Last month I wrote a post reacting to the number of Broncos season ticket holders that sold their tickets to Cowboy fans, calling them “traitors” and “turncoats”. Well it may have taken a Steelers game to get other people to notice, but it looks like I’m not alone.
Someone wrote a guest post on Mile High Report (an awesome Broncos blog, by the way) about whether Broncos Country is for sale. The next day, the Denver Post’s Mike Klis responds in a Mailbag story about someone who posed those same concerns.
If you didn’t see the Broncos/Steelers game on Monday Night, then you missed out on seeing our stadium inundated with those Tacky Terrible Towels twirling around. The Cowboys have been called “Americas Team”, but several media pundits have suggested that the Steelers are truly Americas Team, given recent statistical fan surveys. You go back to the formula of hosting teams that don’t play in your city very often, coupled with a large and passionate fanbase as Pittsburgh, on top of that having it on Monday night when it becomes difficult for some fans to attend: a perfect storm of neutrality formed at Mile High on Monday.
Klis actually went to the Broncos COO to get a comment, and they simply responded with “Frankly there’s nothing we can do about it. Our ability to control that is nonexistent and would be illegal to do so” [Denver Post].
He’s right, but season ticket holders: that doesn’t make the act of selling your tickets to opposing fans any less traitorous.
After our original buyer for our 2nd set of tickets was forced to back out, Bethany and I had to put our money where our mouth was and sell the tickets at a loss to ensure that Steelers fans didn’t get them. I realize that not everyone may be in a financial position to do that, but if you’re looking at your tickets as a profit-making experience, then maybe you shouldn’t be owning season tickets.
I’m just glad that we don’t have any more Monday Night home games on the schedule. I loathe Monday Night games at home. It may be exciting for the players, and I love wearing my jersey on Mondays when your team is playing, but it sucks for fans going to the game. First off, you have to make an effort to leave work early just to get there in time. While you’re driving, not only are you battling “Game Day Traffic”, but you’re now dealing with “Typical Weekday Rush Hour” traffic. No matter how early you leave, you don’t get any time to tailgate. I could be wrong, but it seems like everyone working at the stadium on Monday Nights are not the typical people that work there on Sundays – I’m talking about everyone from the bus drivers to concession stand workers. The experience just seems cheapened. Once the game ends you deal with traffic, hoping you can get home before the clock strikes Tuesday and you have to be at work in 6 hours (and I can’t imagine how horrible it is for those on Eastern Time). I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful for the opportunity to watch my team live, but I’ll take a Sunday afternoon game over a Monday Night home game any time of year.
