Love it!
http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/06/tfc-honours-canadian-forces
GlenM
Why are they looking for STH's to donate their seats? Can't they just give up some of the 4,000 unsold seats that are available for every game?Quote:
Originally Posted by GlenM
Because season seats are paid for. ;)
I'm not averse to the great idea of asking ordinary people and fans to make a small, symbolic sacrifice like that to honour the bigger sacrifice these people make for us. But yeah, in light of the fact that they have scads of empty seats already, it kind of compromises the optics of something that should only be positive.
- Scott
this may be nitpicky, but a charitable donation doesnt come with a tax receipt?
im going to refrain from commenting on the act itself because im somewhat torn on the matter.
How about one nine gun salute?
Maybe given the "supply and demand' argument the ticket holds no value on the secondary market therefore a tax receipt is irrelevantQuote:
Originally Posted by __wowza
(probably more related to the notion that giving your ticket away to a non-charity isn't a charitable act)
It should. After all, when you use that Donate A Ticket option in Myaccount, it gives you a tax receipt, correct?Quote:
Originally Posted by __wowza
I don't love the tie-ins between the MLSE teams and the military. It's relentless. It's clever because criticizing it makes you look unpatriotic ... but seriously, the amount of energy Anselmi et al put into wrapping themselves in the flag, is nauseating.
More importantly, I personally think the brass need to think about this, they are being used, there are a lot better ways to honour vets than allowing them to become promotional vehicles for professional sports/entertainment companies.
All this MLSE bashing... honestly... they've given you an opportunity to do something nice in an effort to feel good about yourself and all you people do is complain.
Virtue is it's own reward.
^ gotcha !
:D
Kinda. I guess it doesn't bug you that all this "community" stuff they do isn't freeQuote:
Originally Posted by TOBOR THE GREAT !
Well, sure it bugs me... the perfect point is all the available seats for sale and they want us to donate ours - and then what ? Purchase some of the available seats for ourselves ?Quote:
Originally Posted by ensco
Fuck it. The more marketing MLSE does (because they have to), the more they reinforce the message that they've had nothing to do with the success of this club (in the stands, like) at all, ever, since day one.
Remember all the accolades they were receiving for the great promotional job they must have done in order to pack out BMO in 2007 ?
My question is where are all those geniuses (genii ?) now ? Surely the same folk can't be responsible for this and the Kris Boyd fiasco. And of course the answer is they had nothing to do with the off-field successes. They fell into it ass-backwards.
Now that they've fucked it all up they're trying to do something and this is what we get. It's a real-life SNL skit.
so it was bad back in 09 when they welcomed me and shamus back from afghanistan because the RPB asked for something to happen to honour us?Quote:
Originally Posted by ensco
i hate this program soley on the fact that retards and rejects in the military will get these tickets and not the troops who really should. ie the boys in 2 CMBG in petawawa that are in the rifle companies, the artillery batteries, the tank squadrons and the engineer squadrons.
i bet there's going to be a lot of guys with alot of bars walking around. it happens at the senators games. useless people in ottawa take all the good seats, and guys that actually do the work, get stuck in the 300's.
You are mischaracterizing what I said, and perhaps unaware of the sheer volume of promotional/marketing tie-ins all the Forces do with MLSE teams.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeoman
this is something that's done ACROSS the board in the NHL, MLB, AHL in canada.
even in north america
every sports team in north america is doing this, so they're all bad for doing so?
look it up man. i already gave you one example of another entity doing it. the oilers do it, the jets do it, the mlb has a league wide thing, nascar just gave away 20k tickets to the troops for the coca cola 600.
you can't be saying that they wrap themselves in the flag, when ever sport in north america does it as well
Yeah, sports teams doing armed forces events is pretty common all over the United States and Canada. I don't begrudge them that. Even if it's for self-serving or promotional reasons, I'm sure it means a lot to the uniformed folks when they get the standing ovations and whatnot, and that's all that matters.
My only semi-beef with this event specifically, is detailed earlier in the thread.
- Scott
I love how you turned this into "how can you be against giving seats to troops".Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeoman
Anyway, others do it, sure. I stand by my statement that MLSE are over the top with it, and their interest in it is cynical. I've got other ways I support the country and the military, I don't need MLSE (or my travel agent or my car dealer) "giving me opportunities" to support anybody.
I happen to think accepting this makes one a cog in a PR machine where the endgame is massive use of public funds/assets for a private enterprise purpose at below market rates.
Sports teams want to help troops? How about doing it without using them as marketing props for commercial gain? I do.
How about a 21 gun salute?Quote:
Originally Posted by MartinUtd
I think you missed the joke. The premis was thin, but it's there.
This will likely be an unpopular view in a group named after an Infantry Division, but I might as well put it out there: I'm boycotting this game, and am completely disgusted that MLSE (and yes, almost all NA sports teams) feel the need to "salute the troups". Would much prefer to give up my seats to relatives of the countless dead Afghan civilians.
Please keep in mind this is about the event itself. Keep political debates on the war itself out of here.
Thanks.
- Scott
Not going to elaborate too much given what the mod said, but I agree wholeheartedly. Was going to get tickets to this game but won't be now because of this. Worrying when sports gets tied in to reinforcing state terror and when supporters groups are recruited into this .. even more worrying when this is seen so self-evidently as a positive initiative.Quote:
Originally Posted by colman1860
A sidenote: not trying to be obnoxious, but why is certain political discussion (ie. how to support troops) allowed and others (ie. why supporting the troops shouldn't be seen as self-evident and should be challenged) not?
Bang on...I think of this every time I see something mentioned about this. It makes them look stupid IMO because they want to do this charitable thing but only if it doesn't come from their pockets with tickets they can still sell so, in other words, they request the paid ticketholders to donate rather than them taking any hit....especially stupid when you look at all the unused seats every game. If TFC FO are making any contribution to this in terms of seats they should really come out and say it so it doesn't look as bad. I am also for donations to charity and supporting the armed forces but I don't trust donating anything to MLSE to do the charity on my behalf. Just don't trust corporations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pookie
i don't think this issue is overly political in nature, so it's been allowed to continue (by me at least). it was a promotion that glen thought was cool, and because it related to TFC he shared it. it's slowly moving into the territory of us discussing the cross promotion of armed forces and sports in north america. people aren't interjecting their personal opinions on the military..Quote:
Originally Posted by flamehawk
except for the last part g:DQuote:
Originally Posted by colman1860
as long as we keep the conversation on topic, we'll be fine. i have no inherent need to start deleting posts because of personal opinions or politics, but we aren't discussing those and, if we do, we're both off topic and in violation of board rules. having said that, thanks for keeping it civil folks! i was worried about this thread getting out of hand, but you've all given me a reason not to be.
^^
Do we know that MLSE does not donate a bunch of tickets themselves? If someone is not going to the game and wants to donate their tickets to a group/organization then I say good on them. After all, this is optional and each person can make their personal decision.
As for corporate charity in general, I have an issue with any corporation asking its customers to help fund whatever charity that company is supporting. Being a good corporate citizen should be something the company takes pride in and funds itself. It seems to be in fashion these days for every company out there asking for my money to fund their charity of choice. Nice that they reap the benefit in both goodwill and actual tax write-off with someone else funding the charity. Being a good corporate citizen is a fantastic thing. Just don't ask me to fund it for you.
As for this particular initiative, I'm not donating because I'm using my tickets on this day. But as someone who has family in the military it's something that touches close to home and would likely end up donating if I was not going. In the end we all have our charities or programs we support and cannot say no to for whatever reason. I would like to believe MLSE is pulling their weight on this one.
I really think that this is in bad taste for MLSE to look at us to donate our seats, when I can go onto Ticketmaster to buy additional seats. You would think that this game in particular would not be an option for purchase. I agree with everyone who's been saying that any available tickets should ALL be donated by MLSE and we should be the ones to chose to top it up... in theory, there should be a full crowd on the day. Personally, I don' think I'll be able to make it, so I'll be donating if it's confirmed that I can't go.
I just got off the phone with an account rep, who seemed like he was frustrated by my questioning of this initiative. I asked him if MLSE were donating seats and why I could buy additional seats on TM. I even told him how frustrating it would be for all of us who end up donating and watching the game on TV only to see the grounds half full in capacity. He just kept repeating over and over, that "This is your chance to give back to the Armed Forces... MLSE are donating some tickets and we're asking our Season Seat Holders to donate their seats to support our Troups". Take that for what it's worth... ML$E again takes something good and finds a way to make a farce of it. And I too come from a long line of family members who have served... They deserve far more than just tickets obviously, but this thing seems a bit questionable at best.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roogsy
hahahahahha
and Roogsy what did you do now?
students got tired of the teacher, did they make you drink hemlock?
I can understand everyone's point of view, however the original link states STH can support and that they already have had good support from STH who already did this.
IMO, it's a personal choice whether to do this or not for your own reasons, there's no commitment or expectation to do so.
The initiative is a good idea.
Some STH who can't make the game can say hey why not do this.
But I do get what you guys have mentioned previously.
What they should have done IMO is block off a huge section of seats for this or another game (say the North end) so they'll could be grouped together then have an initiative for people to donate with a tax receipt in order to get them seats and have them acknowledged for all there hard work and efforts.
I think this would keep the political MLSE\TFC equation out of it.
This way everyone wins.
Just my 2 cents worth.
GlenM