Will a blackout work? - Mellinger
 

http://mellinger.kansascity.com/entr...ve-our-chiefs/

I think he's right. There's no way the black shirt wearers make a dent in the red. I'm very concerned. pr_capone can't even find people to pass out fliers. Who is going to go out of their way to wear black? A couple thousand people isn't going to cut it. All the banners, interviews, and social media followers in the word won't send a message Sunday. This is where SOC comes up short.

Well SOC is allready a winner. It called out Pioli and cashole and brought a Lot of attention on Clark. What a joke a team has to be when your beloved fans are flying banners. Besides the Marlins owner in MLB- Clark might be the worst-now everyone in the country knows it.

The only things that matter are empty seats. Black shirts and banners, even though they are cool, don't mean shit.

people are still AT the stadium ... the money is still flowing.



If you want a blackout that will really work then you need a empty stadium so T.V. is a blackout to really make the point.

Which brings up a question did the Chiefs sell enough tickets to avoid a TV blackout this week?

And the next question would be who are the stupid people paying to go to this game?

I'm reimbursing a friend $6 to pay for a ticket. I'll park for free though.

It doesn't matter the number of people who wear black to the game......unless all 70k do.....people are going to view it as a failure.

6$ is the going rate now?

My cousin has season tickets and he is going deer hunting this weekend and asked me if I wanted to go and I said no way I don't want to waste my time and gas to watch these clowns.

I agree after this week basically a boycotting of home games needs to be the next step and given the record and weather this time of year should be effective.

Ever since Pioli didn't get fired after Monday's game i've felt defeated. There's too many dumbass fans who still support Pioli and Clark is the same guy who fought to keep Herm around when he hired Pioli.

Look, if 1-15 doesn't convince Clark that he's got shit management, then the number of black jerseys and social media participants sure as hell won't.

The people going to the games are people that can't afford regular priced tickets. They are getting them at a huge discount and want to experience Arrowhead. Can't really blame them I guess.

I think there was always going to be a ceiling to the movements effectiveness... but that doesnt take away from its usefulness.

We're like the news media, all we can do is continue to shed light on the situation... ultimately, the government still controls the levers of power and makes the final decisions.

The blackout thing is kinda a waste of time.

It's hard to reach 70,000 strangers and to have them all wear black.

That's just my opinion.....love the idea and what it stands for, I just think it's a little bit over the heads of prcapone and co. to really have that blackout work and make a difference. Hopefully I'm wrong...but it wouldn't surprise me to turn on the TV Sunday and to see maybe a couple specks of black here and there.

Agreed.

I think you're right. It's unfortunate that the usefulness of SOC will be judged by how many black shirts are in the crowd.

The problem with not going is this..A lot of people have already purchased their ticket way in advance ( Like STH'S)...If they say lets not go, then they are out of the full price of the ticket...If they say, okay i'll sell them, they still don't get full price of the ticket and will probably sell it for 1/3 of the price. Then their are the people saying, well if I can purchase these ticket for $20, I can take my whole family to a Chiefs game.

This will be the LAST game I am going to, I am a STH with 2 seats and have been for 7 years. I've sold my tickets for the last 3 home games already. Face value on these are $85..sold the colts for $30...sold the panthers for $50..and sold the denvers for $85.
So as I stated before..I will not be going, but my seats will not be empty..There in lies the problem.

I strongly suggest that everyone bring a box of Costco dark lawn bags and cover all the seats they can after the crowd settles in with them. They will help cover up the sea of red.

How many people are actually going to bother going to the game?

Great idea although I suspect stadium security would want to have a word with you.

It's going to be seen as a step back, but SOC already has succeeded spectacularly by getting media attention with the banner.

Scott Free is right, though, that there's a ceiling to this. If people -- general fans, and most especially, ownership -- don't respond overwhelmingly negatively to a 1- or 2-win season, then no amount of outside pressure, no matter how creatively applied, will push them over the tipping point.

What Mellinger does not take into account is that there are thousands of us life long Chiefs fans living outside of the area that have no way to show our protest. We don't go to games and can't wear black. We stop watching the games perhaps, or cancel NFL Ticket, but there are few ways to measure the loss of interest nationally (which hurts Hunt only indirectly).

I think people that dress up in black are going to be overwhelmed by the number of people that show up as empty seats. The red and gold plastic will be the most noticeable feature at Arrowhead.

I think it will definately make a difference and it will get a ton of media coverage. It will paint a very clear picture on a national scale that people will remember.

Will it help Pioli get fired?

I don't know. I hope so. What I do know is that it sends a strong message that the fans aren't going to take the bullshit anymore. This will send a real warning.

This is kind of off topic but, a few years ago at UGA, the fans were told to wear black to the Auburn game. The captains came out for the coin toss wearing the traditional red uniforms. Moments later, the team ran out in black uniforms for the first time and the stadium went nuts. The place was electric and we crushed Auburn. It's not the same but it was cool and had a positive effect. There was some red sprinkled in there but it was mostly balck. Here's what it looked like...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7z-hllkhjOs?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Do your best, and let it grow.


I don't know why we only picked one home game to do it. It should be every home game until Pioli is gone.

By doing that it can grow. People will see the black, and if they agree they will wear black at the next game.

no1curr

Been saying this all the long.


Still think we should have pushed for fans wearing paper bags during the 1st qtr or something.

I doubt trash bags are going to fly (or maybe they will and that's why they won't) in the stadium. I'd get the Dollar Store ones if you try it, I covet my Costco bags too much to risk losing them at a ****ing Chiefs game.

Very concerned?? What a joke. Clark Hunt will do whatever the **** he wants to do. He could give a shit less if a bunch of idiots wear red, black, white or brown shirts to the game. Stop buying Chiefs shit and tix if you want to make a statement. All I see and all Hunt will see are dollar signs wearing black shirts instead of red.
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Everybody needs to post support for this event in their Facebook status today. It's the most powerful platform that most users of this site have.

A fire Pioli chat would be way more damming to the franchise.

****s given 0

that would kinda be funny if they came out in a black alternate uniform...

You think there will be 70,000 at the game?

I think they need to see the number of black shirts, orange shirts, and empty seats combined.

I don't know how many people are going to wear black for the game, but I think a good number of people will wear black. At any rate I'm proud of the fans that do and the fans that are voicing displeasure for the atrocity we have witness on the game field.


I would have been happy to pass out fliers, but am too damn broke & live a few hundred miles away from KC. Also my blazer is broke down so I am a no go. I'd go to the game and wear black if I could.

There is a reason seats are the team colors.

Something to think about is that this is a first occasion for the event. Even if SOC can't get the word to tens of thousands of fans this time around, the word will spread to those who want to be involved via this first attempt. Even if it never amounts to making a huge dent in the amount of red, the symbolic meaning is what matters, here.

All in all, it's just another effort to speak out. Whether it's popular not is to be seen, but its contribution to the whole matters for the movement.

1. Not the lower bowl.
2. It's pretty easy to tell an empty red seat from an occupied one.

not really from the cameras, unless they zoom

they just want to avoid everyone seeing empty seats on t.v.

Yup.

I think there will be a noticeable amount of black. Everybody knows about it. This town likes to get rowdy at sports events through grassroots efforts. If you've been to a game this year and heard the thundering boos, you have to think we've got a chance to get noticed.

FWIW, I work at a place where Chiefs merchandise is sold. Nothing Chiefs is selling these days but this week if it's selling it's black.

Yep. Whether you've already purchased your season ticket or not, the most powerful message is an empty seat.

here is some food for thought. I live in New York City, obviously Brooklyn to be specific. I'm the guy who started "Sell the Knicks" in 2006 when Isiah Thomas was going apeshit and they fired Larry Brown. Before the advent of Twitter, and facebook I did what I could to get the word around about the movement. We definitely had a lot of followers and press. I had articles in the NY Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, and actually even the NY Times. Sell the Knicks was featured on SportsCenter as well as an episode of PTI with Wilbon and Kornheiser.

The height of the movement came when the Knicks' owner, James Dolan, shut down our t-shirt manufacturing citing intellectual property and threatened to sue. This is where a lot of the major media jumped all over him and got us a lot of publicity. Now remember, this is in NYC and pretty much every single Knicks fan was against Dolan/Isiah at the time. There was no divide, save for the people who thought it was pointless or a mechanism to sell t-shirts. Opinion-wise, everyone was pretty much on board with ousting those two clowns, even if they hated Larry Brown at the time. This is a big population.

The big event was supposed to be the NBA Draft. I organized a pre-game party at a local bar where there were drink specials and tons of free food. TV networks, reporters, and all that crap showed up, similar to the experience SoC has had to date. The plan was we would march from the bar about 10-15 blocks to MSG where the draft was being held. Despite us having followers in the high hundreds supposedly attending, maybe 25 people showed up. By the time we got to MSG we had collected another 20 or so in the rally. Granted, this all happened on a weeknight and started at like 4PM, but the turnout was poor compared to our expectations based on online comments.

I still feel like we made a decent attempt to get our voices heard, and I believe they took notice since they sent a cease and disist. It probably came standard from the legal department though, and didn't make a dent. The air definitely came out of the balloon and things sort of went away shortly after. Dolan was/is still terrorizing the Knicks until he finally hired Donnie Walsh in 2008.

I have no clue if you guys will have better luck given that its a weekend, people were already planning to go to the game, there are better means to get the word out, etc. I hope it goes well and I can see all black on TV when I watch. I will say though that its been my experience that people talk a good game on the Internet but are generally afraid to show up in person.

To me that's why its silly for the yellow seats. Makes it very clear when people aren't sitting there.

As far as the blackout is concerned, I don't see it doing a ton. That being said I think SOC is still going to have momentum. It's never been about being the sledgehammer that knocks the door down. We just want to make it known that fans want said door knocked down. Making Clark realize the scale of fan anger was/is the true mission. Keeping it going is more about making him realize this wasn't a one time thing for fun.

The only problem with that is it implies fans support is weak. Crappy fan bases have their teams' games blacked out. We aren't one of those fan bases, so we are trying to find another way.

I feel like all in all, it's been a huge waste of time/money. No matter what SOC does, it will no influence whether or not Clark fires Pioli.....

I guarantee you when Clark see's the stadium empty in the 3rd quarter, he knows fans aren't happy with how things are done.

I'm not sure there's any correlation between not finding people willing to pass out the flyers and the number of people willing to wear black. I think the reason he's having trouble finding volunteers is because no one who is going to the game is going to want to give up precious tailgating time to pass out flyers.

This has been happening for years. I don't know why people keep insisting that not showing up to games sends any kind of message. This sends a message to the front office that we're bandwagon fans and that we'll run back as soon as we start winning again.

That happened under Peterson. It won't happen for Pioli. People learned to tolerate miserable under Peterson, but with Pioli, it's personal because he's so damn arrogant about how right he is.

Its an average of like $15 per person. Not sure how big a waste that is. Not to mention that it has taken our energy of anger into another outlet. If nothing else it has been a good therapy for some of us. That being said, I do think its had an impact.

At the very least it has helped push the KC media and they do also help wake the rest of the fan base up. Eventually that leads to an angrier fan base, and something Clark will care about since the past 5 years has shown that poor performance means an empty stadium.

Fan support is weak.

which tells them they better change things

The fans have never actually stopped giving the Hunts their money. They might leave early but that doesn't mean shit. It just means they get to close/clean early. The Hunt already have your ticket and parking money.

The fans just can't stop tailgating.

If they ever did REALLY stop going the Hunts would notice immediately.

I don't agree with this. Again, if the Chiefs start winning again, true fans will come back to the stadium. It's a sad reality. That's why I like the blackout idea. Think it sends a very different message, that we're not just dissatisfied because we're losing. We're dissatisfied because we're educated fans who know that this losing isn't just going to turn around unless some major changes are made up top.

If it was a white out it would garner more support. Go Eachus! Boo Bowe!

LMAO

Go tailgate during the first half then leave. That's what I would if I lived closer.

I'll be happy if we get a group of people on TV.

Jaycee Pearson said networks try avoiding and having to talk about things like the blackout.

So what is the ultimate goal of the movement and blackout? Is it to get Pioli fired? If that's the case, I'm not sure how much influence we as fans have over Clark? He's gonna do what he's gonna do...and that's what's best for him.

Not trying to shoot the movement down, I think its.a great thing...just being realistic.

Regardless, what Clark does at the end of the season will tell us all a lot about him and his commitment to winning. Personally if Pioli is still in charge after this year, ill stop being a fan for awhile. If Clark isn't committed to building a.winner, then why should we care anymore?
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One thing that might help us, is a lot of people wear dark cold weather gear to Arrowhead in November.

We might have inadvertent support.

Well surely you knew this going in when it was decided to take the SOC in this direction.

55 degrees is hardly cold.

I honestly had strong reservations when I saw that this was the next big plan. But now that it is and seeing how much it's been promoted I'm excited for it. If it works it is HUGE! And it might. If it fails it's still no small thing. Not with how much media coverage it's gotten.

It's not easy leading a movement like this. Not everything you try works, and there is learning along the way, but I'm glad to see somebody pick up the banner and try.

And consider this - if it really flops and there is not much black, then that gives us an honest evaluation of how big a percentage of the fan base is really behind this. It may be sobering, but necessary. It doesn't mean we would give up, but it's a measuring stick that can be applied to all future hijinx that are tried.

The only thing that can go wrong is exactly what he says in the article... Clark sees it and thinks it's only a small portion of crazies who are upset and decides to give Pioli 2 more years. Otherwise it's probably positive promotion.

But that's the risk you take when you go from almost a guerrilla warfare style of getting someone's attention to putting yourself out in the open and saying come at me. All the mystery is gone.

The fact that Clark is even aware this idea exists is something.

My paid for seat will be empty. I like Clark but it time to show he has a set and start the fire.

I would love to hand out fliers but on Sunday I am working from 5 in the morning to 7 at night. I will be recording the game to hopefully watch the stadium about a quarter black. I think that the best way of keeping the momentum going is from here on out keep putting on the pressure of the blackout, and keeping it going for the rest of the home games. Which each lose the numbers of fans wearing black shirts should grow every game.

It really depends on your definition of success. SOC is already a success IMO. Because of being mentioned in the local and national media. The Blackouts' success will depend on a few things. One is how many shirts were sold. Another is that it has already been mentioned and people are aware and want to see the outcome. Of course the outcome that most want to see is also the most debateable of success. If there is any patches or small areas like 15 to 20 people together it is a success.

Fair point. But by drawing a line in the sand and trying to do something really big, it has gotten a lot more media exposure. It's a gamble, but do we really have anything left to lose?

If it is a little breezy 55 will be chilly in the 300 sections.

Well the bengals color is black, so any visiting fans should help the appearance

Surely no one is unrealistic enough to think this movement would get any owner to fire thier GM. All that can truly be accomplished is being just enough to finish Pioli off.

People should chip in money to buy a large quantity of black shirts if that hasn't been done already and offer them out to free to anyone who will put it on right then and there and go into the stadium with it.

I think it would be a little humorous if the Chiefs decided to wear an alternate black jersey for the game so it wouldn't look like a protest with a bunch of fans wearing black in the stands.

The key is for the people wearing the shirts with the blackout message to get as much camera time as possible...hopefully getting the media talking about the message.

Wouldn't matter the media is already aware of the Blackout. Since it was announced first.

They can't anyway. Teams have to tell the league before the season starts what jersey options they will have for the year.

Yep - this is how I feel about it.

The media is aware of us now. Clark and the Chiefs are aware of and our desire to see Pioli gone.

If we don't give Clark a really good reason to change his long term business plan.........he's not going to change.