Rick’s Rants and Raves

Below is a letter I sent to the Columbus Destroyers this evening via their website “Contact Us” form.

My wife and I attended a few Destroyers games last year, and decided to become season ticket holders this year. We enjoy many aspects of the games, but there has been one aspect that greatly bothers us: the nearly constant advertising during the games. From the 1800 Tequila Yellow Flag, to the Giant Eagle Get Go Zone, to the Janitorial Services Clean Sweep and the Germain Auto Group Game Balls, we feel less like fans and more like advertising targets. The level of sponsorship significantly detracts from our enjoyment of the game as it distracts us from the sport itself. I fully understand that Arena Football is a business, and as such needs to make money. As one of your customers, I have options choices: provide feedback to help improve the service, or take my money elsewhere. For now, I’m choosing the former approach. Please find ways to decrease the in-game sponsorship.

We were bothered by the frequency of in-game ads last year, but decided to give season tickets a shot when they offered a greatly reduced season ticket package. We have been tempted to buy something like this counter to keep track of all the audible advertisements during a game. It really is distracting to have the announcer say “There’s an 1800 Tequila Yellow Flag on the play!” and have the liquor logo appear on the big screen, rather than just say “Flag on the play”. When we watch other area sports (e.g. Blue Jacket’s hockey), the sponsor ship is saved for the breaks in the game. When we watch pro-football on TV, the sponsors are only mentioned during the commercial breaks, or when introducing the analysis commentators. I also understand that the sponsorship might reduce the price of my tickets (that, and there doesn’t seem to be much demand for them). But when the advertising invades my enjoyment of the product, it has gone too far. I like that Columbus has the Destroyers, and we have fun at the games. But it would be much more fun (and we’d be likely to spend more money!) if we weren’t so distracted by the ads.

Well, now we’ll see just how fan-centric the team really is.

Update 4/4/08: No response.