Applause For The Patriots

My Patriots season tickets arrived with an added bonus.

This is third installment of the Season Ticket Trilogy entitled, Applause for the Patriots.

You may have read the other chapters of this saga, Patriots Not In Focus With Season Ticket Holders and Silence Broken: Patriots Finally Respond, Sort Of . To say these articles have stirred up a hornets’ nest is an understatement.

For the haters, who think I am arrogant Patriots fan and I am entitled to royal treatment, enjoy reading this (Unless you think my writing sucks as many of you have said. If so, please leave this site and return to the BSMW message board gang-lands).

I would like to tell the imposter who posed as the Stacey James from the Patriots; my season ticket package arrived in the mail today as promised. No Revolution tickets or Phantom Gourmet tickets, just tickets to the team I love.

Beside the tickets, information packet, and pins, there was something very cool and unexpected included in the envelope.

Hey, I give credit where credit is due. As I have stated in the previous trilogy entries, I am not asking for the world, just a little something.

Just a small gesture.

The Patriots answered with eight drink coasters that were made from the recycled turf of Gillette Stadium.

The coasters were made from the stadium turf.

I applaud the Patriots for this memorabilia that fans can appreciate every time they have a cold one. The back of each coaster highlights the team’s accomplishments on this turf spanning from the historic 2007 season until the home playoff loss to the Ravens.

A small thank you goes a long way with the team’s primary consumers aka season ticket holders.

Hats off to the Pats.

In the information brochure from the team, they also outlined the other benefits granted to season ticket holders for the 2010 campaign.

These benefits include:
·Free Practice for STH at Gillette Stadium on Monday, August 2nd
·Pre-sale access to Gillette stadium events such as concerts
·STH pins
· 15% off at the Pro Shop on NON game days

A special STH only practice on a Monday night in Foxboro is a great gesture but very hard to get to on a work night. Only fans that live in a 25 mile radius of the stadium can take advantage of this unless they take time off of work.

Why not a weekend session before the pre-season starts?

I have taken advantage of the pre-sale access for tickets to Jimmy Buffet and AC/DC in the past.

Thumbs up here!

I am not a big fan of the STH pin or the promotion around it. I just don’t know how any Patriots employee can see a pin that is the size of a nickel.

Do they check your hats or jackets when they take your tickets?

How about special hats or sweatshirts for the season ticket holders?

This would be something that fans would wear with pride outside the stadium and make them easily identifiable inside for the promotion.

The 15% off the Pro Shop is great, but why not on GAME days?

I know a majority of the fans drive from all corners of New England. Why not reward them with this discount before and after the game?

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of purchasing pre-season tickets as part of my STH package. But just at Bill Belchick says, “It is, what it is.”

I have a solution that would benefit all parties involved; the STH, the team, and the public.

I would propose an exchange program for preseason tickets. I usually donate one pair of tickets each year to a friend’s charity golf tournament. Perhaps the Patriots can reward season ticket holders for donating their preseason tickets to a good cause.

Perhaps in exchange for their donation, the Patriots can give each STH a parking voucher ($40-$50 value) for a regular season game.

Everyone wins.

The STH is able to save some money for parking and receive a charity tax write-off.

There is nothing better than being at the Razor! (Photo by Jim Mahoney / New England Patriots)

The unused tickets would go to someone who can’t afford going to a game.

And the Patriots would have a stadium that is full during the pre-season and would receive positive PR for this program.

These are just some of the points, I would have brought up if I was selected for a focus group.

Unfortunately, even if I was chosen this past week, I would not have been able to attend due to a family emergency. I needed to clear this up for the attackers who thought I wanted to stir the pot with no intention in attending this fan forum.

My participation was NEVER intended to be a venue to tell everyone how awesome Joe Gill is. It would be a forum that I would propose suggestions that would benefit EVERY season ticket holder.

Just like the Patriots, I believe in team first.

Granted, I ranted when I wasn’t chosen. It was because I was disappointed not because I felt they owed me.

I am writing this blog with some caution because I know this may open up the floodgates of negativity and name calling again. However, I hold out hope that there will be some people like Bruce Allen that will give their well thought out feedback about my suggestions.

Criticism or support, I welcome it all.

However, if you are going to call me names, question my support for the Patriots, blast me on message boards behind my back, say my writing sucks when you have no work of your own and post pictures of me with childish captions, don’t waste my time or yours.

If you treat me with respect, I will treat with you respect even if we don’t agree. We can agree to disagree in a mature manner.

However, if you launch immature and thuggish attacks against me again, I will no longer allow myself to sink to your level.

I will block your IP and GAME OVER.

Oh yeah, thanks for the free promotion for my site.

And last but not least, GO PATRIOTS!!!

Joe Gill from Section 336

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