetic, you better absolutely nail the guest services aspect. Clueless ushers and slow, argumentative food service workers and an aloof marketing department are nuisances when the team is winning. When the team is a joke, the incompetence on the periphery becomes the difference between a nice day at the ballpark, win or lose, and a downright miserable time.

This season has overwhelmingly been a miserable time.

[dickallen15]

I don't have the issues a lot of people have here but I do wonder why the start shutting down concession stands in the 7th inning. I was starving and eventually had to settle for the dippin dots stand because it was one of the few still serving in the 7th. Then the lady in front of me buys an ice cream bar the guy says 4.75, she shows him 4.50 on the menu, he says that was last year's prices, that they have changed but still have the old menu. I have defended them, but that is pretty hard to defend. Its almost July, if you can't print a new price sheet, just use the old ones. I decided to pass on the ice cream.

[Jerko]

Originally Posted by Milw

Here's one thing the Sox could learn from the Cubs: if the product on the field is pathetic, you better absolutely nail the guest services aspect. Clueless ushers and slow, argumentative food service workers and an aloof marketing department are nuisances when the team is winning. When the team is a joke, the incompetence on the periphery becomes the difference between a nice day at the ballpark, win or lose, and a downright miserable time.

This season has overwhelmingly been a miserable time.

They better never bitch about attendance because the actual game-day experience at that park is brutal for casual fans. I go stand in my spot and have a few beers, and wherever I turn there's somebody I know, so it doesn't really bother me, but *** if I took a first-timer to a game they'd never come back. Is it too much to get a fresh hot dog without having to walk 3 miles? I was going to get a sausage sandwich yesterday but the stand right by me was closed. So **** em. They don't care I don't care.