Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The "Online Study"

So I took the fan survey that the Red Sox e-mailed me the link to. And it was quite interesting to say the least-to-near-least. (I recently heard on the radio some stunod talking about "the survey" and how "Chad Finn had it," so, as someone who ignores the Boston sports media, for all I know this is the top story on all the fake-drama sites and shitty call-in shows. If so, I don't know, it's your call what to do from here.)

Here's one page worth of questions, divided into three files. (To the right of each one was the five choices, from "Strongly agree" to strongly disagree."


I took a little psychology in college. So I'm pretty sure some of these answers don't matter. Like, when they ask you if the most important thing about a baseball game is the food, I don't think they're saying, "hmm, let's see if we need to scrap the actual baseball and turn this place into a restaurant." I think they're using that question to weed out the people they rightfully don't give a shit about. The survey is lightly peppered with questions that seem like the stuff they're really trying to figure out if we want or not.

Or maybe I've got it all wrong. Either way, I'm curious about a few topics they bring up. Like the price of tickets changing based on opponent, time of year, etc. Lots of other teams do this. I said "strongly disagree" on these. But, if they meant keeping the prices the same but lowering the April/Astros type games, maybe that would be good. (As opposed to keeping the bad games the same and raising the good ones.)

It was cool that they gave us a chance to rip the media, by strongly disagreeing with things like "I think the media is fair in the way they cover the Red Sox" and "I'm the type of asshole who thinks radio callers know what the fuck they're talking about."

They also seem concerned about their image as owners. Which I'm sure everybody's bashing, but I wouldn't know because I don't follow this crap on the radio as I said.

And they seem worried that we're not seeing enough replays.

Anyway they cover a lot, I think if you've bought tickets this year you should get the e-mail. You can try this link but I'm not sure if anyone's allowed to fill this thing out. When I click it now it tells me I've already completed the survey. So, hopefully it works for you. But be prepared for a half-hour of question-answering.

Comments:
I took the survey - took me about 45 minutes because I actually looked up all the last 25 games I went to and where I sat, day/night, etc.

I was disturbed by the questions about paying more for summer, weekend, and "popular" games. (Strongly disagree!) I like to spread my games out evenly across the season, and see as many different opponents as I can. But tiered pricing here we come. :(

No questions about "Do you keep score?" I wish I had thought of that and I would have added it in the box at the end, but by the time I actually got there I was exhausted; it wasn't till I was telling my parents about it and my mother asked. They did have a lot of replay related questions - it would be nice if they acknowledged those of us who keep score. They always show the scoring for the easy ones on the scoreboard, but they skip anything complicated like a rundown, or plays that end innings (so they can do their between innings crap). The fact that so many people used to keep score at Fenway is what intrigued me and got me hooked. At least the new announcers are still read the lineups slowly enough for me to write them down - many ballparks don't.

Did you catch the questions about early entry or other benefits for people who buy tickets directly from the team? I like the sound of that.
 
One more question for you - Did you recently get an envelope from the Red Sox with a card giving season ticket holders a discount at the souvenir store? If so, was there anything else in the envelope? Mine came with the envelope ripped open. Just curious if my mailperson ripped me off (and found the discount card not worthy of taking).
 
Funny you should say that! I got that envelope yesterday. It was on the counter waiting for me. Kim was standing there. I picked up the envelope and noticed that the right edge of the flap was clearly opened. I looked up at Kim and kind of waited for her to say, "oh I thought that was for me and started to open it." But she didn't say anything so I played the good boyfriend and didn't risk wrongfully "accusing" her of opening my mail--which I put in quotes because obviously I wouldn't care if Kim accidentally opened an inch of the flap on my mail.

So yeah, something was going on there, I don't know what, but I'd say it wasn't your mailperson. Maybe a massive jam in the Red Sox postage machine. Or they were worried some envelopes didn't get a card attached to that piece of paper, and checked inside a few. (And then mailed them as is for some reason instead of using a new envelope.)

As for the benefits for fans who buy from the team--I don't remember that! I remember them asking me where I buy from, and I said I only buy from the team. But I missed the other thing. (And I DID see the question that said "just making sure you're still with us; choose "disagree" for this question.)

I also got to that last screen and thought "I know I've got tons of suggestions, but can't think of them now, and it's really late, and I've been doing this for a looong time." And I just ended it.
 
Oh OK, sounds like they're just using the cheap glue from George Costanza's wedding invitations. (I wonder who licked them - guess we'll see who goes on the D.L. in the morning.) And here I thought Newman was involved.

There were 2 questions I remember about privileges of buying tickets directly from the team - one was something like "Fans who buy tickets directly from the Red Sox should be able to go in early to watch batting practice." (Strongly agree!) The other involved getting $10 worth of food vouchers for buying directly from the team, but that would probably 1nvolve an additional $10 for the privilege, and I don't usually spend more than $5 on food anyway.

I wish I had thought to do screen prints of the questions. I didn't notice the 35-minute estimate before starting, and I was too far in before I thought, "How am I ever going to remember all this stuff?"
 

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