On Monday afternoon the Indians Twitter feed post a picture of Tribe owner Paul Dolan after biking as part of a fund raiser. The picture generated a snarky response from a Tribe fan and a feisty rebuttal from the Indians.
A couple of thoughts on this exchange…
First, whoever is operating the Indians’ Twitter feed is 100% correct. Angry Indians fans have been complaining about the payroll since the early 2000s and while the complaints have always been misguided, over the past year they’re completely unwarranted. A case simply can’t be made that Dolan isn’t giving the front office enough spending money to build a winner.
But even if the Indians’ response is accurate, I’m not sure how I feel about the team allowing employees to respond to fans in this manner. Obviously @Dinomaddamma is an Indians fan, and presumably the team would like him to spend money on Indians tickets and merchandise. But is he more or less likely to do so after this exchange?
A few weeks ago I had a somewhat similar interaction with the Indians’ Twitter feed which I shared here on IPL. And while I give the person some credit for responding to my concerns, I came away more annoyed with the team than I was before.
I felt like they’re trying to pull a fast one the fans by their handling of the ticket prices and offering “discounted” prices when bought ahead of time. When in reality, the “discounted” price are the same prices they’ve offered for the past few seasons, and they’re simply raising the prices close to game day.
To me, it felt like the Indians were telling me ‘this is how it is, deal with it.’ Even if that wasn’t their intention, since I already entered the conversation annoyed, that’s how it felt.
Ultimately, an anonymous Indians employee engaging with a disgruntled fan is a bad idea. There’s simply nothing to be gained.
Hopefully someone in the PR department regains control of the Twitter feed before it spirals further in the wrong direction.
Ryan, i tend to agree. by not replying, the tweet becomes just that, another useless collection of bits and bytes. now, its the subject of an article…
while its not as bad as the colorado rockies pr fiasco, i think by stating the facts as they have, they inadvertently highlight their own deficiencies…”yeah, we spent $240m and have nothing but a single wild card game to show for it” its a diluted generalization, i understand that, but again, it just goes to show that there is nothing to gain.
The Indians will not draw well until the Dolans sell the team.
This is not to say the fans are right or wrong, or that the Dolans are good or poor owners. Its just the truth. That said, there’s no guarantee that the Indians would put more fans in the seats with a new owner either, because in my humble opinion, Cleveland is a great football town, but a mediocre sports town in general. (Or in the least, wildly overrated)