Take Me Out To The… Timeshare?
When I travel, I like to hit a ballgame. Major Leagues, minors, I don’t care. I think it’s a great way to learn about the city and it’s people. And it’s also a great place to buy a $10 beer and finagle a free t-shirt from a credit card company.
But when I’m at a ballgame, I don’t want a sales pitch. And I really don’t want to consider buying a timeshare. But if you go to a ballgame at AT&T Park in San Francisco, you’re going to get the pitch.
But as my wife and I were trying to decide between garlic fries and some other sort of 21st-century ballpark fare a chilly Tuesday night last month, a guy in a Hawaiian shirt came up to us and asked, “Do you have your tickets?” And we’re thinking yeah, they’re in the cheap seats, the game isn’t a sellout, and we’re going to cruise around and get booted from as many seats as we can.
Before we can say a word, he continues, “Because if you drop them here, you can win a free trip to Lake Tahoe!”
And boom goes the dynamite.
We’re at a ballgame in San Francisco. We’re thinking about maybe catching a foul ball, looking out at McCovey’s Cove, sliging down the big Coke bottle beyond the left field fence, garlic fries… We’re not thinking about getting suckered into a timeshare pitch.
Neither were the big winners of a between-inning contest, who won the free trip. The looks on their faces as they were featured on the scoreboard was priceless - a “why the hell did we do this” priceless.
I’m sure the timeshare folks approached the San Francisco Giants management about this sponsorship offer, and the team wasn’t about to turn down money. But maybe teams should consider protecting its fans from things that are going to annoy and agitate its guests.
After all, if you tick off enough customers, they’re not going to come back.
