It is Friday. I should be in a great mood but I am mad. Why? I feel silly even writing this but I am angry at the Giants management. Pete and I have given them so much money over the past 5 years and what have we gotten back? I know… it was our stupid decision to buy the season tickets, but their actions (or lack of action?) especially in the last year is despicable. At least when they were in playoff contention, we could overlook the expense. Lately, it seems as if they are trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of their fans… fans who are at the moment being quite patient with them during their “rebuilding” (floundering?) phase.
Here’s an example: We previously owned 4 season tickets – note: not only did we have to purchase all of the tickets up front (payment due in December for a season that begins the following April), but we had to fork out $6k per seat initially in “charter license” fees (basically the right to continue to buy the tickets). Major rip off, I tell you. I digress.
We decided prior to this season to unload a pair of season tickets. The Giants offer an online marketplace for folks to buy/sell their season tickets and charter licenses. Pete posted the tickets on sale for $10k/pair. For months we didn’t hear a peep. We started to lower the price… lower, lower. Finally we had a taker at $2k/pair. Uggggggh. We were happy simply that we found a sucker to buy our seats and would not have to pay out the fees for this season’s tickets, but oh were we bitter.
Oh, by the way, in the event you don’t buy the tickets for the season, you automatically lose your charter license rights…
The Giants online marketplace offers an e-commerce system so buyers can submit payment to the sellers and makes the whole transaction easy and quick. BUT, get this. They actually deducted a 10% service charge, not only to the seller but to the buyer too. Thus, the Giants made $400 out of our transaction just like that. %#$@!
Okay okay…. we made a bad business decision. Let’s move on. The boys on the field should be our focus, right?
Well…. I’m listening to the radio this morning and learn that virtually everyone on the team is injured: Richie Aurilia, Durham (of course), Benjie Molina, Kevin Frandsen…. oh yes and Omar, (although he is a stud I’m not worried about him). Furthermore, they have not a clue who will be playing at third base. It is a joke. They have a few of the best pitchers in baseball but they can’t figure out how to get players (who aren’t ancient) to support them.
My heart goes out to the young stud pitchers like Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. They bring a fresh faced, optimistic, yet competitive edge to the team, a sharp contrast from the aging, injury prone, tired Giants we’ve seen too much of over the past few years. These kids should be pitching for the Red Sox or the Yankees, earning their chance to win the Cy Young doing their thing with the assurance that the hitters will bring in the runs to gain the win. Instead, I fear that this year will be even worse than last year… I can’t tell you how sick to my stomach I felt watching these two pitch their hearts out only for the Giants to lose the game 2 to nothing (of course the two opposing team runs would come in the 9th when one of the Giants’ “pseudo-closers” would come into the game).
I’m not saying I know the answers but I do know that my interest in this team is waning quickly. I think the kicker for me is that Giants management is doing nothing at all to retain the sentiment of the typical fan. It wouldn’t take much…. could you possibly send us coupons for $1 off a $9 beer? perhaps they could relax the season ticket rules so that season ticket holders don’t feel so gouged year after year?
I get that they are rebuilding. There is no doubt in my mind that the Giants as a team will come back strong and someday be back in contention, but in the meantime, work with us!!
