With two high-profile fans who scored a sit-down with Browns owner Randy Lerner still calling on their comrades to refrain from taking their seats until after the opening kickoff of Monday night’s game against the Ravens, the Browns seem to be trying to ensure that procrastinators don’t become unwitting participants in the display.
A reader has forwarded to us a game preview e-mail from the team, which makes two key points under the heading of “Did you know?”
First, “Nearly 50,000 (65%) fans enter the Stadium within 30 minutes of kickoff. Enter the Stadium prior to 8:00PM to reduce your wait time at the gates and get to your seats faster.”
Second, “More than 50,000 (71%) fans enter the Stadium from the South. Enter the Stadium through the Northeast gate, Northwest gate or BrownsTown to reduce your wait time at the gates and get to your seats faster.”
In other words, “Get to your seats faster. Please.”
The reader says that the team has never before made such a plea. The team likely would call it a coincidence.
We’ll leave it to Elaine and Natasha to debate whether it was a big coincidence.
UPDATE: We’re told that the Browns actually issued this message for the first time prior to the team’s most recent home game. And we were reminded that Natasha’s name actually was Rava. And that Ray stole the statue.
This is a victory for the guys organizing this. The Browns are a real Mickey Mouse operation.
It’s Rava, not Natasha. Doofus. I am the Wizard!
This getting ridiculous. I’m sure the Dawg Pound will listen to that.
Methinks the real problem will come from fans crushing to leave the stadium.
Hey Browns fans, go for it. It will truly be impressive to the 10 of us watching as well!
Yeah hurry up and sit down because no one will be tuning into this monday night mess
I’ll be at the game and I will be in my seat when the ball is kicked.
I might be an idiot for going to the game in the first place, but at least I’m not a follower.
You all are sheep.
Baaaaaah……..
Browns encourage fans not to show up as they are going to lose again.
Ray stole the statue from the mantle!
Excellent Seinfeld reference Florio!
I applaud the Browns fans for doing this. I would love to turn on the game and see the stadium empty. There’s probably no more effective message the fans could send than that one…Well no legal message anyway…
You know Florio, I hope I’m not the only one who picks up on your Seinfeld quips. Keep em’ coming!
lame
The claim that they never before made such a plea isnt accurate. I received the exact same email weeks ago for a game. The email is to avoid people getting pissed off at the lineup to get into the stadium.
I bet the ratings for this telecast are through the roof from the 8:30 to 8:32 time slot. Other than that, ugh. I barely made it into the second quarter the first time these guys crushed us.
I think Lerner going through the effort of having a sit down and listening is enough to call-off the “brownout” for this week. This season was lost when Mangini took over, hopefully Lerner learns from his mistakes and Browns might be able to look forward to a better team next year.
At least they get to watch the Ravens play this week.
Last ditch effort to make it look like people actually care about the Brown. I have no idea who’s idea it was to make this a Monday night game, but they clearly weren’t thinking straight. If the Browns office is worried about viewers all over seeing an empty stadium they should had done some giveaway that ends 30 mins before kickoff.
I would start by encouraging them to come. Baby steps there Randy.
To be fair these fans still go.
Heinz field would be 90% empty if that cesspool were to see their team struggling.
it’s sad the browns even acknowledge this. from a pr perspective, they should have ignored it so it doesnt get any publicity at all. what idiots are running the front office?
so paying or a seat and either showing up late or not showing up at all hurts the Browns ownership HOW?
They got your money, suckas.
“All male fans sitting in their seats by kick-off will get oral gratification from a male gigolo of their choosing.”
The fans should show up late, just to show the Owners who really is in charge.
more like if u get there late u will miss anderson’s re-entry as quinn gets benched again…
So this is what this has come to–petitions to sell the team, protests on national tv, calling for the hc after 8 games, pft’s constant brown bashing–how embarassing to be a browns fan these days. Their my team and i’ll be watching them on mnf and supporting them the rest of the season.
# SteelersSB44 says: November 13, 2009 5:22 PM
Excellent Seinfeld reference Florio!
I applaud the Browns fans for doing this. I would love to turn on the game and see the stadium empty. There’s probably no more effective message the fans could send than that one…Well no legal message anyway…
——————————————————
I think on monday night people are going to be impressed with all the new camera angles that ESPN will be showing for the first few minutes after kickoff. if you’ve ever watched a UFL game, you know there are interesting angles that minimize the view of the crowd (or lack there of). If these guys (the organizers) actually pull this off (which would be great, btw) I wouldn’t expect ESPN to even mention it, let alone show it because they dont want to piss off fuhrer godell, but if it doesnt work, then they might mention that it was a failure, just watch.
Taking your seats at all is only encouraging the Browns to take the field again the following week.
I am actually excited to watch this game just to see the fans pull this off.
He should have sold it by stating that “….any fan arriving at his or her seat more than 6 minutes late will most likely miss our most exciting player, Joshua Cribbs, returning his third or fourth kickoff of the evening.”
If they really wanted to send a message, they wouldn’t go to the game and watch this dog food team play.
How about announcing this…..
“If 50,000 fans are in their seats thirty minutes before kickoff, I will take that as your vote for firing Eric Mangini, and he will be dispatched immediately following the game.”
What’s the worst that can happen? He’d throw the game?
HEY FLORIO, PUFF PUFF PASS!!!
HEY FLORIO, PUFF PUFF PASS!!!!
chapnasty says:
November 13, 2009 5:17 PM
Hey Browns fans, go for it. It will truly be impressive to the 10 of us watching as well!
Hey do you think the Browns fans give a s__t if you and nine other morons watch the game?
I feel really bad for ESPN. How do you promote this “game”? I think there will ba many empty seats at the beginning of the game simply because most of the ticket holders won’t even bother to show up.
And calling the Browns a Mickey Mouse organization is an insult to Mickey Mouse. Disney should sue.
Dawg Pound Mike is a turd. I’m calling for a counter protest to his initial protest. Mine will be called a “black out”. I am calling on all fans that see Dawg Pound Mike in the councourse prior to kick off to punch him right in the face until he “blacks out”.
Self-promoting douche.
The reader who forwarded you the email is mistaken, Florio.
These two suggestions appear in all of the teams pre-game emails due to backups at the stadium’s southside gates. Obviously the 8pm time is changed dependent upon the scheduled game time. Oftentimes the emails will also include parking suggestions if ships being in port result in closing of the nearby dockside parking lots.
With Lake Erie directly to the north of CBS, many fans don’t realize there are also gates on that side of the stadium. What you end up with is a bunch of tailgaters walking up at the last minute and standing in long lines at the gates located at the southwest and southeast corners of the stadium. The RTA railway also lets riders off at the stadium’s south side and those trains are packed. It’s a cluster-fudge to get in from the south.
So, please…don’t make more of this than it is.
It must be nice owning an NFL team. Notice how if your product sucks, people still pay for overpriced tickets, jerseys and other crap because they tell themselves they are “real fans”.
Does not work with hardly any other goods.
Enjoy paying hard earned money to watch garbage.
Suckers. Dopes. Fools. Tards.
i will watch this game on my couch because 1. it is more comfy than the stadium seats. 2) it will be cheaper. 3. when it becomes a blowout after the first quarter i can either change the channel or play modern warfare 2 on my xbox.
What is on Heroes?
sure they want fans to get to their seats early, you wouldn’t want the people tuning in to watch, to think they’ve tuned into a UFL game, the NFL is all about IMAGE, doesn’t matter if the game sucks, how much is ESPN paying the NFL for the rigths to televise this crap?
They should have said, get to your seats before kickoff so you can see the Browns ‘not losing’.
As someone that’s been on the Pittsburgh season ticket list for 16 years, I can tell you that Heinz Field is filled in both good and bad times. Don’t make any association between a quality organization like the Steelers into your joke of a franchise. That being said, I can’t say for certain what would happen if our franchise fell to the depths of the current situation in cleveland. Wait a minute…our organization is well-managed, unlike the current mess that is the cesspool to our northwest.
The city and the team are a joke. Time to move this circus to LA and start over again in a decade.
This is hilarious! Only in a blue collar city like Cleveland would the fans be so sick of their local teams that would do such a thing.
Can’t you sneak in the paper bags, or would Lerner have “Security” confiscate them?
Good for you Dawg Pond, and good for the fans. Enough is enough of being robbed of your hard earned money.
Can you remember when it felt good to be a Tribe or Brown’s fan???
It’s funny how many browns articles these days are not about them actually playing. Is this the worst franchise in the NFL?
For all the douches who write things like “Who cares if the Browns and Ravens play on MNF- who would watch that?” here’s a newsflash for you:
There’s usually a good 6-8 contests on MNF each year that just about no one outside of the cities of the two featured teams gives a rats ass about.
For example, I couldn’t imagine anything more boring than watching the Panthers play Bucs or something- because I don’t give a shit about either team- even if both were 8-0 at this point.
So who gives a crap what anyone whose not an AFC North fan thinks about this game? I probably wouldn’t be watching if it was *your* team either. Shocker.
this story proves how far MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL has fallen from the glory days of the 1970′s-1980′s, unless you live in Baltimore or Clevland, or you’re into Fantasy Football, or you got a bet on the game, WHY would anyone care?