Wednesday, April 27, 2011

I am an Arena Football Fan ... I Wanted To Be A Command Fan

I was an arena football fan before there was an Arena Team in Kansas City.  In fact, I was often torn when the Chicago Rush played Kansas City, because I was a Chicago fan before the Brigade, and leading up to the return of the Brigade as the Command.  The trip to Chicago that I took to see the Brigade play the Command was AFL heaven for me.  My family and I even went down on the field after the game and got the autographs of the Chicago players ... after they had beaten the Brigade.   When people asked about us being in line and wearing Brigade shirts, I would simply explain that I was an Arena Football Fan first.

I was a Season Ticket holder for two of the three years that the Brigade were in KC.  I was holding Season tickets when the league folded.  I was disappointed when the Brigade didn't make it into the new league its first year, and excited when the news broke that they would be in season two, even if it was under the name "Command."  But the more I sat back and watched the process of the team coming back to KC.  As I waited for contact on Season Tickets, after seeing who was running ticket sales, after seeing the prices they were looking to collect versus single game tickets, and considering my already insane personal schedule, I found it hard to stay excited.

I am willing to give the Command a second chance.  I keep track of what is going on with the games and how sales are going at the Sprint Center.  I am not fond of the new team name, I still refer to them as the Brigade when dealing with certain people.  I wish they would tell Sprint Center to kiss-off and find a better venue, like returning to Kemper, maybe working out something with the Independence Event Center which could easily host the number of tickets that are being sold now and PARKING IS FREE!  I do not like coming into Sprint Center, the scalping that takes place on Parking by Standard Parking, and the fact that there is ABSOLUTELY NO DESCENT PLACE TO TAILGATE really takes away from the Football Experience.

Think about it.  The last game they had was an event where they were offering discounts to Scouting Groups. They sold less than 4,500 tickets.  When you look at the pictures from the game, the place looked empty.  A smaller, more fan friendly venue would be a good start.  And frankly, I could live without the drunks that are coming into the game from the Kansas City Power & Light District.  The AFL is supposed to be Family Friendly.

I wanted to be a fan ... but right now I'm just disappointed

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