Forgotten Fans
In the wake of throwback-apocolypse, I'm reminded of how little impact I have as a fan.
Before Adidas got the contract, students (myself) were able to vote on three student-designed t-shirts. Now, the shirt is unveiled with no say from fans whatsoever.
When the Big10 divisions were announced as "Leaders" and "Legends," fans took to polls and showed the Big10 that more than 90% of the fanbase disagreed with the road the conference was taking. Jim Delaney first said how much they care about the fans and they will overlook the marketing campaign to make appropriate changes, then I heard that because of the contract, the Big10 will have to wait until 2012 to make further changes. I know how the game is played though, being in the television business. The logos have been made into graphics, painted onto hardwood floords, and sprayed onto football fields this fall. There is no way the Big10 changes the division names for a very, very long time.
This Friday, it is looking like Dave Brandon, the Athletic Department, and Addidas will be unveiling jerseys with giddy looks on all of their faces. Meanwhile, the Michigan fanbase (from all that I have read) holds the majority of "yughhh." Even worse, a very similar jersey leaked to the free press and Dave Brandon witnessed a backlash from the fanbase because, you know, the jersey is ugly... The only changes that were made seem to be to make the jersey NCAA regulated.
Now get off my lawn.
vote by presenting them with an empty stadium. That would send a loud and clear message. It won't happen, of course, and the fan base will have given their tacit approval. Next.
any replica jerseys. Then the message gets through.
I don't mean to start a fight, but that suggestion is a crazy one. Who would seriously not go see the game because of the jerseys? Not buying the jersey would definitely send a message, but by then its too late - the jersey will already have been used. The whole point is to consult with people who are passionate before this stupid stuff is revealed. The jersey is ridiculous. An MGoPoll will reveal that the vast majority agrees.
You can't vote with your dollars because there is no substitute for Michigan football.
But most of our real life dollars are a lot less real life to Michigan Athletics,.
, says quigley.blue missing the point of previous poster's economics jargon...
You can buy the right for your opinion to be heard.
Donate a couple hundred thousand to a million a year, then you'll have more of a voice. You said it yourself, that's how the game is played.
Also, I don't have a problem with the student t-shirts. Students started designing shirts and selling them through the M-Den to get the student section to look more uniform. Nike, then Adidas picked it up and ran with it. Frankly, some of the students designs weren't all that good.
as long as you vote with lots and lots of them. Just like everything else, I guess.
You can vote by not buying it and convincing as many people as you know to not buy the ugly piece of crap. And if the student shirts are crap, protest by getting everyone to wear different colors until their is a decently designed maize shirt.
I know this has been posted on here before, but I don't think you can ever get enough Oatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
Scroll down to #3, please.
I almost never make that mistake, and do know the difference between the two. But that's what I get for not proof reading before hitting post.
If the "leaked" design is, indeed, accurate, nobody will buy any of them. It probably won't be neccessary to have any campaign or boycott.
I'm guessing the game influences the "vote." If Michigan wins, the jerseys will suddenly become representative of everything that is great about college football, and they fly off the shelves. If Michigan loses, they will become a blip on the radar screen, seen only when the national MSM shows them in ND highlight packages.
Athletic Department.. I looked for "fan" but it isn't in there.
If the worst abuses levied unto the fanbase are clothing- and division-name-related, I'm cool with that. Think of all of the recent wins the fanbase got:
- Expansion of the football stadium in an aesthetically pleasing manner (suck it, John Pollack)
- New scoreboards at the Big House
- New scoreboards at Yost
- New EVERYTHING at Crisler
- The Big Chill (jerseys notwithstanding)
- Less RAWK MUSIC, more MMB
- Expanded spring game
- Increased access to Fort Schembechler
We're doing okay
EDIT: I almost forgot: conference expansion that didn't turn us into a ridiculous 36 team clusterf*ck, and that retained The Game as the last game of the year.
I wish I could upvote this a million times. Seriously it's one game, one time. Give it a fucking rest already.
The outcry is eerily similar to when Canham raised the price of hot dogs by 50 cents.
All is well. DB exists, and he has a plan for us.
the young men who are going to wear it feel. If they like it, as has been reported, I should think the rest of us might support that whole Team thing. It seems like that has not happened a time or two of late. How did that work out?
All of the solutions are not feasible. The three things I listed are HUGE decisions. (Well, the t-shirts are less of a big decision, but it is just so easy to put up three designs to let the fanbase feel even more connected to their favorite school).
The Big10 put up a poll to see a reaction, only to send back a "nevermind, we never really cared about what you wanted anyways."
Little things can sometimes go a really long way. Just because 99% of the fanbase doesn't give hundreds of thousands of dollars doesn't mean you should forget about them.
I guess I might have a different approach/opinion than most. Partially because I deal with marketing companies on a daily basis and hate that their opinions are stubborn and think about themselves first, rather than the prospective audience.
Don't let the Free Press catch wind of your definition of "huge" to include "the game jerseys for a single game." We'd be under investigation for excessive stretching again.
/too soon?
the elimination of voting on the annual T-shirt was not required by adidas. It just happened.
It's a free society. If you don't like the merchandise, don't buy it. If you don't like the product on the field, don't pay for it. Virtually every UM game is televised.
If you think the throwback jersey is ugly, exercise your rights as a citizen and let the powers that be know what you think. Organize a march on Schembechler Hall. That's what UM students in my day would have done.
I don't know how they do it now but the first student T-shirt made in 2003 was selected by Lloyd Carr. All the final designs were sent to him and he picked the winner. I don't know if they kept doing that afterwards.
I agree with your list, but I don't think fan input has much to do with it. I think Brandon is operating to manage a brand, and many of those changes please the majority of us, but I would not expect him to look for fan input on his decisions. It is about the brand, and that may be for the fans, but it won't be from the fans.
These decisions are going to be made from an ivory tower, and direct 'fan input' is going to be minimal. And for the most part, that is a good thing; fanbases (even ours) tend to be nuts, and the loudest voices tend to be the nuttiest. DB also has to consider the big picture that fans often overlook (see: The Process). My point was simply that for the most part, the decisions mesh with what most fans would want, and that DB seems to have a finger on the pulse of many Michigan fans.
Some decisions, though, were the direct result of fan feedback (RAWK MUSIC and the timing of The Game come to mind).
"The fans" have very little to do with anything. The Stadium renovation went ahead, no matter what. A closely-guarded, carefully-planned design, made purely by the relevant professionals, triumphed over interest groups, preservationists, traditionalists, and a few friends in the media. (Anybody remember Michael Rosenberg writing a big-spread article wherein he asked if everybody understood that the renovations would essentially involve the building of structures the size of three Wal-Marts?)
And at the same time, there really are things -- a very, very few things -- where the athletic department is specifically asking for fan input. The music --RAWK versus the MMB -- is one of those.
btw, Re: adidas. There was a time, pre-adidas, that some fans were weighing in on the Athletic Department's association with a single equipment manufacturer. The manufacturer was Nike, and the interest group in question were the Michigan students who were demanding that Michigan dissociate itself from Nike because of reports of low-wage worker exploitation in Asia.
It's funny, every time I've contacted the Athletic Department voicing my displeasure over RAWK, I get a variation of the same generic "we value our fan's input/game atmosphere/exciting somethingorother" argument that basically says they don't care, we get more Bob Seger and Sandstorm. To my knowledge, there was never anyone asking for RAWK, it was a marketing decision the Athletic Department probably now feels they can never abandon. It wasn't necessary, and now we're stuck with it.
In my experience, the Athletic Department is going to do what they want to do. We're the ones paying the money, and they care until there's someone who can pay more. Take a look at the tattered remnants of the old Victors Club Blue Lot for evidence.
If it makes you feel any better, you get the same generic response if you tell them how much you like the RAWK music.
To your other point, the players and a good chunk of the students probably were among those who asked for the RAWK.
I think that mic-ing the band was in direct response to not one but two groups of fans. One group that wanted more noise, more rock more whatever/anything. And another group (including you and me) that told Bill Martin and/or Joe Parker, and later Brandon, that we wanted music by the MMB and nothing but the MMB.
Bill Martin told me that he had heard from a lot of people advocating him to do more with more stadium-styled recorded music. And in the course of my conversation with him, he gave me every impression that it was not a decision he cared about in the slightest, one way or another, except that he thought he was responding to certain significant numbers of fans. All the he wanted to do was to please patrons.
The Victors Club Blue Lot parking would probably have been left mostly alone, but for the fact that several thousand luxury suite holders needed luxury parking, AND the the construction of the new basketball luxury recruiting center, AND the legal pressure on handicapped accessibility all conspired to screw things up.
The Athletic Department really needs to figure out better additional parking for the Victors Club. We have the best stadium, and some of the worst parking, in the Conference.
and on stadium renovations, scoreboards, scheduling and special events, the benevolent dictator is probably the best approach. When it comes to throw-back uniforms and t-shirts, having the pros put forth a few options for the fans to have a vote allows the administration to manage the brand (i.e., any one of the few choices would be acceptable) while letting the fans feel their opinions en masse matter. These aren't the big-ticket items with long-term effects -- like brick and mortar and scoreboards.
Well, the thing with the t-shirts was a little understated by the OP. In the past, it was a process of student designs that were turned over to the general student body for voting. That was cool, and I always felt that even if the shirt wasn't that great in a particular year, it came from our peers and not a design office at Nike or Adidas. That's the point.
I understand these contracts come with a lot of cash, and that "brand" and "imaging" are important, but there's no reason the student body couldn't still design the shirts within certain parameters from the University to maintain the "branding."
Apologies for understating but I completely agree with you. A little goes a far far way. There are only a few times during the offseason when there is "energy" revolving Michigan football...And then day when the shirts are posted online for voting is one of those days.
If it's true what I am hearing about the players liking the night game jerseys, then that is more important to me than what the fanbase thinks. While it is clear that we are paying spectators, the game is about the athletes on the field...not my personal preference about their attire.
However, we are all certainly entitled to voice our opinions...
so I wont buy them. I started a thread here, voiced my displeasure, and I've accepted that they are going to happen. Dave Brandon wants to make money, and he's going to do it. He won't make any from me, but thats the best I can do
c'mon, the jersey's aren't that mind-blowingly bad and I doubt the majority of Michigan fans (most of whom may not be represented on this site) have that huge of a problem with it. the same thing came up with the big chill jerseys and people obviously bought those. yes, the jersey's don't stack up to the tradition of the home jersey's (nothing does), but I think we all can put up with it for one game and maybe even try to enjoy something different (seeing as most of the last years of the Carr era were spent bitching about how predictable everything became).
Brandon is a forward thinking business oriented guy. there's good and bad that comes with that but id take a guy like brandon who seems relentlessly committed to improving this university, goes big and takes chances (even if some of them are debatable), over someone more passive that defiantly adheres to tradition. Brandon definitely understands the traditions and is interested in protecting them, but he's also identified some areas that could be modernized and having a night game with throwbacks is one of them. he obviously doesn't think it hurts our tradition in any way so whatever, i think it'll be interesting. if it sucks, well then we probably won't do it again.
also- im going to wait until i see the jerseys on a football player with pads on before i decide if i like them. my first thought (assuming what was posted is going to be something like the jersey) was that it kind of looks like a soccer jersey, but im sure on a 6'5" 250 lbs football player it won't look quite so much like that.
But I dont think they'll be as bad on players with pads on. The sleeves are too long/stripey/blagh, but there wont be sleeves on the players:
So the real worn jersey might look a lot more like the photoshopped ones without the stripey sleeves
If you see anyone on the street wearing a throwback, punch them in the face.
Um . . . why?
everyone better be wearing maize upon maize upon more maize, no excuses
While some fans might not like the jersey, I'll bet that the players and coaches have seen it and approved. If it's good enough for Denard it's good enough for me.
College football is big business for the school. I could complain all day about it but it won't change a thing because the almighty dollar rules.
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<br>Now what is your credit card and 3 digit number on the back of your card? ;)
At least its not a nike pro combat jersey. (i personally don't mind the jerseys at all, maybe the shopped picture with all blue sleeves and striped near the neck would've been better)
But programs really can't be run by consensus. Think about the effort to get consensus among Mgoblog readers... then add Mlive UM fans... then add the blue hairs... then add everyone else you can think of.
Also, while there might seem to be a majority opposing something the AD is doing, it might actually be a vocal minority (a self-selected group of fans that takes to the internets - not all do).
Just some thoughts.
David Brandon really has done a fabulous job as Michigan's Athletic Director. Compare him with that dude in Columbus and ask yourself if you prefer Brandon's leadership.
As for jerseys, come on. No one has seen them in person yet, save your whining. Everything is terrible, except when it's not. If you don't like the jerseys, DO NOT BUY ONE. For one night only, I think Michigan football will survive, especially if the sale of those jerseys provides scholarships and infrastructure improvements to the school.
what you think the milliona upon millions they make off tickets and other merchandise isnt enough?
Athletic department expenses have steadily increased over the years. It costs a lot of money to run 25 (soon to be 27) varsity teams, especially when you have to pay out-of-state tuition for all scholarship athletes (thanks to a bizarre arrangement hammered out with the university awhile back).