Meet The Players Fan Event Delivers For Some, Disappoints For Others

omg cry me a river…. they said space was limited, so do what you have to to get there early and get in like me, or don’t cry about it when you show up 20 minutes before they open the door. You should feel very lucky they sent anyone down to the store at all.

I would have liked to have gone to this event to take pictures and check out what was happening. After reading that I wasn’t guaranteed to get in, I decided to to take a pass, especially after the mess at Fado in January. The Union seems to think an event is a rousing success simply if a venue looks really full. That’s easy to do if you’re consistently using undersized venues. I like the ideas of issuing free tickets or limiting attendance to season ticket holders. Saying space is limited isn’t an excuse when you know going in the space is way too small. There are other places where these events can be held.

I’m a bit surprised by the nanny-state mentality of the complaint “Unfortunately, the team did not make any suggestions on how early fans should try to arrive.” Come on – if it’s a meet & greet you should plan on at least 2 hours to ensure you get in. Put on your big boy/girl pants and get over it. The Union doesn’t have to do this and I am grateful for any chance to interact with the management and players. And don’t worry about missing out on food & drink as it wasn’t free – $9 for Boddington, $7 for bottled beer and $7 for food.

This article is jaded because the writer only met 8 players and didn’t get into the Club. What??

It is a meet and greet. It’s a simple, first-come first-serve event. They had players in all places, but I would venture to say that because of fire hazards that there is a maximum capacity in the Union Store and in the Club. Maybe we should consider player safety for a moment? It was insane making sure players could even move around in the Club. If there were more people up there, it would have been worse.

Honestly, I think people should be thankful that they are able to get this close to our team that we love and adore. Most teams don’t do this kind of thing and most players aren’t as open to it as our roster. For it being during a weekday, when would you like it? On the weekend? They’re traveling, playing and practicing, getting ready to win. Matter of fact they were practicing up until about a couple of hours before the M&G started. Also, having a ticketing system adds expense and overhead. How do you read the tickets, make sure they are valid and so on. That costs money and I am sure STH would not want any additional increase in the cost of their tickets.

We were there after 6pm and got in upstairs. Once upstairs it was a typical meet and greet. We didn’t get to everyone either, not even Califf before he was sweeped away to be downstairs. It was fine.

Get over it. The Union did a great thing for the fans and if we expected to be one of 200 people there, I am glad that we weren’t. It was great to see such a strong and supportive fan base for this 2nd year team.

Thank you to The Union. Let’s have a great game on Saturday!

exactly, you admit you were lucky and thankful they sent people down to the store, yet wrote a whole article whining and complaining about it.

Like Joey, I didn’t get in to the stadium club to meet the entire team (sans the U-20s).
Unlike Joey, I only got to meet the last four players (Ruiz, Pfeffer, Migs, Califf).

Some people are missing the fact that the 100+ people left outside are upset over/complaining about the organization of the event, not the event itself. I asked a few of the officials tending to the line outside why they couldn’t/wouldn’t just cycle the crowd through the stadium club – the best, and only answer I got was "the media is up there."

• * LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR: I am extremely happy that I was given the opportunity to meet those four players. That was a fantastic experience and I am very, very thankful to the players and the club for affording me that opportunity

And to those telling us to stop whining: NO! That "whining" is what helps the club learn from their mistakes and improve upon what is an already fantastic experience. Events made accessible to a limited number of people need to be planned out better. Tickets, free or not, are a great idea and not that difficult or cost-prohibitive – print-at-home tickets cost nothing more than a few minutes of man-power. Hell, I’d pay $5, $10, even $20 for a chance to meet the entire team, talk with them, and have pictures actually taken with them, not just leaning over a table.

BOTTOM LINE: The event was a great idea, but poorly planned overall. And people like me, Joey, and the couple in line in front of me who drove over 2 hours could not be more grateful to the players for sharing their Tuesday evenings with the fans.