MELLINGER: Chiefs fans feel ignored

[pr_capone]

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/25...l-ignored.html

The coupons caught Clark Hunt’s attention.

Jim Lakey was just creative and gutsy and fed-up enough to think they might. So after he wrote a letter to the Chiefs owner detailing a list of mistakes and slights on Kansas City, Jim took two days’ worth of newspaper coupons and stuffed them in the envelope to “help” the team sign more discounted free agents.

“However many were in The Star,” Jim says of the coupons. “Probably about 200 of them.”

Lakey is 66, a retired associate dean at UMKC. He lives in Kansas City and has cheered for the Chiefs for years. This isn’t the first letter he’s written. Clark’s father, Lamar, wrote Jim back a few times. Jim mentioned this in his words to Clark, essentially daring the younger Hunt to write back.

Jim didn’t expect an invitation to Clark’s office.

“I wondered if he just wanted to see who the nutcase is who sent all the coupons,” Jim says.

Jim sent me a copy of the letter, and described the meeting when I reached out.

Maybe you’re surprised that Clark Hunt invited a critical fan to his office. It doesn’t fit the narrative pushed by many in this town of an absentee owner who cares more about profits than football, but the story of the country’s most dysfunctional sports marriage is more complicated than a sound bite or oversimplified caricature.

The saddest part is that the Chiefs and their fans should be sharing unending bliss, not a vague, mutual distaste. This used to be a model partnership, one that made each side stronger.

The Chiefs once brought big-time sports to one of the NFL’s smallest markets, and their fans made the players, coaches and management-types rich and adored. This was peanut butter and jelly, fall and football, Christmas and children. One made the other better.

No team in the NFL had a better homefield advantage than the Chiefs in the 1990s. Arrowhead Stadium was, literally, a game-changer. Las Vegas sports books pushed their point spreads a little further. Opposing teams spent a little more time coordinating silent snap counts. Players talked of their heads ringing for days after games here, even if they never got hit that hard.

That’s all gone now, of course. The Chiefs have lost 28 of their last 40 home games. Only three of those 12 wins came against teams that finished with a winning record.

Three weeks ago, fans paid to fly a banner over Arrowhead before a home game. It called for general manager Scott Pioli to be fired. This weekend, they’ll do it again.

In three weeks, they’ll encourage fans to wear black to a game at Arrowhead — mourning the loss of their joy.

“The Chiefs are my longest-lasting relationship,” says Eric Grannell, a 32-year-old man from Wichita who’s organized what amounts to a fan revolt called Save Our Chiefs. “I’m having a public fight with my girlfriend, is what it feels like.”

This is the loudest and largest group of frustrated fans, and Grannell says “nobody with any authority has said anything to us.” They feel ignored, they feel taken advantage of, and they feel that they’ve been taken for granted.

The Chiefs seem to think Grannell’s group will be angry no matter what, and maybe that’s right. But the Chiefs haven’t tried to bridge the gap, and these are some of their most passionate fans.

The Chiefs are broken, and they don’t seem able or willing to fix themselves. Not right now, anyway.

Hunt, team president Mark Donovan and general manager Pioli know they have a problem. What’s not clear is how much of the problem they’re willing to own blame for, or how much of the problem they foolishly dismiss as false perception.

Pioli did a series of interviews last week but largely avoided direct responses to the questions fans most wanted answered. Hunt and Donovan each declined requests to talk for this column, and neither has talked publicly since the beginning of the season.

They are letting fan sentiment get away from them, or perhaps more accurately, they are now wearing the consequences of too much previous negligence. It’s normal for fans to be upset at a 1-5 team, but it’s extraordinary for fans to be upset enough to fly banners over the stadium and come to games dressed for a funeral. Some inside the Chiefs’ offices want to portray the Save Our Chiefs movement as a vocal minority, and maybe they’re right.

After all, how could you tell for sure?

“That’s a great question,” says David Carter, executive director of USC’s Sports Business Institute. “And maybe this is a weird answer, but I don’t know that you need to. If you run a team, or any business, you should be out in front about what your customers’ issues are. You shouldn’t have to wait to find out what’s driving them crazy.”

The Chiefs actually interact more with fans than popular narrative gives them credit for. Hunt and Donovan do some of this personally; Hunt spends at least a little time before each game talking with fans in the parking lot, and has invited some in for lunch during the week.

But what they’re doing is the equivalent of fighting rising waters with a colander. Actually, if you consider the previous neglect when it comes to large-scale fan interaction, they’re fighting rising waters with a colander after not paying for flood insurance.

Some inside the Chiefs’ offices think this is all blown out of proportion. They blame the 1-5 record, ignoring that losing only exposes issues that have been building for years. They point to letters from fans who are still supportive, but comfort taken in the relative few who refuse to acknowledge their problems is as counterproductive as worry over the relative few who refuse to see any positives.

The Chiefs do too much of both, which is a small but telling example of how they helped create this mess.

The Chiefs are run by smart people who care. The aggravating part is their lousy way of showing it to the masses.

Lakey, the coupon clipper, says he and his wife spent about two hours in Clark Hunt’s office. Lake had wanted the letter to be noticed, which is why he made a candy-wrapper joke, but he couldn’t be sure if he went too far by essentially mocking Hunt and talking of giving up season tickets for yardwork.

Jim didn’t think he’d be invited to Hunt’s office, and certainly didn’t think the owner would go through various draft classes, pick by pick, voicing disappointment in some and pride in others.

“He was very nice, very cordial,” Jim says.

Jim liked that Hunt listened, that he asked questions. Hunt treated Jim like he mattered, which is essentially what all fans want. Jim had his chance to criticize spending, personnel decisions and what he saw as a detached way of operating.

“I came out of there believing the guy cares,” Jim says. “I think he’s genuinely concerned that he has a perception problem. I think he understands this.”

Jim is one man. The problem is that Hunt and the Chiefs aren’t doing nearly enough for the thousands of others with legitimate frustrations. They haven’t for years.

The irony of Jim’s story is that the Chiefs obviously know how to get their message across. They just aren’t doing it on a scale worthy of an NFL franchise, and the result is hurting both sides, team and fan, whose formerly strong bond is now infected with mistrust.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by notorious

Go out and kiss babies in public, Clark. It's not going to change a ****ing thing.

GM, QB. That is what it is going to take to un**** this situation.

This. I'm not interested in PR campaigns.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by King_Chief_Fan

NO, don't think they should have had 1 more year. Carl had 20 for his 5 year plan. That was plenty. Herm was a joke to begin with and he wasn't going to get any better. Do you see Herm coaching any where....Is Carl a GM any where?

I understand the sentiment, and agree it was Carl's time for departure. I will say this though. Hindsight being 50/50, that draft class was great. What would Dorsey have done in a 4-3? If we had drafted the right franchise QB, where would we be? It certainly wouldn't be any worse than this. Couldn't be. I dunno, doesn't really matter. What's done is done.

[CoMoChief]

Mark me down as still don't give a shit.

The Hunts are businessmen.....all they care about is $$$$

[O.city]

The city of Kansas City wants to go crazy over a sports team. If the front office would just get out of its own way and put a consistent winner on the field, this town would go nuts. KC is absolutely a sports fanatic town.


I believe if the chiefs were good, arrowhead would be as good as it once was.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

Mark me down as still don't give a shit.

The Hunts are businessmen.....all they care about is $$$$

You do realize that the NFL is a business right? It is a huge, very lucrative business involving more $$ than the GNP of many countries.

So yea.

It is possible to be about the $ and still build a winner. I don't for a minute believe Clark likes the losing.

Some of you guys crack me up. I don't know what its like to have a billion $ but I know this, I am pretty sure that all these guys including Clark are competitive and don't like looking bad in front of their peers or to the media.

Do you like looking like a fool at your job?

[mdchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

I agree. We need this to become a focal point in the media for it to be a true success. I think if we get some preorder numbers from Sports Nutz, it will give us a good idea of where we're going to need to be in terms of rallying the troops if you will. I'm hoping they're already rallied, but I just don't know...

That would be a good way to know how much support we are drawing in. Are you guy's getting info back from them as far as orders go?

[Woodchuck]

Good read. I have always thought he cared. I mean the dude was one of the major players in the cba negociations, he remodeled the stadium, and signed a lease through like 2022 or something right? He's done quite a bit since he got the job and he is trying to carry his father's torch.

He wants to win. I am sure of that. I just think he's in over his head and is being manipulated by Pioli. He needs a football advisor who won't bullshit him.

Dan Reeves did it for Houston's owner. Parcell's did it in Miami. He needs someone he can trust. I've said it before but, I would love to see Marty in this role. Marty won't bullshit him and he cares about the success of KC.

[DaWolf]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

I agree. Had Herm and Carl gotten another year, then I would be more inclined to agree with him. As it was, they were ran out of town with pitchforks. I won't even bump the Carl is fired thread for proof. Everyone should remember.

Seriously, and be honest with yourself, if not out loud, looking back right now, do you wish they'd had just 1 more year to see what they could do with the team? Would we have drafted that 1st round QB? If they had 1 more year, do you think they would've been successful? What would be different about this team, and who would be running it if Clark had given them just one more year?

Those questions are for everyone, not just Dave. I'm just curious. I'm trying to get my finger on the pulse of Chiefs fans.

HELL no. Bag on Pioli all you want, he deserves it, but Carl had TWENTY years to draft a QB and never did. He passed on more QB opportunities and more chances to draft one in the first round or opportunities to trade up and get one than Pioli has. He wasted first day picks on people like Blundin. He drafted Croyle and thought this guy was capable. He let what became an NFL MVP QB walk away in favor of Grbac. His lack of ability to find a QB wasted the great defense we had in the mid 90s. So I repeat, HELL no...

[gblowfish]

CHunt was just excited to learn that newspapers have money saving coupons in them.

[RippedmyFlesh]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

CHunt was just excited to learn that newspapers have money saving coupons in them.

You were not ignored by the previous coaching staff.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

Seriously, and be honest with yourself, if not out loud, looking back right now, do you wish they'd had just 1 more year to see what they could do with the team?

Dude, that regime was ready to roll with Tyler Thigpen as the starting QB.

It would have been a disaster that reached the lofty heights of mediocrity at best.

Don't forget the defense was trash in 08. It's questionable whether they could have fixed it.

We made the right move firing those guys. Thanks for the draft class, but GTFO. That's only about 25 percent of your job.

[kaplin42]

Let us be honest here, the team is a disaster. All though it is some hyperbole, it seems that not one fcku has been given in order to truly fix this team in years. NOT ONE!

There has been some appeasement FA signings, and some potential drafts that could have turned out really well. But since T. Green went down, has the team made a single effort to get a real QB here?

D. Huard
T. Thigpen
B. Croyle
M. Cassel
T. Palko
R. Stanzi
B. Quinn

You tell me if you look at that list of QB talent and don't picture Clark walking up to your morning bowl of cheerios and taking a big fat dumper in them.

This pic is on theChive this morning. And I thought it was relevant.

[RippedmyFlesh]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Dude, that regime was ready to roll with Tyler Thigpen as the starting QB.

It would have been a disaster that reached the lofty heights of mediocrity at best.

Don't forget the defense was trash in 08. It's questionable whether they could have fixed it.

We made the right move firing those guys. Thanks for the draft class, but GTFO. That's only about 25 percent of your job.

Yep as bad as the Chiefs are today herm's teams were tougher to watch.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

You do realize that the NFL is a business right? It is a huge, very lucrative business involving more $$ than the GNP of many countries.

So yea.

It is possible to be about the $ and still build a winner. I don't for a minute believe Clark likes the losing.

Some of you guys crack me up. I don't know what its like to have a billion $ but I know this, I am pretty sure that all these guys including Clark are competitive and don't like looking bad in front of their peers or to the media.

Do you like looking like a fool at your job?

This.

Clark wants to win. He hired the best GM available at the time, spent 63 Million on the QB his GM told him was the best option. He has MLS championships and you guys think he doesn't want to hoist the trophy with HIS FATHER'S name on it?

I don't buy it for one second. I think he wants to win. No one wants to look this bad. He just needs to hire the right men to get the job done.

Remember, Pioli was his first and only hire. Lets see what he does after the season before we crucify him.

[Micjones]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

This.

Clark wants to win. He hired the best GM available at the time, spent 63 Million on the QB his GM told him was the best option. He has MLS championships and you guys think he doesn't want to hoist the trophy with HIS FATHER'S name on it?

I don't buy it for one second. I think he wants to win. No one wants to look this bad. He just needs to hire the right men to get the job done.

Remember, Pioli was his first and only hire. Lets see what he does after the season before we crucify him.

More knee-jerk por favor.
This is far too reasonable for this forum.