I have been a Saints fan for the past few years. Please let me explain. When you live in a geographic area, you usually coach your local team like I coach the Red Sox, The Celtics, The Bruins. I have love for the Patriots. I was raised as a “Pats fan” and for years I watched them win and lose a few at Gillette Stadium. But when you don’t attend a home team game in 7-10 years, they start to lose that “Home Team Feeling”. When I watch a match on TV and the stadium is empty after 3 quarters, I get the feeling of disappointment in the fans who now attend the matches. I also understand that they are not the fans I have enjoyed sitting with for years.
A few years ago I went to a Patriots game. It was a playoff game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. I sat on the top tier and froze for three hours. The hot chocolate and adrenaline kept me on my feet and pumping my spirits for three hours. You see this was the New England Patriots AFC Championship! They won, but would eventually lose in the Superbowl to the Green Bay Packers. I haven’t been back since.
It was well worth the abuse my body took standing up in one of the coldest games I’ve ever attended. The Patriots were in a nationally televised game (they had been banned from Monday Night Football for years), they were in the Playoffs for the first time in a long time, the crowd was hyped up throughout the game, high fives amongst the fans and I lost my voice singing Jam-Ba-Ly-A. I had served my time as an amateur. I sat in Cold Aluminum Seating and watched low to no scoring games, losses, and sub-par quarterbacks trying to lead a team. I went to these games as a teenager with my uncle and loved every minute… Sometimes they won, sometimes they lost, but that scorching cold night in Foxboro as “Big Play” Willie Clay ran to the end of the game. interception to send the Pats to the Superbowl more than made up for those times…
Fast forward to today… if you want to attend a football game and you don’t have season tickets or work for a sponsored corporation, you have 1 of two options. Spend 200 gold dollars watch it from home. The fans you see on TV are not the crowd I’m used to seeing. They leave before the fourth quarter or before if the score is unbalanced in either direction. I’m assuming this is so they can beat the traffic home… Traffic I would wait in for hours after a game when Route 1 wasn’t the easily accessible highway it is today or express exits/dedicated routes for their “customers” deluxe box” . There is no more aluminum. There is a vast majority of Pink Patriots baseball caps.
And the fans are spoiled! Is it because the Patriots have won 3 Super Bowls? I’m sure that’s part of it… But when I’m home and my team needs it, I literally yell at the TV.
Bob Kraft was a fan, did his time and sat in those aluminum seats. Why has he forgotten about us? The Red Sox have the stands, the Bruins and Celtics have the upper decks, and they are 50-70 home games. In a given football season, you have 8 opportunities to attend a home game. The Patriots have had the highest priced ticket in recent years and second highest now only to Dallas and the Patriots have taken real football fans out of the stadium and into their homes. A Patriots football game is no longer about bad football plays and De-Fence chants, it’s a place for networking between business partners. Fair-time fans with the money to attend do so, as it’s a social status symbol when you have the money and means to do so. The common fan is completely unable to attend. I am not recommending a free ticket or even a free ride. I’m recommending when all your seats are overpriced or swallowed up by ticket agencies and sell for hundreds of dollars. the type of fan who has the ability to attend a game is not the fan who followed the Patriots for many years and we have little choice.
What happened to my beloved Foxboro? Bob Kraft was a fan; he was “one of us”…he sat next to us in those aluminum seats (he made that very clear when he bought the team and when he won his first Superbowl). Why has he forgotten about us?
The following is a quote from the telegram that inspired me to write this. Many players have echoed this plea to fans in the past (including Ted Johnson when he did his radio interviews on the Hillman Morning Show). I hope your organization chooses to make some changes…
“One of the reasons is that Gillette Stadium is open at one end, which allows noise to escape. But who is sitting, or rather not sitting, in the seats is a bigger factor.
The second level is almost entirely club seating and is populated by high rollers who have access to an indoor lounge. You usually see a lot of action while the game is in progress.
Additionally, the average ticket price for a Patriots game is the second highest in the NFL and had been the highest for several years until Cowboys Stadium opened last season. That’s gotten a number of die-hard (loud) fans out of the building.”
I became a Saints fan when I watched the “Return to the Dome” game in New Orleans on Monday night. It was electric, it was emotionally charged, it was the football I was used to, it was football, and I rode that wave all the way to the Super Bowl last year. He wanted to go back to Foxboro early in the spring training to watch the Saints vs. Pats spring training game. Tickets were 65.00… I wrote this not as a complaint, I just wanted to give you the perspective from the fans’ point of view. I know there are options for your organization to do the right thing. I know there are many ways to transform the fanbase into what it once was… Maybe a section of seats at feasible prices, a window of will to access these seats to bypass automated ticket agencies… I have a few items I use at home when excited… my pride and joy is the vuvuzela (I use it at home and it drives my fiancé and neighbors crazy but it works) I’m sure the right hobby and a few thousand vuvuzelas would solve the problem. disadvantage your players have experienced in the home team.