Poulin20

The team is finally playing well!  Yea!!  But has anyone noticed watching on TV that a lot of people are coming dressed as grey seats to the Flyers games?  It first struck me at some of the games I have attended and then I noticed more and more people writing about it.  Anthony  SanFilippo had a nice piece about it on Crossing Broad which makes for interesting reading.

https://www.crossingbroad.com/2019/12/if-the-flyers-win-five-games-in-a-row-and-no-one-is-there-to-see-it-did-it-really-happen.html

In addition I wanted to share a few points from a recent Season Ticket holder focus group that I attended a couple of weekends ago....

They invited a group of 30 of us to come down early before the Flames game a couple of weekends ago to speak with the assitant GM Brent Flahr and Chief Business Officer Mike Shane.

Surprisingly there were almost no questions for Flahr about players but when it came to the business side, the pitchforks and torches were out in a major way!  People came armed with 3 page lists of things they were pissed about.  I'll get to those points in a minute.  Before I do I wanted to give you some background on Mike Shane (37 years old).  Like the president of Business operations Valerie Camillo he comes from the Washington Nationals.  He starting out trying to pander to us telling us that he joined the team in April and how the city and his neighbors have embraced him and in 7 short months he now fully gets Philly and our passion and that we are 1000X more knowledgeable than the rubes down in DC.  He said he loves the Flyers "culture" and the feeling of "family" that comes with this organization and basically acted as if he has been there his whole life.  He said he has plans to do these focus groups on a regular basis.   It was very rah rah rah go team, yea Fletcher, yea AV until the dialogue started...

Firstly there was a complaint about the vast turnover of season ticket holder reps and how nobody contacted us to tell us that there was a change and how nobody reached out to us early in the season.  (I didn't personally have this issue with my rep but the person who coordinates the high 5 program where my kids get to go on the ice during the national anthem left and nobody told me and as of now they wont be enjoying that benefit so I could relate.  Shane apologized and said that they have to be better with the communication (duh!).  Then the fireworks really started when people began questioning the ticket pricing scheme and how they decided to announce that they were hiking prices on us a week before we were supposed to renew.  Shane said again, yeah we needed to do a better job with that communication thing again but our prices are definitely market value and right in the meaty part of the league curve.  That sent people off the rails as they said they did their own research and that is simply not true and we are getting majorly gouged.  One guy went as far as to stand up and say "Thats F*****g B******t! where are you getting these numbers and metrics? We want to see them".  Shane then began tap dancing on that and we never got a clear answer.  There was then a cacophony of voices about how they were so wrong on price point and that we as STH are taking in the shorts on trying to resell our tickets especially with Stubhub in the mix.  People complained that because of the massive markdowns on stubhub we the STHs were looking like money grubbers to the public because we just wanted to get face value back.  Shane said that was because last year the Flyers used to flood the market with unsold tickets and brokers would put them on stubhub for as low as $5.  He said they are not doing that anymore and that is why there are so many empty seats.  There was also the issue of the variable pricing scheme where they value each game differently and we don't know what the value of our tickets are (it is not printed on our tickets...you have to find this obscure chart that they have) making it hard to value in a sale.  This scheme was also announced 1 week before we had to decide whether or not to renew, along with the switch to all electronic tickets.  (That part doesn't bother me but for a lot it was a big issue).  I could go on and on with the pricing and believe me they did and F bombs flew in that room over it but there were other things as well....

The in game (bass heavy) experience was also criticized heavily.  Many said that since Ed Snider died it seems that the team culture died with him.  One guy put it this way "Comcast doesn't give 2 s**ts about us".  Shane vehemently denied that and said its not that they don't care, it is just they don't understand all of the issues and how to deal with them (very comforting to know that).   Everyone told him loud and clear that we don't want an "experience" we want to see good hockey.  We feel like you are trying to distract us with the lights and the loud music and the renovations and Gritty.  Some even called for the axing of Gritty and accused them of trying to make him the face of the franchise.  Shane shot back "That will never happen, not on my watch..Gritty will never be the face of the franchise!" Several people then chimed in that they have been to other arenas and that that fans and staff at those places were so much nicer than anyone in Philly and that the arenas and in game experience there seem so much more warm and welcoming.  Curiously they noted that fans of other teams bought them beers while our fans did the a*****e chant to everyone.  (I guess I have been going to the wrong places as I have mostly been abused at away games just for wearing my colors).  Others said that they are trying to pander to low attention span millennials.  Shane said that "we need the millenials to grow the game".  Our group said yeah but they don't have any money to spend on the game so it should be more about pleasing us, those who are established customers with the money and the dedication who feel like you have abandoned us.    Then I heard multiple 40 and 50 year STHs say this was their last year and that we have had it!  One lady ended her I'm leaving rant by saying "oh and by the way, the Kate Smith thing is complete Bull****!".  The topic was then supposed to shift to Kate but it got hijacked buy more price hike complaints.  Shane would not apologize for the price hikes and said we will try and make it up to you by adding value to STH packages for the future (more special privileges and giveaways).  Then in the midst of all of this we got kicked out of the room (more bad planning on their part).  Shane admitted to us that the experience had been really rough and that he loved it and hated it at the same time.  

I wasn't going to let him get off that easily however, fueled by the free early morning Yuenglings and champagne they had for us I made a B-line over to Shane and got in his face about Kate Smith.  He started out by saying that he was only here a week when it happened but that it had to happen because we cannot allow anyone to be marginalized.  I congratulated them  to him on marginalizing a chunk of their most loyal customers.  I told him that he talked all about culture and family but that went out the window with the decision and the way they handled it.  He told me she is never coming back and that they will play the song with just Lauren Hart when the time is right.  I told him "good luck with that" and that they were so tone deaf if they attempted to do that without Kate.  After pressing him very hard I got him to fully admit that they handled the entire situation wrong and that the team is aware that she was actually an advocate for people of color and spoke out against racism in her entire body of work.  I told him that it was fine to acknowledge that to me in private but if they wanted to start a healing process with the fans that they need to do it publicly and admit they were wrong and they handled it terribly.  I said "I know you cant bring her back at the moment but you need to apologize publicly for your character assassination of a woman who is not even here to defend herself and to her family, to whom you have marginalized and caused much pain".  I told him that their unapologetic smear of an innocent woman is where my rage lies more than the loss of the tradition itself (which also angers me but not to the same extent).  I said too "I know what you are doing, you guys are too smug and proud to admit your mistake and you are just hoping we all forget about it".  At that point he thanked me for explaining it that way and that he will take this to their management and I will hear back from him and we can dialogue via e-mail.  So far its been over 2 weeks without an e-mail. (Shocker right?)

So between my anecdotal experience at the focus group and the above article, I have to say that there is definitely a big disconnect between the team and the people in charge at the moment.  I think that this stems from the loss off Ed Snider and the influx of interlopers from the Nationals who think they know us but really don't and are coming off as completely tone deaf.  They are going to lose a bunch of loyal customers in the next few years.  It will take some wining to bring in new customers.