Your Daily Dose of Sunshine

Matt Maiocco is reporting that talks between the 49ers and Alex Smith are "ongoing" and Harbaugh hopes Smith can get a "fresh start" with the Niners.

On a related note, the 2011 season just slid another step closer into the crapper.

And, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

This team should have Jeff Garcia on speed dial right now. Sadly, I'm not kidding.

Update: The news just keeps getting better today. Profootballtalk.com is reporting that the $40 million earmarked for the new stadium could be lost due to the proposed dissolution of state redevelopment agencies. Among the alternative plans mentioned in the article would be sharing a stadium with the Raiders in - wait for it - Oakland.

Just to be clear, if somehow the 49ers end up playing across the bay, I will never go to another home game again. I'd rather fly to an away game than deal with bridge and east bay traffic.

Even more news: The Niners have just promoted Paraag Marathe, who's only accomplishment is to be Lil' Jed's bestest friend in the whole wide world, to Chief Operating Officer. What a well-deserved promotion! Maybe he'll be next in line for league commissioner! The 49ers are in such capable hands!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

Nothin' But Crickets

It's been about 24 48 hours since I sent my email to the Niners explaining why I'm not renewing for 2011. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I thought I might have received a reply or acknowledgement. Instead, I've received nothing. I suppose I should be flattered that my account rep even sent me a couple of emails prior to the deadline, since I know other folks who never received any correspondence from the ticket office after the invoices were sent.

It's not that I think I deserve a reply or that I'm looking for some attention from the team. I just can't believe that the organization wouldn't get back to a customer in a timely manner, especially one as displeased as I am. That's basic customer service.

The Niners' latest ticket account rep.

For example, in my current gig, customers regularly submit their feedback on the products that I work on. In every instance, I make sure to respond to them in a timely manner, no matter how mundane or trivial their comments may be. It's important that they know we're listening and we care about what they think as valued customers. If we ever received a comment that indicated a customer was frustrated to the point of discontinuing their business relationship with us, I guarantee the matter would be escalated and attended to immediately within several of our departments.

Hell, last week, a new customer's offhand remark about the messaging in one of our automated emails (translated into another language) prompted several internal stakeholders (including some at the executive level) to make sure that the customer was contacted for further information and to determine the cause and formulate a remedy for this issue. It turned out the email in question wasn't even in our automated system and was in fact manually written and sent by an account manager to welcome the customer onboard. It took the better part of an entire day to track down this information, but because the issue stemmed from customer feedback, it became priority number one.

The Niners? Not so much. And, to put things into perspective, my company has a global presence across North and South America, Europe and Asia while handling at least as many accounts as the 49ers. I know firsthand that corporate size and geographic distance are not valid excuses for ignoring customers.

Once again, the ignorance and arrogance (two words that appear quite frequently on this blog) of the 49ers has proven that they don't care about their customers.

The Big Day Arrives

As today's season ticket renewal deadline approached, I thought I'd reply back to my account rep. Here's the letter I just sent:

Hi <<Name Witheld>>,

Thanks for keeping me posted on the extended season ticket deadline. I appreciate your efforts and reminders.

Last year, when the team raised ticket prices for the 2010 season while "guaranteeing" a postseason appearance, I made a promise to myself. That promise was, if the 49ers failed to make the playoffs and raised prices again, I would cancel the season tickets that have been in my family for three generations.

Failure on the field is something I can understand (especially after seeing so much of it these past eight years). But failure as an organization is unforgivable.

Expecting customers to pay more and more money for the same dreadful product is arrogant. Telling us that the cost of our seats is "in line" with prices around the rest of the league is insulting, considering no other team has a worse stadium experience and nearly 84% of the other teams in the NFL have been in the playoffs since the 49ers' last postseason appearance.

Making the upper-deck endzone seats cheaper has only allowed casual 49er fans to emulate the thuggish behavior of the Raider Nation on gameday. It doesn't benefit the longtime fans who have supported this franchise through thick and thin over the past 40-50 years as more and more of us have grown frustrated with this organization.

I'm not sure how many fans are willing to spend more money to sign up for another year with another coach, but I can tell you that not a single ticketholder I know is renewing their seats for 2011 due to many of the reasons stated above.

The 49ers have accomplished something that I never thought would be possible - they've managed to make this lifelong fan of over 40 years walk away from the team that provided happiness, joy and countless memories for both myself, my family and my friends.

Adios.

T Minus One Day...

I received another email yesterday from my ticket office account rep to let me know that the renewal deadline for 2011 season tickets has been extended to Tuesday since Monday is a holiday. I promptly deleted the email, figuring the Niners haven't earned the courtesy of a reply.

Gotta hand it to the organization for scheduling the original deadline for a holiday in their haste to grab my money.

I'm guessing the holiday "extension" has nothing to do with the fact that tomorrow is Presidents' Day and everything to do with the fact that everybody I know is refusing to renew their tickets and is telling Lil' Jed to stuff it by using the only weapon we have - our wallets.

Can't wait to see if there will be other "extensions" when the team realizes they have 10,000 more season tickets to sell than last year!

I've Got A Bad Feeling About This...

"You said it! No, YOU said it!"

Although I didn't dial in to last night's Fan Forum, I did manage to read Jim Harbaugh's quotes from the event, courtesy of the always excellent efforts of Matt Barrows and Matt Maiocco. Maybe hearing the coach live would have made a difference, but some of the things Harbaugh said sounded like the same rhetoric I heard from his two predecessors...

• "I really think Frank Gore is one of the best running backs in the National Football League, the most complete back."
• "As a coaching staff, we are putting together the playbook and getting things down on paper and getting ready for those minicamps and offseason workouts. But now is the players' time off. They're not required to be here. They're not required to come to meetings or come to workouts until March 14, which is the first day of the offseason training. So to answer your question, no, there's been no meetings or anything of that nature."
• "I can promise you this: I'm going to work at it every day. When I'm home, I'm thinking about it ..."

Ok, whatever. "Coachspeak" usually isn't very insightful, and I suppose most of this comes from "The Great Big Book of Cliches" that every new coach receives when they sign their first contract. Still, I can't help but get that same sense of dread when I hear about how hard the 49ers' head coach is going to work at learning how to be a Head Coach in the National Football League, how Frank Gore needs to get rested during the games to be more effective, how none of the players have seen a playbook, etc.

Still, I can live with that. But then, there's these two quotes about #11:

• "Yes, Alex Smith is definitely in (the quarterback mix)"
• "I like him (Alex Smith) very much, too."

Yep, Alex Smith, who has already been a 49er longer than Jeff Garcia despite never coming close to becoming a legitimate NFL starting quarterback, is currently Plan A for the 49ers in 2011. And the best part is, Harbaugh is already bending over backwards to compliment him since the 49ers are going to have to woo him and convince him to return. Once again, Alex is being treated with kid gloves, and incredibly enough, he has total leverage against the 49ers as they scramble to find an answer to the question that has plagued them every offseason since 2004: "who is our quarterback?"

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. After six seasons of inconsistent play, wasted millions in dollars and unfullfilled promise, Alex Smith somehow remains the "key" to the 49ers' offense heading into 2011 while the Niner organization prepares to spend another season in the nuthouse.

At least it will be blacked out this time.

Fan Forum Tonight

The Niners are holding one of their silly "Fan Forum" teleconference calls tonight. Unfortunately, the only participants from the organization are Harbaugh and Baalke. I really don't have anything against these two guys. I can't even blame them for the potential return of Smith (Alex), since they'll basically have no other choice if there is a work stoppage. With that in mind, I'll skip the festivities this time around, but if anybody does bother to call in, please feel free to share anything interesting that they hear.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 49ers' Fan Forums, I can tell you they are largely a waste of time if you are looking for answers to questions that real fans actually have. And, they aren't open to the general public - you have to receive an email invite (which, incidentally, can be forwarded to anybody) and pre-register a week in advance. A day or two before the event, you receive a prerecorded reminder phonecall from Ted Robinson, who moderates the event (nothing like receiving a call from Ted Robinson during a Valentine's Day dinner, I might add - good timing, Niners). When the event takes place, you'll receive another phonecall and be placed into the conference. At any time, you can ask a question by pressing a button and get screened by an operator who will decide if you can be added to the queue.

I attended one of last year's forums for the chance to hear what Lil' Jed had to say about the upcoming 2010 season. I was still ticked off about the ticket increases for THAT particular season, and was hoping he would field some questions about the new pricing. After listening for a couple of minutes, I realized that none of the sycophantic callers were talking about anything relevant, so I managed to get placed into the queue by telling the screener I wanted to ask an innocent-sounding question about the stadium "enhancements" they had previously announced. I was placed into the queue with over 55 minutes left in the hour-long teleconference, but didn't have an opportunity to ask my question.

By the time the forum was over, I hadn't heard one question about ticket prices or stadium facilities, the two things that all fans had been talking about for the past few months. Instead, Lil' Jed and co. handled "tough" questions like this:

• "Can you play 'We Built this City' after Niner wins like you used to do? I think it really gets the team fired up."
• "I live in Hawaii and think Colt Brennan reminds me of Joe Montana. Why don't you sign him?"
• "How awesome is the new stadium going to be?"

You couldn't make up anything stupider. "We Built this City?" Really? The worst song of all-time? And, not to burst your bubble, Big Kahuna, but at the time, Brennan was under contract with the REDSKINS. Awful.

It was one softball after another. There wasn't a single question that addressed any of the issues ticketholders were facing (and still are). As I sat listening to insipid question after insipid question, I realized that the organization had no inclination of answering anything that required honesty and deep thought. When the forum ended, I hung up disgusted and embarassed for the dumbassed fans who I heard on the call.

When my buddy forwarded me the invite to tonight's call (I think I'm starting to get blackballed by the Niners), I signed up again, thinking I'd take another shot at having Lil' Jed answer to his critics/customers, but he's decided to show off his new toy instead and let Harbaugh handle football questions. Of course, all speculation and discussion about next season is pointless until a new CBA deal is reached, so I couldn't care less about onfield stuff. What I want to know is how the organization can justify increasing prices for a below-standard product. And that's a question I'm afraid will never by truthfully answered.

UPDATE: The phone rang shortly after 7pm with my invite to participate. I ignored the call...

Don't Expect A Response

Now that the NFL is in full offseason/collective bargaining agreement mode, it's time for the 49ers to start thinking about how much money their ticketholders will be adding to their bank accounts for the (alleged) 2011 season. Last week, I received an email from my ticketing account manager, "reminding" me that the deadline for renewing my tickets is February 21. After laughing at the audacity of the Yorks to ask for more of my money before the March 4th CBA deadline, I promptly tossed the email into my trash folder.


Operators - and Lil' Jed - are standing by.

With only a week left until the 49ers' renewal deadline, I imagine there will be a few attempts to reach me over the next seven days, all of which I will ignore. I wonder how far the Niners will go to try and get me to renew? Phone calls? Deadline extensions? Pleading and begging? Postseason guarantees? Regardless, the answer will be NO.

I'm guessing this will be rough week for the ticket office as they constantly check their inboxes and transaction reports to see if anybody is signing up for another year of Alex Smith lobbing interceptions in crumbling Candlestick Park.

The Super Bowl fiasco in Dallas served as a reminder to all ticketholders that this league of greedy billionaires will continue to fleece every last dime they possibly can from their loyal customers without any concern for the quality of the product they are shilling. The backlash has begun, and teams that haven't experienced any semblence of success or competence over the past several seasons will be the first ones to feel the sting. And yes, that certainly includes the 49ers, a former marquee franchise that was once the model of consistent winning, but now has been reduced to nothing more than a case study in how arrogance and ignorance leads to mediocrity and irrelevance.