A poll about fan interactivity at Safeco Field

PLEASE NOTE; AS OF SEPTEMBER 19TH AT 2.30PM, THIS POLL IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. You can still vote, but the results have been collected. Thank you all for your assistance, I really do appreciate your participation. -Megan

Taking a few minutes on a borrowed laptop to ask Mariners fans a question.

Recently, I attended my first King’s Court. I won’t go into the description of the King’s Court, because if you’re a Mariners fan, you already know. If you don’t, you better ask somebody. And if you can’t see a group of mustard-colored shirts in the corner of the stadium when Felix pitches, I might suggest an eye test. Ever since I attended my first Sounders game, and saw how enthusiastic the crowd gets there, I have thought that our fine Seattle baseball team could use a similar injection of excitement. Other teams have their fan clubs and ways for fans to up the ante when it comes to providing an atmosphere that supports the teams they follow; the Bleacher Creatures in New York, the guy who hits that drum for the Cleveland Indians all the time, the noisemakers at the Rays stadium, the flag wavers down in Oakland…I’m sure there are others (like the entire Phillies and Cardinals fanbases), but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. The King’s Court provides a similar outlet for fans who want to sit there. But it’s only a small pocket of fans, and even though people seem to be generally interested in the purpose of the section, it’s still kind of held at arm’s length by a lot of people who, in my opinion, simply don’t want to be excited over baseball – or don’t understand the concept of cheering on one’s team at a sporting event.

I believe that the Mariners need something, a little kick in the pants, a way for fans to participate. We have a terrible reputation for being the library of baseball; people don’t clap or yell unless the scoreboard tells them to. Fans get shushed by other fans for making so much as a peep when the count is 3-2, and little baby Jesus help you if you heckle the other team, even in a way that doesn’t involve swearing.

But if there were steps taken by the organization, “new rules”, as it were, put in place that encouraged people to get excited for our Seattle Mariners, would you participate? Would you want to be involved in making the atmosphere at Safeco a more electric one? If a noisemaker was sold in the Team Store, would you buy and use it? Would you sit in, say, a designated cheering section if there were some sort of special seating deal? Would you be more or less likely to come to a ball game if you knew that there would be more freedom to cheer the Ms on?

Keep in mind here, that I am asking these questions from the standpoint of someone who would love to see a more jubilant response from fans when the situations are tight or the game is good, or the count is full. So here are some questions…

I think that’s about it for now.  Please feel free to pass this around to other fans, and feel free to comment in the comments section, if you feel that something has been missed, or have other suggestions, or just to tell me that I’m crazy. I’d like to see as much participation as possible here, it might help things change (I’m not going into specifics, let’s just say I know some things about some stuff).

This might be my last post until the playoffs, so help me make it count, folks.

EDIT; it has come to my attention that my habit of spelling the stadium’s name “SafeCo” is indeed technically incorrect – even the corporation doesn’t spell it that way. It is a habit borne out of the impression that the “Co” part of the word stood for “Company”, therefore making “Co” a separate part of the name that should be capitalized. Something to work on when I get fully back on line.