Good read from Chris McShane. I hope and assume this is a case of one rogue, power-tripping security guard and not any sort of organizational policy.
Tedquarters
Ted Berg
Good read from Chris McShane. I hope and assume this is a case of one rogue, power-tripping security guard and not any sort of organizational policy.
Tedquarters 
I dont find this to be a good read at all. Its just one fans experience and he makes it out to be a widespread problem. On top of that, technically the guy writting the letter was wrong in the first place to do what he did.
I mean yes it was minor and his intentions were I’m sure good, but he was in the wrong, and that security guard was probably just doing his job.
Again its minor, but if you were running a business and selling anything whatever it may be, and someone stood outside your place of business and started giving away the same product to people who would otherwise be comming into your store, you’d probably be a little ticked off too.
And on top of technically being wrong, is this McShane guy a complete moron? Standing right by the ticket line to give the tickets away? I mean he almost deserves what he got for being so stupid as to do what he did, where he did it. I mean if he would have just been anywhere else around the plaza away from the ticket booth, and said “2 free tickets” a few times, he could have given the tixx away and its likely no one would have cared.
The letter isn’t clear as to whether the security guard was giving the author a hard time because he had the impression that the author was trying to *sell* the tickets, or whether he was actually claiming that the author was not allowed to *give away* the tickets.
To the other Chris M above, glad to see you enjoyed my letter so much. The only people looking for tickets were the ones in line, and I’ve given away tickets many times at several stadiums in the past and never encountered a problem. Is it actually wrong to give tickets away within 1,500 feet of a stadium? What’s the difference between handing them to a stranger and handing them to someone I knew before walking up to the park?
Josh, he was giving me a hard time because he claimed I was not allowed to give tickets away. He made that very clear after I explained I wasn’t selling them.
No one ever said you werent allowed to give tickets away. As I said you intentions were good, you just need to use your head a little bit here.
I mean you intercept some on line, who is clearly about to purchase tickets from the box office and expect that security will be ok with that? Use you head. As I said, if you would have done it discreetly, without making a big deal a few hundred feet away from the box office, I doubt anyone would care, even if security saw you.
And it’s not a matter of legality, your missing the point. Alot of things are ‘legal’ thats doesnt mean it not going to tick people off. I could ‘legally’ set up a lawn chair across the street from your house, and watch you and you family all day, but would you be ok with that? Of course not, but it’s legal right?
Not sure what your problem is, dude, but I’m not going to make this personal despite your attempt to do so. It never crossed my mind that they’d make an issue out of this because I’ve done it before. Many times. Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Citi Field, the new Yankee Stadium. Literally 20 times or more. Never had a problem.
Also, your comparison about the legality issue is really creepy.
Its not personal, you put your letter out there on a blog didnt you? If you dont want people’s opinions on it, dont put it out there.
And I’m not making it personal, I’m just telling you that a little common sense would have went a long way. I just thought someone who is clearly a big sports fans would be smart enough to realize what you did might tick someone off.
Ticket laws in reality are very liberal. You can resell them for whatever you want, give them away etc, anytime anywhere except within what 1000ft of the stadium? The point of the laws is not anti scalping (selling above face), it is to give the Mets or whatever venue, the exclusivity to provide tickets once people get within a 1000ft of the stadium. Couple that with the fact that they are lightly enforced laws, and basically you can do anything but solicite someone from right in front of the ticket window, which is exactly what you did, wether you were giving the tickets away for selling them. You intentions were good as I said, but you are undermining the the Mets ability to sell tickets, which they have exclusivity to in that area.
And you are right, they dont bother the other scalpers around, or others maybe around the park, but that likely because they didnt blatently solicitee someone right off the ticket line.
Compare it to another lightly enforced law at Citi Field, which is tailgating/drinking in the parking lot. At Citi, its not allowed by law, but as we all know, if you are minding you own business, at least making an attempt to be discrete (putting your beer in cups etc) no one will give you a problem. But if you pull out a keg and start keg standing or shotgunnung beers right in front of a cop, your prob getting a ticket. This is thee equivilent of what you were doing.
Besides, how is security supposed to know you are really giving it to the guy. How could they ever enforce anything if the “oh I was giving it to them not selling it” excuse worked. Anyone could just bust that out if they ever get caught about to sell tickets. It would render the entire law useless.
So like I said, its nothing personal here, I’m sorry if my origninal comments came off that way, I did not intend them to and I apologize if they did. I just feel like Mets fans have so many legitimate reasons to complain and be ticked at the team, that yours really wasnt valid.
Chris M, I remember waiting on the old day of game sales line at shea dozens of times and have people offer me tickets for money all the time. Not once would any Mets security guard say a word. I’ve also been handed tickets while standing in line at Citi to buy them in clear view of Mets employees. Once again nobody said a word. So how exactly is Mr. McShane a “complete moron” for trying to give away tickets, when the guys looking for a profit are completely ignored?? This security guard obviously had nothing better to do except go on a power trip infront of a dozen or so people. I’ve had a couple of issues with them before on powertrips, and it’s beyond frustrating.
I never said he couldnt give tickets away, thats a nice gesture, I just said he should have known better than to do it right on the ticket line. Like I said in my post, if he goes 100ft away, no one likely cares. Soliciting someone on the ticket line seems like a blatent disregard for the rules. Just because other times no one has said anything doesnt mean its right.
Calling him a moron was uncalled for. However, I do agree that one security guard on a power trip shouldn’t turn you off to being a Mets fan. There are plenty of more legitimate reasons for that. Blaming the Mets for that is like blaming a restaurant for having a jerk waiter. Would you really never go eat there again because one waiter was rude to you?
Besides, when are security guards not on power trips? It must be a pretty crummy job, and if you had any actual power wouldn’t you just be a cop instead?
You are absolutely right Kain, I should not have called him a moron. Until you wrote your post I didnt even realize I said that. When I type and chat about sports I kind of just type my thoughts as I am thinking them, without realizing the filter may be off. As I said above I apologize for anything offensive, that was not my intention.
And yes this security guard sounds like a bit of a douche, but I dont think by the way the story was described that his actions were out of line, just that he could have maybe been a bit less of a d*ck about it.
This security guard’s actions may have been exceptional, in the negative.
The attitude underlying it– the assumption of ill intent or outright criminality on the part of a loyal-but-underserved fan base– is all too common among CF employees.