Fowler and the Padres Take A Dump on Bringing Back the Brown

I was away last weekend on family business up in Washington.  My best laid plans at the start of the season to go to the Saturday and Sunday games flew out the window and I had to give away my tickets.  I sat on the toilet last night for a hearty dump, checked Twitter, and saw things were afire.  Ron Fowler spoke with AP reporter Bernie Wilson, stating that it was only a "vocal minority" in favor of switching the uniforms to brown.  He of course based this on likely fabricated "research" and "studies", but whatever.  It's a classic case of why you hire a PR or marketing guy to handle comments with the press as Fowler came off sounding like nothing but a doddering old man with little to no grip on reality.  Which could be true.  I don't know.  I can only go off of the quotes.

Anyways, the arguments for going back to brown (building an identity, they look cool, uniqueness, not having a shampoo bottle logo, etc.) have been beaten into the ground.  I'm going to attempt to brainstorm what Fowler/the Padres' motivations are for keeping the blue, despite it alienating the team's most engaged and loyal fans. Wayne Partello, the team's Chief Marketing Officer, went on Padres Social Hour this week to try and do damage control.  Unfortunately, Partello offered nothing other than generalizations, slick marketing commentary, and some inconsistent arguments that didn't make sense once you scratch below the surface.  Specifically, he tried to tell the story that the team was in the process of conducting some brand identity studies (not even studies on the uniform program) and that study was so preliminary that there could be no details shared on it.  This is wildly inconsistent with the comments of Fowler regarding a "vocal minority" that was in favor of brown based on their studies, as well as wildly inconsistent with Partello himself, as Partello cited studies as well stating there was no broad majority supporting brown.  Either there are or aren't studies (there are), I believe moreso, the team just doesn't want to share these results.  I know for a fact that I, as a season ticket holder, have never been polled on which uniforms I prefer.  Partello also stated that the Friday attendance of Bring Back the Brown weekend was lackluster, apparently saying that brown weekends need to be total sellouts to garner any momentum of management, while blue can just putter along at all of the rest of the games with sub 20k attendance.  An unfair standard. 

In general, here is my basic analysis of Fowler and Partello's comments.  Fowler's comments were off the cuff, direct and unrehearsed.  Partello's comments were made by a marketing expert who had ample time to prepare comments, spin, and a narrative, all while being lobbed softballs by fellow Padres employee Jesse Agler.  If you're looking for the truth, I strongly believe Fowler's comments are probably much closer to it than Partello's.

Anyways, onto the analysis:

1. The PCL Uniforms: For several years now, the Padres management has been planting the seeds of the PCL uniforms being personal favorites of ownership.  They like the red, white and blue of them, and for whatever reason, they value the Padres minor league history much more than their Major League history.  Wayne Partello even planted the seed on his Padres Social Hour interview.  In my opinion, every time ownership/membership mentions the PCL uniforms, it is a calculated strategy to bring them into the public discourse.  I also believe this explains their strategy of more often referring to the brown movement as being pro-retro uniforms, rather than pro brown uniforms (whether retro or modernized).  That way, if they announce they are adopting the PCL uniform style, they can applaud themselves for listening to the fans and bringing back retro, all while avoiding a return to brown.  Considering Wayne Partello had a couple days to prepare for his Padres Social Hour interview, I have a hard time believing his mention of the PCLs was not calculated, planned and part of a larger strategy.  For reference, here are the referenced PCL unis (get excited for the team to look like the Washington Nationals instead of the Milwaukee Brewers!):



2.  Dual Jersey Profit Motive: When talk arises about why the Chargers don't just switch to the powder blues, an answer I've often heard has been that they enjoy the dual revenue stream of being able to sell current jerseys along with throwback powder blues.  It's possible that the Padres have done an analysis showing they can continue the current plan to sell current blue uniforms/hats/merch along with the concurrent Cooperstown Collection/retro brown uniforms/hats/merch and maximize their licensing revenue.  This analysis may (speculation) show that switching the current unis to brown would cannibalize the retro revenues, leading to lower total sales/licensing revenue.  I'm not sure how likely this is, but looking at this ownership group (led by private equity partners), I could see profit maximization being a huge priority for them.  In my experience, the most logical reason for business decision-making is often profit maximization, and in the case of continuing an unpopular uniform program, I have to assume that there is some revenue/profit advantage to the current blues.  I believe this is especially true when taking into account ownership/management's attempts to obfuscate the issue with fabricated "studies", deliberately muddling the retro vs modernized brown, and in general, ignoring their most loyal fans' wishes.

3.  Owners Just Don't Like Brown: It could be as simple as the team ownership just doesn't like brown.  Fowler is a carpetbagger, but has been in San Diego long enough to link the brown uniforms to an era with a lot of losing.  Or maybe he just hates brown.  Maybe when he was a kid, he'd throw away his brown, burnt sienna, and copper crayons.  Maybe Ron Fowler wants the team to continue using the blue of his alma mater, USD.  Who knows.  In the end, they are the ones who dropped hundreds of millions on this team, mix in a little hubris, and if they don't like brown, they can be petulant children and withhold brown from their loyal fanbase.  Whatever.  It's entirely possible.

4.  Rope A Dope: It's possible the team has been listening to the fanbase, their studies show brown will sell more but they just aren't ready to make an announcement.  They are just stringing us along, making us all pissed at them, and then out of the blue, possibly after a horribly awful season full of no offense and boring games (hey, like this one!), they will make a great fan-friendly announcement that the browns are coming back, making us forget about the terrible on-field performance and horrendous mismanagement coming from the GM's office.  I don't totally discount this.  While Partello is a slick marketing guy with some PR chops, he's not totally blind and deaf to the fan's outcry.  He hears it.  Now whether he has the power to change Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler's (remember, Fowler is a minority partner.  Seidler is the money man and the majority owner) mind, I have no idea. 

In the end, if I were betting, I believe #1 or maybe #2 are the most likely team motivations.  The team has made a concerted argument to make the following arguments: "studies" show the majority favor blue, constant creation of confusion about retro vs modern brown, a higher and extremely difficult bar for attendance to exceed to "prove" that the fans are backing brown (makes it easy to say the support just wasn't there; meanwhile this Tuesday's game in blue will be lucky to draw 10k to the park), and an unwillingness to share any of their research.  I don't think those arguments are made in a vacuum, they are made in a conference room while devising a PR and marketing strategy for a decision that may already have been made (remember, it takes years for a uniform program update to happen with all of the design, approvals, etc.).  Now imagine this.  Season ends, the Padres finished last.  Padres brass calls a press conference to unveil new uniforms.  Twitter goes crazy.  They say the following things: "We listened to the fanbase and heard their call for retro uniforms", "our extensive studies show that a large majority of fans support blue in the uniforms", "we believe we've created uniforms that are the best of both worlds", and hanging behind them are updated PCL unis.  Fowler will have a wide grin on his face.  I can totally see this happening.

P.S. I will also add. Taking an interview strategy from Louis CK, I submitted a #padresSH question to Partello asking "if Ron Fowler is in fact an alien from outer space that eats human flesh".  This question was suspiciously ignored.  Not sure if you're familiar with the idea of silence equaling consent, but this does leave open the possibility that Ron Fowler IS in fact an alien from outer space that eats human flesh.  Send that "now for something completely different" to Aramco to use in their stupid commercials.

Secrets of Petco Park

Totally ignoring the subpar onfield performance of the Padres this season, management has undertaken a few fan unfriendly policies to wring every last dollar out of Petco Park.  The team has proudly pointed out the first come, first serve seating on the Western Metal Supply porch since the park's inception.  It's always pointed out on the ballpark tours.  Unfortunately, in a cash grab move, the Dee regime has turned these into $40 ticketed stool seats, eliminating one of the more fan friendly policies.  Luckily for the educated fan, there are a plethora of secret benefits that still exist in Petco Park to squeeze a little extra value out of your ticket.

The Pier

In the old days, the glory of the Toyota Terrace was only to be seen by terrace ticket holders.  This was changed under the Garfinkel regime for the better, opening it up to all fans.  The Pier is tucked away next to the escalator up from the Gaslamp Gate.  It used to be the sushi bar, now it's a place for tacos and drinks with a decent bar to sit at.  It also features a first come first serve patio with table seating and a nearly identical view as the Western Metal Supply... And it's free.  Fight The Man.

Lolita's

Sure the team has made every effort to improve the concession and beer program and take the focus off the field.  To some degree that works, but as a season ticket holder, I'm at the park too often to blow $20 on a Cardiff crack sammie and a beer.  Luckily, Petco has a permissive outside food policy, and conveniently across the street sits better than half decent taco shop, Lolita's.  It's now a regular maneuver for me to duck out at the Park Ave gate around the 4th inning, walk across the street to Lolita's, and bring a $4 burrito back in time for the next inning.  This maneuver also works with other nearby places, and especially well with The Kebab Shop since you can put your order in online at your seat.  Ditto for calling in an order to The Dragons Den across the street for some Singapore noodles or sushi.

Family Restrooms

When the aforementioned Lolita's catches up to your digestive system a few innings later, no need to use the regular bathrooms to drop the kids off like a peasant.  Hidden in the stairwells are the xanadus for dumping.  Clean, spacious and private.

Mothers Nursing Room

For those with little humans that need nursing, no need to do it in your seat.  There's a mothers nursing room on the field level concourse at guest services next to the Mercado.  It's got a bottle warmer, a couch, wipes and privacy.  It's critical to ensure a good time with a baby.

The Seat Upgrade Arbitrage

I'm not sure how widely known the MLB At The Park app is, but it's got its own hidden secret.  Buried within is the Upgrade feature.  Basically, if you have a ticket into the park, even a Park at the Park ticket (which I found out now cost more than just getting a ticket from Stubhub as another example of new fan unfriendly policies), you can go on the app and upgrade your seat.  And it's a great deal, like so good it doesn't make sense to buy a field level ticket anymore.  Just upgrade.  On a recent weeknight game, a field level seat behind home plate was going for under $20.  Omni Premier Club was $17.  It's capacity controlled, so it makes sense to do it early - upgrades open 4 hours before first pitch.  At that point you are looking at roughly $30 for field level behind home plate.  That is a steal.

Value in Seats

In general, I find the Toyota Terrace to be drastically overpriced.  Same with the outfield seats.  For my money, the best value is in the upper deck, Section 300-306. These seats are above home plate and provide an outstanding view of the action.  Not only are there no obstructions to your straight on view, you can actually see the pitches, and this season the Stone Tasting Room is right across the concourse.

These are a few of my accumulated secrets of Petco.  As long as the team is imposing new fan unfriendly policies, it's your duty as a capitalist American to wring all the value you can out of your ticket.  Now, back to MS Paint Padres related dongs.

Padres to Beat Marlins? Maybe? Just a smidge of a chance possibly? Depressing state of affairs.

So Padres nation seems to be pretty beaten down lately.  And can you blame them?  This team is abysmal to watch.  Yeah, the pitching is good, and yeah, real baseball fans should like close, well pitched games.  But 2-1 games aren't quite as fun a) when your team is the one that scored 1, and b) when you seriously question your team's ability to ever score more than 1.  @bcline760 has helpfully been translating the lineup card the past couple games into a stats lineup card:

 That line up is horrendous.  The first week or so, I saw the so-called sensible bloggers and Tweeters pulling out the #SSS and the continuous snarky "it's a little early to get worried about the audience #snark #firstweek".  Well the whole #SSS thing is now a pretty big sample size.  Some would even say that we have a statistically significant sample to start making longer term judgements.  And that judgement is this is not a major league lineup.  I remember the media pointing out that last season's Marlins lineup sans Stanton during his injury was one of the worst major league lineups they've seen (Greg Dobbs at 1B anyone?).  This lineup is worse (and Yonder is worse than Greg Dobbs).  It is hard to win when your team is starting 4 players with sub .200 averages and your team has pretty much no power. 

The bigger issues are related to how long they can keep pushing those guys out there.  I mean, at this point, would the team be that much worse trying out Francoeur in RF?  To some degree, the team put it's money behind Venable and Gyorko with extensions, and it's biggest trade to date was to acquire Grandal and putrid Yonder Alonso, so it's tough for Byrnes to admit that he totally screwed up and is sending them down to the minors/benching them/releasing them/sending them to Abu Dhabi in an adorable box with Nermal.  Him acknowledging his errors is akin to him getting shoved out the door here, so don't expect to hear him on 1090 admitting them. 

I'm not sure where this team can go at this point.  The TV team and radio team keep hyping Carlos Quentin's return like he's Roger Maris in 1961.  He's not.  He's an above average hitter with a little pop, but he's no Jose Abreu, and doesn't have the skills to carry this team on his shoulders (especially considering he only plays 2 out of 3 games when healthy). 

Get used to more 2-1, 3-1 games that go to extra innings, this team's offense is not going to light it up.  And playing Jose Fernandez tonight won't help.  But hey, at least they cut the price on the Cardiff Crack sandwich, right?  And beer!  That's where this team's management focus is, and likely will continue to be the focus in the near future. 

Degarfinkelization: Why Can't We Keep The Good Stuff?

I don't think there's many Padres fans that think the Jeff Moorad regime was a great ownership group.  The team certainly didn't thrive under them, and Moorad oversaw the great Fox Sports San Diego fleecing of the team when he took hundreds of millions in advance money when selling the team for a big profit.  The opinions on his head marketing guy, Tom Garfinkel, are mixed.  Many blame him for the more recent uber-mediocre teams, but let's remember, he was a marketing guy that was thrust into the position of Team President because no one else was around to take the job.  People also forget that going to Petco Park was an overall mediocre gameday experience before Garfinkel sunk his claws into things.  Remember the days when the Toyota Terrace was closed to the public in a pathetic attempt to make loge seating seem exclusive?  Regardless of the good/bad you think are attributed to Tom Garfinkel, he's gone now, and much of his work is left behind.  Or at least was left behind.  While no official announcements were made, the Mike Dee/Wayne Partello marketing team has started a policy of Degarfinkelization of Petco Park, removing and ending many of the programs Garfinkel put in place.  While Dee/Partello (Deetello) have done a lot of good in terms of bringing in new vendors, running good promotions like the Swing for Your Seats campaign, extended giveaway nights to all in attendance, and starting new TV initiatives like Padres Social Hour, they have also reportedly been Degarfinkelizing programs for the sole purpose of removing the last vestiges of what the previous regime had in place. 

Padres Trail did a great job of detailing the quiet removal of the Padres military logo from merchandise (although we saw this week that the team is using it for certain in-game promotions on the scoreboard).  It wasn't a huge surprise for anyone that went to Fanfest as the team was blowing out anything with the military logo for $10-$20 including $100+ jackets.  This was a shame as the logo celebrated Navy tradition, and as much as the Padres try to ignore the local Navy presence and continually celebrate the Marines, the Navy is the core of the San Diego military community.  It was also a rad logo, that among the back the brown brigade, was one of the few instances of acceptable blue Padres wear.  As Padres Trail reported, "He [Padres store employee] implied that because the logo was a Tom Garfinkel initiative it had fallen out of favor."  Very petty reason to get rid of such a noble effort.

There are two other Degarfinkelization initiatives that have raised my ire in the past few weeks as well.  As I mentioned in my Secrets From the Ushers post, the team has quietly eliminated Breakfast at the Park.  I know we all had a good guffaw about Garfinkel's Breakfasttown USA comments, but for anyone that actually went to Breakfast at the Park, it was pretty cool.  Similar to Swing For Your Seats, it's really awesome to just step foot on the field.  It was even cooler to combine this with eating bacon and pancakes and having players playing catch 20 feet from you.  As a season ticket holder, it was always an awesome perk to be able to email your sales rep and get reservations for breakfast.  With family in town last weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to take them to a unique on-field experience and catch a game afterwards.  Unfortunately, after hearing from the ushers that it was done for, I canceled plans of attending that game as sans breakfast, it was a tougher sell for my sports-gene challenged family.  As the ushers told me, employee participation and thus labor costs were minimal to run Breakfast at the Park.  There was always demand, as there was always a long line for tables on Sunday mornings.  Even as a break even activity, it added value to season ticket holders packages, and really, just added a unique opportunity to build bonds with the team.  The ushers believed new management believed this was one of Garfinkel's signature gameday experience programs, and that that was the reason why it was eliminated. 

The other Degarfinkelization program cancellation is apparently the away game viewing at Park at the Park.  Garfinkel opened up the Park at the Park for every away game and showed the game on the jumbotron.  I saw on the Tweeter that this effort was no more.  This is a shame, as the cost to the Padres was minimal.  I can vouch that it was awesome to eat your lunch during day games and watch the game at the Park at the Park.  A lot of memories were made at these Away games at the park, and for something that doesn't cost much if anything, it seems petty to get rid of it in an effort to wash their hands of Garfinkelism. 

Look, I get it, new management team comes in and wants to create their own signature programs.  But most of us can agree that not everything that happened under the Moorad/Garfinkel regime was bad.  There's no reason to get rid of programs that were popular just because Garfinkel put them in place.  Hopefully Deetello can reconsider and give these Garfinkel initiatives new life.  Maybe sell craft beer at them, their #1 focus this season seems to be to maximize beer sales revenue anyways.