Will a blackout work? - Mellinger

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 Pioli 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.

[Titty Meat]

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

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by Woodsponge Chuckpants

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...

****s given 0

[okoye35chiefs]

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

[okoye35chiefs]

[luv]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

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.

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.

[Rasputin]

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.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by luv

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.

There is a reason seats are the team colors.

[Jive Ass]

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.

[luv]

Originally Posted by Laz

There is a reason the seats are the team colors.

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

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by luv

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.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Originally Posted by Bo's Pelini

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

Yup.

[wazu]

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.

[memyselfI]

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.

[DTLB58]

Originally Posted by TRR

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.
Posted via Mobile Device

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

[Brooklyn]

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.