Most professional sports teams have some pretty smart people in their marketing department. Generally these people love the teams they work for and bust their ass to make their teams look as good as humanly possible even in tough times.
The St. Louis Cardinals ended one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory on Sunday afternoon, failing to make the playoffs for the third time in four years.
In each of those 4 years, the team has drawn over 3 million loyal, paying patrons to Busch Stadium to shower this team with as much unconditional love as you’ll see in professional sport. Much to my chagrin, Cardinal fans, more than any other I can think of, are really naïve to what the Cardinals think of them.
Case in point, this e-mail I received early this morning:
Mind you, we’re not 12 hours removed from the end of the 2010 MLB regular season. We’re all a bit sad on some level that the Cardinals played so feebly. We’ve decided to move past the disappointment and start looking ahead to the playoffs or even the start of off-season changes to the club.
The Cardinals?
They’re looking for ways to get in your wallet.
No thanks. No apologies for not playing to potential. No exciting plans for the future.
NOOOOOOO.
They want you to book your fucking Christmas party at the ballpark. For a really reasonable fee, of course.
It’s moments like this when I want to just slap this in the face of every single Cardinal fan. But it’s no matter, they’ll shrug it off and think to themselves how cool it would be to have their lame holiday cocktails right next to where Flip Lopez quit.
Cardinals marketing department – we get it, you’re charged with making the team $$$. Do work.
But know that there are, contrary to what you believe, some actual real live thinking fans out there. And we’re not particularly pleased with 2010. So why don’t you take a week or so and let this thing breath before trying to make up for lost revenue not gained by playing in October.
Better yet, hire some cheaper, smarter labor and get some players that want to, you know, win.
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