Comments on: Announcing The Next USSM Event

By: brianf

brianf — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:05:16 +0000

Wow, a buddy saw the post and we immediately agreed he’d buy tix for us… Only today I find out we were (apparently) minutes too late.

Add my hat to the ring for any “unused” tix, or in support of a larger venue…

Back-up, Back-up plan: Will trade PS3 games for seats!

Brian

By: BobbyAyalaFan4Life

BobbyAyalaFan4Life — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:29:52 +0000

Hereâ€™s how this thread has gone so far:

Someone: â€œYou guys should webcast this.â€

USSM: â€œWe canâ€™t webcast this.â€

Someone else: â€œHey, Iâ€™ve got a great idea, you should webcast this!â€

USSM: â€œâ€¦â€

Yeah, but Jeff, can we webcast this?
I’m as much on the outside for this as well (and actually, haven’t been able to make one yet as a late comer to the glory of this blog), but agree with the sentiments stated: I can honestly say as a journalist (and a sports journalist for four years), the amount and quality of information you get from sources “off the record” is (usually…an important caveat) much more substantial that you’d get in print. It’s why journalists don’t go “off the record” with people much these days…it can be frustrating to hear all these great things and not be able to shout it from the mountain. However, at the same time, it’s that kind of mutual respect that builds trust between the parties, so that when something big does go down, you are likely to get that info first. Hopefully, this is the kind of relationship being built between this amazingly accessible front office (I’d love to hear if anyone else in MLB is this open and available…I’d doubt it) and these amazing volunteers that have helped us all get excited about our team again.
So, for the record, yes, it sucks we can’t all go and rent out Safeco and get 25,000 of us there. At the same time, I’ll gladly sit one out to ensure these events carry on in the future. It sucks to not be there, but I’d rather have the chance of making it in the future than no event at all.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:48:38 +0000

What with all the publicity USSM has received this year (all the shoutouts on all the sports news outlets driving traffic to this site and Twitter), combined with all the excitement over Jack-as-rock-star, the quick sellout for the event was inevitable. Demand is certainly much higher than last year.

By: Osfan

Osfan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:24:55 +0000

What the M’s are doing makes alot of sense. Say Blengino says something at the event to the effect of “Wins are not important.” People here know and understand what he means by that. But, if the MSM got a hold of the webcast of him saying this, they’ll try and use it to make the M’s look stupid. “THE M’S DON’T CARE ABOUT WINNING! Here’s video to prove it!” Whereas, they can’t really do that by saying “So an So from the internet said Blengino said wins are not important.”

By: joser

joser — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:45:07 +0000

“You know what, you should webcast this!”
“We’re not allowed to webcast it”
“But you know, it would be easy, and cheap…”
“It’s a political/legal issue, not a financial or technical one”
“But I can help you with the technical issues…”

I particularly recall a USSM thread in the wake of such an event with Bavasi that had plenty of maddening, vague references to what went on.

And yet it was maddening and vague, not satisfying and specific. So by your own testimony, and despite your assertions, the prohibitions actually worked.

By: Jeff Nye

Jeff Nye — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:19:15 +0000

Here’s how this thread has gone so far:

Someone: “You guys should webcast this.”

USSM: “We can’t webcast this.”

Someone else: “Hey, I’ve got a great idea, you should webcast this!”

USSM: “…”

By: GoMariners

GoMariners — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:09:55 +0000

I think that, if approved by the Mariners, the event should definitely be live-video-streamed via one of the free services out there like UStream.TV. It is very easy to do and it does not take any bandwidth from ussmariner.com.

By: zzyzx

zzyzx — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:33:40 +0000

As someone who has been to about half of these, I never really felt excluded over the ones I missed. Bummed that i missed them sure, but it’s not like attendees got free lifetime season tickets or something… It’s a fun time, not a special club.

By: Jeff Nye

Jeff Nye — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:30:56 +0000

Eh, these are mostly Dave’s show. He’s the one who really knows what will and won’t fly.

We’d love it if everyone could be there who wants to, and to provide full webcast and a detailed transcript for everyone who has to miss it.

But we’re getting a staggering amount of access to the Mariners front office guys, and them asking us to abide by a few rules isn’t at all unreasonable, whether you think their reasons for asking are “valid” or not.

By: Pete Livengood

Pete Livengood — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:55:22 +0000

G-Man, I don’t want to speak for Derek or Dave or Jeff (or anyone), but with all due respect, please understand that whatever your “media pro” friends tell you about whether comments said in a forum such as this can reasonably be expected to be kept “off the record” is really irrelevant.

The ground rules for these events are that attendees not share what they heard, at least not in a public forum like the internet, because if we did not (and do not) respect that request, we simply will not be given access to team officials, or if we are, they will not share much of interest that you haven’t already read somewhere in a newspaper or online somewhere. It really has nothing to do with “the In Crowd” or any desire to keep information from anybody. Trust me, I will be as much on the outs as you are (unfortunately), and want to hear what is said as much as you do, but understand why I can’t expect a transcript or even a detailed summary. I hope you do, too.