Will you go back?

[Armen Da Pats Fan]

Now that the battle of the millionaires vs. the billionaires has reached a head, and the NFL owners (the billioniares) have locked out the players (the millionaires), and the fans, who, for the most part, live paycheck to paycheck and spend their hard earned money on this product have been bent over and given the cornhole treatment, will you go back to the game whenever they finally do return?

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Im 100 percent confident that there will be a FULL Football season... FA will probably be different, but there will be a full training camp and football season... If for some reason its not i will boycott some things, but i was too young in 82 , but it still sucked, 87 the scab thing was awful, so its been 20 plus years since the last labor dispute... I wont buy nfl properties, give up direct tv, and not go to any games .... but im a fan and I would be a liar if i say i would never go back... I think its stupid though that it has come to this but this is what both parties wanted all along...

 

[patsfan-1982]

i dont think i ever left. no i dont like all this he said she said business side of the NFL we are missing free agency and the Draft will not be as fun as it has been the last few years but over all no meaningful games are scheduled to be played for about 6 months so if and when there are games being played i will be watching

 

[WhiZa]

I like what the Pats are bringing to the table so yes I will have a reason to come back. But if there are games missed then the NFL (players and owners) deserve all the criticism that is coming to them.

 

[Armen Da Pats Fan]

I have been thinking about this and I like what some folks are proposing, which is to never buy any NFL licensed apparel or go to games again.

I am lucky enough to live in the Boston area now (after 35 years behind enemy lines in South Florida where I HAD to get DirectTV NFL Sunday Ticket or suffer through 14 Dolphins games a year!), so I can watch the team on local TV and get all the highlight and analysis shows.

We'll see.

I really don't know how I will react but I am amazed these idiots could not come to a compromise together.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

will the thirsty man resume drinking when the water is restored ?...uh..,. yeah

 

[FCB02062]

I'll likely go back, but I will try to give Krafty Bob as little of my $ as possible. No more parking in stadium lots (Pats train, Foxboro Terminals, get dropped off at the end of Washington St, or other satellite lots will be the way to go), and I will certainly not be buying my customary 5 or 6 beers at $7.50 a pop during the game .
How fantastic would it be to see Krafty Bob's parking lots empty on game day, but still have a sell out at the game???? It's probably not possible, but if more people forgo tailgating and take the Pats train, get dropped off, or find some other way of attending a game and NOT parking in Krafty's lots it'd be great.

 

[Armen Da Pats Fan]

I'll likely go back, but I will try to give Krafty Bob as little of my $ as possible. No more parking in stadium lots (Pats train, Foxboro Terminals, get dropped off at the end of Washington St, or other satellite lots will be the way to go), and I will certainly not be buying my customary 5 or 6 beers at $7.50 a pop during the game .
How fantastic would it be to see Krafty Bob's parking lots empty on game day, but still have a sell out at the game???? It's probably not possible, but if more people forgo tailgating and take the Pats train, get dropped off, or find some other way of attending a game and NOT parking in Krafty's lots it'd be great.

You know what would be interesting (and I cannot even imagine how you would put something like this together), but if NFL fans around the country got together and boycotted one week together, maybe opening day whenever they come back.

Can you imagine the networks covering games with no one in the stands and the lots and concessions empty? They would flash to the owners boxes and the owners would be sitting there with their crew of ass-suckers and hangers on looking down on empty seats!

 

[PatsDeb]

You know what would be interesting (and I cannot even imagine how you would put something like this together), but if NFL fans around the country got together and boycotted one week together, maybe opening day whenever they come back.

Can you imagine the networks covering games with no one in the stands and the lots and concessions empty? They would flash to the owners boxes and the owners would be sitting there with their crew of ass-suckers and hangers on looking down on empty seats!

I wish there was something like this we could do, but there isn't enough organization for fans involved. I am a season ticket holder and it burns me up that Bob Kraft still expects my money on March 31st or he'll give my seat away, yet if there is no game I wonder how fast I'll get my money back? He's already been holding over $300 of mine and 60,000 of my closest friends since December for the AFC championship game that never was. How about returning the interest you've made on that Bob to the fans you profess to love so much? How about giving us a 30 day extension on our ticket payments until we see where this is all going? PFFFFTTT. I won't hold my breath.

 

[borg]

Will I go back?
As an out of stater too far away to be a regular, all I can say is...as long as the product is free and on TV, I'll watch and cheer for the Flying Elvis'. I'll never pay a half weeks salary to take the family for 3 hours of entertainment sandwiched between hours of traffic jams and aggravation. I've never bought jerseys because I don't need to pretend I'm a player.
So the only dollars the NFL will get from me, are from their advertisers whose products I buy. But there is a problem with that ...my DVR, or Red Zone, or the "other" channel button on the remote...I avoid commercials like the plague.
So I guess I need to thank everyone who directly supports the NFL...keep up the good work

 

[Raymond]

The fans haven't missed anything yet. It will probably be business as usual come September too. We'll all be in our seats and in front of the widescreens.

As far as Millionaires Vs Billionaires.....we see that every time a player holds out for more money with a club. Who's losing their football fandom over that?

 

[townes]

I'll go right back to watching the NFL if it comes back in full this season, however if they go to replacements there's a really good chance i'll never watch them again. Sports no longer capture my interest the way they did when i was a kid but i'm still an avid follower of the Patriots, replacements would likely kill that and i'd have a hard time rooting for any team that used replacements.

 

[Mike in 333]

From the perspective of a season ticket holder:
I'll go back, as PatsDeb said above, some of my money is already here and I'll send them the rest in a week or so. We have been promised refunds for any missed games as cash or credit toward future tickets. The one thing that could get me to rethink this would be if there is an attempt by owners to put a lesser product on the field. Right now we have the best of the best playing in the NFL, if the owners try to field a league using replacement players that would definitely be a deal breaker. The only reason to do something like that would be to keep the money paid by season ticket holders in advance.
I can be fairly patient and I think most other NFL fans will be unless it looks like we're being dragged, as pawns, into the dispute.

 

[signbabybrady]

I have been thinking about this and I like what some folks are proposing, which is to never buy any NFL licensed apparel or go to games again.

I am lucky enough to live in the Boston area now (after 35 years behind enemy lines in South Florida where I HAD to get DirectTV NFL Sunday Ticket or suffer through 14 Dolphins games a year!), so I can watch the team on local TV and get all the highlight and analysis shows.

We'll see.

I really don't know how I will react but I am amazed these idiots could not come to a compromise together.

I could be wrong but there is a problem with this thoery (blackouts aside) I would imagine that the NFL makes a ton more on their deals with the networks then they do on merchandise and ticket sales. I say blackouts aside because if everyone followed thru with this boycott we would all have to leave the area to watch and I dont know if the NFL owes refunds to the networks if they do blackout an area.

I think the merchandise aspect is a good idea and I think as fans we should all do something to cut our NFL costs down to spite them in some way but I dont think boycotting games in person but not on TV really effects anything as you are still consuming the product.

 

[TriplecHamp]

Nope, I'm totally done with football. Pretty much everybody here is, that's why were all still here.

 

[Tunescribe]

I wish there was something like this we could do, but there isn't enough organization for fans involved. I am a season ticket holder and it burns me up that Bob Kraft still expects my money on March 31st or he'll give my seat away, yet if there is no game I wonder how fast I'll get my money back? He's already been holding over $300 of mine and 60,000 of my closest friends since December for the AFC championship game that never was. How about returning the interest you've made on that Bob to the fans you profess to love so much? How about giving us a 30 day extension on our ticket payments until we see where this is all going? PFFFFTTT. I won't hold my breath.

I recently renewed my season tickets wondering the same things. There should be more considerations from the team when things like this arise. Aside from that, I've always chafed a bit at being invoiced for season tickets in February when other teams don't require full payment until June. Kraft should offer a discount for renewing six months before the season starts.

 

[letekro]

I find it absurd that fans would take this personally and especially absurd that some of you are already plotting your own form of protest/revenge against Bob Kraft. Were any of you under the impression that Bob Kraft or any other owner bought into the NFL to promote peace and harmony among mankind? Sure, a business owner may derive satisfaction from having a satisfied customer base, but he will always negotiate and operate with the interests of his business first and foremost in mind (even if it upsets his customers), and in fact, he owes a fiduciary duty to the business and its other owners to do just that. Some of you just sound unbelievably naive.

 

[InRodWeRust]

People visiting a Patriots message board in the middle of March where there's literally nothing going on are going to be the most hardcore Patriot addicts. I don't think anyone here could possibly give the Patriots up . . . unless they died or went into a coma

 

[Tunescribe]

I find it absurd that fans would take this personally and especially absurd that some of you are already plotting your own form of protest/revenge against Bob Kraft. Were any of you under the impression that Bob Kraft or any other owner bought into the NFL to promote peace and harmony among mankind? Sure, a business owner may derive satisfaction from having a satisfied customer base, but he will always negotiate and operate with the interests of his business first and foremost in mind (even if it upsets his customers), and in fact, he owes a fiduciary duty to the business and its other owners to do just that. Some of you just sound unbelievably naive.

It's more than that. Sports are part of the fabric of society, and Kraft himself has said he considers himself the custodian of a public trust. Whether you believe he's sincere about that is up to you. But if he's not, he should be. The Green Bay Packers are the ultimate example of that philosophy in action.

 

[PatsDeb]

I find it absurd that fans would take this personally and especially absurd that some of you are already plotting your own form of protest/revenge against Bob Kraft. Were any of you under the impression that Bob Kraft or any other owner bought into the NFL to promote peace and harmony among mankind? Sure, a business owner may derive satisfaction from having a satisfied customer base, but he will always negotiate and operate with the interests of his business first and foremost in mind (even if it upsets his customers), and in fact, he owes a fiduciary duty to the business and its other owners to do just that. Some of you just sound unbelievably naive.

We're not naive, we're just PO'd. If it weren't for us fans who buy his tickets, his merchandise, and advertise his brand all over the world, Kraft would have bumpkus. I'm not fooled that his number one goal is to become rich off the Pats. Hell, it would be mine too if I was in his shoes. But, it irks me when he and people like Roger Goodell profess that the fans are number one on their list, when in fact we are way down that list, and pretty much powerless to do anything about it at times like these. We're allowed to spout our meaningless threats of desertion on here.