Will a blackout work? - Mellinger

[Phobia]

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

If you are a Chiefs fan, you undoubtedly know about the grassroots fan movement that calls itself Save Our Chiefs. I’ve written about them a few times, players have been asked about them, and it’s been all over the internets.

But what we know about their reach is still fairly vague.

As I type this, their Twitter account has 68,811 followers but nobody can really be sure what that means. The number used to be well over 100,000 but the people who run it self-reported a bunch of spambots. There’s also the thought that whatever the number of real-life human beings are following on Twitter, the number who passionately support the message is smaller. In other words, there are Chiefs fans who don’t wish Scott ***** to be fired who follow Save Our Chiefs on Twitter just to keep up with things.

The other way that Save Our Chiefs has created waves is in paying for banners to be flown over Arrowhead Stadium before games. They have another one scheduled for rush hour traffic tomorrow morning. But all it takes is one person with about $600 to get a banner flown, so again, it’s hard to know how many people are behind the message.

The point of all this is that we’re about to have our best indication yet of how many people are on Save Our Chiefs’ side.

That’s because the message is going from Twitter and message boards to something more tangible for Sunday’s game, for which the group is pushing a “blackout” — you know, everybody wear black like it’s a funeral.

So far, people inside the team’s offices can diminish Save Our Chiefs’ reach as a small but vocal minority, and there’s really nothing tangible that people could point to in response.

It’s true that if you have ANY fans angry enough to fly critical banners over games or start a movement like this that attracts more than a tiny handful of supporters you’ve got a problem, but it’s also true that none of us — not me, not you, not the people who run Save Our Chiefs — can have a real strong feeling of how many people are with this.

That changes, in large part, on Sunday. Because thousands of the Chiefs’ most passionate fans will be there in person, and many more than that will be watching on TV and there will be nowhere to hide.

If Clark Hunt looks out at his stadium and sees the same mix of red jerseys as usual, he can more confidently feel like the angry letters he receives come from a vocal minority.

If he sees a big number of people actually wearing black and treating the stadium as a church funeral, then that will be the most powerful message yet about fan disapproval.

We’ll find out in three days.

Read more here: http://mellinger.kansascity.com/entr.../#storylink=cp

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.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by hometeam

On the note of negative things being said about SOC and the blackout, there is a post in the Chiefs Crowd facebook today where a woman has decided that SOC has promoted violence against other fans and players, including possibly throwing things at or even SHOOTING at Matt Cassel.

I'm sure they're waiting for the moment they can call the blackout a failure... Barry will probably have 8 podcasts dedicated to the amount of black in the crowd.

The ignorance and stupidity is overwhelming.

[hometeam]

Digging a little deeper, there is a whole faction over at CC who believe that the SOC movements motto is 'Divide our fans' and that we are contacting national and local media to destroy the reputation of Chiefs fans around the league. These people are living in SUCH a fantasy world. Reminds me of scientologists or something.

[Sorter]

Originally Posted by hometeam

Digging a little deeper, there is a whole faction over at CC who believe that the SOC movements motto is 'Divide our fans' and that we are contacting national and local media to destroy the reputation of Chiefs fans around the league. These people are living in SUCH a fantasy world. Reminds me of scientologists or something.

, seriously?


Wow. I guess BlackBob's origin makes a little more sense now.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by hometeam

Digging a little deeper, there is a whole faction over at CC who believe that the SOC movements motto is 'Divide our fans' and that we are contacting national and local media to destroy the reputation of Chiefs fans around the league. These people are living in SUCH a fantasy world. Reminds me of scientologists or something.

Some of the posts I read on FB give me flashbacks to high school... people are far more concerned about what others (the media) think of them than why they show up. It's not about wins, and even if it is, it's nothing compared to our reputation as a fanbase. Give me a freakin' break. Even when ESPN picks up on the drama of supposedly cheering Cassel's injury, they move onto the next shiny drama a day later and everyone goes back to not caring about this or any other fanbase.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Some of the posts I read on FB give me flashbacks to high school... people are far more concerned about what others (the media) think of them than why they show up. It's not about wins, and even if it is, it's nothing compared to our reputation as a fanbase. Give me a freakin' break. Even when ESPN picks up on the drama of supposedly cheering Cassel's injury, they move onto the next shiny drama a day later and everyone goes back to not caring about this or any other fanbase.

Well said.

[R8ers]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

I think you might be the worst financial advisor on this board.

[bevischief]

Originally Posted by hometeam

Digging a little deeper, there is a whole faction over at CC who believe that the SOC movements motto is 'Divide our fans' and that we are contacting national and local media to destroy the reputation of Chiefs fans around the league. These people are living in SUCH a fantasy world. Reminds me of scientologists or something.

Wow. .
With all the radio and TV time this movement has gotten. Just can't get thru to some people...

[Nzoner]

Heard Sam on 610 yesterday and he will not be wearing black although they are predicting that some of the media will be.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

Heard Sam on 610 yesterday and he will not be wearing black although they are predicting that some of the media will be.

I thought the media was supposed to stay impartial?

[bevischief]

I will have my black underwear on for tomorrow's game.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by bevischief

I will have my black underwear on for tomorrow's game.

For the love of God, no pictures please.

[AussieChiefsFan]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

For the love of God, no pictures please.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by hometeam

On the note of negative things being said about SOC and the blackout, there is a post in the Chiefs Crowd facebook today where a woman has decided that SOC has promoted violence against other fans and players, including possibly throwing things at or even SHOOTING at Matt Cassel.

The only option is to ignore these people. You will not change their mind, they have to do this on their own. And if you take that time to speak truth to them, you get bogged down and don't keep moving forward.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by hometeam

Digging a little deeper, there is a whole faction over at CC who believe that the SOC movements motto is 'Divide our fans' and that we are contacting national and local media to destroy the reputation of Chiefs fans around the league.

They have a big case of internets penis envy...

[WhiteWhale]

In my eyes, this wearing black stuff is just hand wringing.

Clark will fire ***** if he cares enough to win football games. If he's stupid enough to keep drinking the kool-aid after this shit show, I'm not watching the chiefs until he's fired. I'm done.

Regardless of if you wear black at this point the opinion of the fanbase is pretty well known to anyone paying attention at all. The ball is in his court. I'm done flailing my arms about it.