Sponsor threatened to dump Crew over Nordecke
2009-10-23 23:46:00
Many of you will remember the letter Mark McCullers sent to the Nordecke last month asking them to be on their best behavior. In today's Columbus Dispatch Sean Michelle explores how that happened:But not everyone is happy with the bastion of drums, songs, flags, banners and, occasionally, profane chants. McCullers said some fans sitting in other parts of the stadium have complained to the front office, including at least one who wrote a letter to a team sponsor.
. . .
When the sponsor, whom McCullers would not identify, told the Crew that it was reconsidering its support of the team, the Crew decided to beef up security in the section and issue a plea to fans via the team blog to stop the organized chanting of profanity.
Apparently that sponsor is not Glidden, who seem to have an altogether more positive view of the situation.
"We aren't really concerned with any types of individual things that happen within the stands," Hembree said. "We don't find them to be a direct reflection on the quality of the Crew organization. We get e-mails on a regular basis from all of our consumers, including Crew fans. We have yet to see one complaint."
It will be nice when MLS is at a point where the Crew can respond to queasy sponsors by cutting and pasting that quote into an e-mail instead of having to spend more money on security in a section that is largely self-policing.
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