What are your feelings on new tagline "Appreciate the Game"?

[caulfield12]

Please move if there's already a thread about this...or maybe we can all put our mottos/taglines/slogans together

 

http://chicago.sbnation.com/chicago-white-...e-sox-2012-news

 

 

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/201...-backfire-again

 

 

 

“When Robin came in, we asked him, ‘What kind of attributes do you want to come out of the clubhouse?' ” Mr. Boyer said. “He said he wants his team to play smart, to play for a reason. He said he wanted them playing for the reasons why they first started playing baseball: Because they love the game. He said, ‘I want them to appreciate everything this game has offered them.' ”

 

Hence, “Appreciate the game.”

 

Mr. Boyer said the upcoming campaign will feature Mr. Ventura preaching this philosophy. “I think it will resonate with our fans,” he said.

 

Perhaps. I asked again, however, wouldn't it just be simpler to not have any kind of slogan? Does it really help sell tickets?

 

Mr. Boyer defended the concept.

 

“If you don't have a campaign, then you're not talking to fans,” Mr. Boyer said. “If we suddenly didn't do a slogan, then people would say, ‘The White Sox don't care. They didn't even put a campaign together.' I'd rather convey a message about what is unique to the White Sox.”

 

OK. I just hope “Appreciate the game” works out better than “All in.”

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/201...n#ixzz1oxO8hUt0

Edited March 13, 2012 by caulfield12

[DirtySox]

It's the kind of tagline you use when the team itself is going to be s***ty.

[knightni]

"Don't Appreciate The Player, Appreciate The Game."

[caulfield12]

Appreciate the Uniform, Not the Player's Name on the Back (to keep us from getting any more aggravated with Dunn/Peavy/Rios)

Edited March 13, 2012 by caulfield12

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

Has the potential to go down as one of the more awful, yet hilarious taglines of recent vintage. I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not when I first heard it.

[Middle Buffalo]

It's dumb, but "Appreciate the Game" > "Baseball is Better..."

[BigEdWalsh]

It's the kind of tagline you use when the team itself is going to be s***ty.

Right on. That said, I like it. I'm digging the games down in Arizona even though the Sox are pretty much sucking. Ya have to just appreciate the little things.

[DirtySox]

Right on. That said, I like it. I'm digging the games down in Arizona even though the Sox are pretty much sucking. Ya have to just appreciate the little things.

 

No doubt. s***ty team or not, I'll watch. Baseball is still awesome.

[Wanne]

Wonder how much they paid the ad agency to come up with that brain storm? My personal motto this season is gonna be: "Appreciate the Beer"....

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Sounds like something a loser would say.

[IlliniKrush]

I don't think it's going to be interpreted the way they want it to. They want it based on Robin's comments about players appreciating the game, etc. About how this team will work hard, do the little things, etc.

 

I think fans will just hear that THEY should appreciate the game. Aka, we suck, but come watch it because it's still baseball, and you like baseball, right? So come to a game, baseball is a great game. And we have good food and free tshirts and s***.

 

I just don't think it will get as deep with the fans as they are envisioning. I see where they are going, I just think 95% won't see it that way.

[Wanne]

I don't think it's going to be interpreted the way they want it to. They want it based on Robin's comments about players appreciating the game, etc. About how this team will work hard, do the little things, etc.

 

I think fans will just hear that THEY should appreciate the game. Aka, we suck, but come watch it because it's still baseball, and you like baseball, right? So come to a game, baseball is a great game. And we have good food and free tshirts and s***.

 

I just don't think it will get as deep with the fans as they are envisioning. I see where they are going, I just think 95% won't see it that way.

 

Good point...

[caulfield12]

It's also possible some will take it as a veiled swipe at the Ozzie Guillen regime over the last 3 years....and how it has been more about individual personalities, media, ego, etc., rather than the love each player/coach had for the sport when they first started out playing baseball at the Little League level.

 

 

[SoxFan1]

I hate the comparisons to the Cubs all the damn time. They weren't always popular and selling out Wrigley Field. There is nothing lovable about losing. They will not forever be the #1 team in Chicago.

[bigruss]

I hate the comparisons to the Cubs all the damn time. They weren't always popular and selling out Wrigley Field. There is nothing lovable about losing. They will not forever be the #1 team in Chicago.

Well the #2 team needs to start winning consistently, because the Sox will never win the battle of the losers.

[ILMOU]

Very loserish, and seemingly designed to ramp down expectations of winning, as if they weren't low enough already.

 

Hope they didn't pay an agency too much for this gem.

[Jake]

I miss "the kids can play"

 

Seriously though, it's only loser-ish when you're losing. We'll be chanting this s*** like it's "grinder rules" all over again if we win this year.

[Steve9347]

"You like baseball, so please watch it even if the team you root for will lose a lot of games."

 

At least it's honest.

[LVSoxFan]

I hate the comparisons to the Cubs all the damn time. They weren't always popular and selling out Wrigley Field. There is nothing lovable about losing. They will not forever be the #1 team in Chicago.

 

As far as baseball goes, they will be. I think realistically the Bears are the #1 team in Chicago.

 

As for us vs. Cubs, it's simply geography. Where The Cell is cannot compete with the Wrigley location. I was at Cubs/Sox at Wrigley two seasons ago and there was a guy in the bleachers with his four kids and wife from Texas. They were in Chicago and they all wanted to see... Wrigley. He bought SCALPED tix outside for the family (think of what that must have cost). They either didn't know or barely knew that there was a second team in Chicago.

 

So right there you've got the tourist crowd, plus the built-in crowd from the surrounding 'hood (mine, BTW) and of course the allure of being able to hit the endless bars/restaurants before and after the game. We can never compete with that for the casual baseball fan. IMO when old Comiskey came down they should have built the new park on the lakefront (say, where Northerly Island now resides) and THEN all of a sudden you'd have a location to die for.

 

That said, if the rumors are true and Wrigley will be torn down and built up next year meaning the Cubs have to play at The Cell, that will settle the argument once and for all about how many loyal fans they really have, when it means getting on the el every time and heading eight miles south (as I do).

 

Cubs attendance was abysmal last year BTW, probably only ours was worse. What will probably keep the stands more full this year is they have something we certainly don't: hope. With their new management, even if not this year then soon they ought to at least be contenders. And if this doesn't work, I'd say there truly is a curse.

 

Contrast that with us, where even our new slogan can't avoid the reality that nobody expects this team to do anything and there is no short-term fix and our farm system is rated a league-worst.

 

Appreciate the game? How about appreciate some offense? I can take the losses if they're hard fought but I swear to God last year it seemed like every game I was at was the same game over and over. Flatliners.

[klaus kinski]

As far as baseball goes, they will be. I think realistically the Bears are the #1 team in Chicago.

 

As for us vs. Cubs, it's simply geography. Where The Cell is cannot compete with the Wrigley location. I was at Cubs/Sox at Wrigley two seasons ago and there was a guy in the bleachers with his four kids and wife from Texas. They were in Chicago and they all wanted to see... Wrigley. He bought SCALPED tix outside for the family (think of what that must have cost). They either didn't know or barely knew that there was a second team in Chicago.

 

So right there you've got the tourist crowd, plus the built-in crowd from the surrounding 'hood (mine, BTW) and of course the allure of being able to hit the endless bars/restaurants before and after the game. We can never compete with that for the casual baseball fan. IMO when old Comiskey came down they should have built the new park on the lakefront (say, where Northerly Island now resides) and THEN all of a sudden you'd have a location to die for.

 

That said, if the rumors are true and Wrigley will be torn down and built up next year meaning the Cubs have to play at The Cell, that will settle the argument once and for all about how many loyal fans they really have, when it means getting on the el every time and heading eight miles south (as I do).

 

Cubs attendance was abysmal last year BTW, probably only ours was worse. What will probably keep the stands more full this year is they have something we certainly don't: hope. With their new management, even if not this year then soon they ought to at least be contenders. And if this doesn't work, I'd say there truly is a curse.

 

Contrast that with us, where even our new slogan can't avoid the reality that nobody expects this team to do anything and there is no short-term fix and our farm system is rated a league-worst.

 

Appreciate the game? How about appreciate some offense? I can take the losses if they're hard fought but I swear to God last year it seemed like every game I was at was the same game over and over. Flatliners.

 

Can't disagree. especially the "hope" factor. They get new guy, launch some dead meat, have a plan-thus hope. We lose most popular and dependable player, keep same guy, have no apparent plan (i.e. signing Fukudome) have same dead meat on team-thus little hope. It's hard to appreciate the game for this team at $50 for a descent seat and $25 for parking.

Edited March 13, 2012 by klaus kinski

[Greg Hibbard]

"Losing is a disease...."

[ScottyDo]

Can't disagree. especially the "hope" factor. They get new guy, launch some dead meat, have a plan-thus hope. We lose most popular and dependable player, keep same guy, have no apparent plan (i.e. signing Fukudome) have same dead meat on team-thus little hope. It's hard to appreciate the game for this team at $50 for a descent seat and $25 for parking.

Agree with much of the previous sentiment, but the bolded keeps getting repeated and I don't get why. The plan going into this offseason seemed pretty clear to me, and the execution thereof was consistent as well. Signing Fukudome is not a "directionless" move, it's a "nothing to lose by signing this guy to a deal worth the change in my pocket" move. He's a bench player.

[LVSoxFan]

Can't disagree. especially the "hope" factor. They get new guy, launch some dead meat, have a plan-thus hope. We lose most popular and dependable player, keep same guy, have no apparent plan (i.e. signing Fukudome) have same dead meat on team-thus little hope. It's hard to appreciate the game for this team at $50 for a descent seat and $25 for parking.

 

Well and you raise another good point. It's not like prices have come down.

 

Last year was the emptiest I have seen The Cell since I've been going there. The only upside was that you could pretty much sit where you wanted because the ushers weren't going to chase you away. I remember feeling bad for the vendors in the UD because they had no business and often were gone just a few innings into the game.

 

Okay I guess one other upside was that you could get on Stubhub and get fantastic seats for a steal. You got no such deals trying to buy Sox tix through their site.

 

The Sox can schedule all the special days and bobblehead promotions they want but those gimmicks won't save them if this team ends up skidding throughout the entire season. As somebody once plainly said: winning sells tickets.

 

And yes, LOL, the "Appreciate the Game" tag line seems like surrender already.

[mmmmmbeeer]

I like it. I agree that it kind of tempers expectations, especially when compared to the dreadful "All In" campaign. Any baseball fan knows that there are ups and downs for every franchise but, no matter how awful a team is, we can all still appreciate the game. Be it an evening spent in the stands taking in the atmosphere, sitting on your porch at home listening to Ed and DJ, or a lazy Sunday afternoon lounging on the couch watching the action on TV, it's a game that we all love whether the team wins or loses. The Sox have always been a part of our lives and perhaps it's seasons like 2012, where you don't throw s*** at the tv because your expectations are set high, that we really get to appreciate the game of baseball for what it is.

[LVSoxFan]

I guess I'd agree I'd rather see a tag line that doesn't make any promises because Lord knows last year the organization got endless sh** from everyone for the "All In" campaign, which, if you remember still had commercials inexplicably running all season long, long after they were all... out.

 

Although even that wasn't as bad as "The Kids Can Play!" Or was it?

 

So no I guess I'm not embarrassed by the new tag, nor will we be, which was probably be the point.