Saturday, January 21, 2012

No Fan Packs from Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment?

The major sport franchises in Toronto, consisting of the Marlies, Raptors, Leafs, and the Toronto FC are all adjoined in a conglomerate called Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE). Bell and Rogers are the key stakeholders in this group, following their recent buyout from the Toronto Teacher's Pension Plan (Toronto Sun article about this deal). Since these teams are all linked, it means that they all share the same policies. One of these policies is to not offer fan packs.

For the past few months I have been contacting numerous sport franchises in regards to fan packs. This has been met with varied success as one can see from the posts I've created on this blog. For the most part, each team I looked into had a way in which fans could connect to their team. The vast majority of teams contacted me electronically and the greatest barrier to receiving mailed items was that they did not send materials internationally (I live in Canada while the team is located in the United States). 

The MLSE do not offer a way to electronically contact their franchises. Each of their franchises have a website that includes a 'contact us' portal, but this portal brings you to a general MLSE page that lists all their teams. For each of their franchises, they list three contact methods: Twitter, Facebook, website, or phone. There is no information provided for e-mailing and some of their franchises outright refuse to offer fan packs (Leafs). While I realize that a fan pack represents free stuff, and one cannot be upset over not receiving free stuff, the concept of a fan pack represents (to me) the thoughtfulness a team has for their fans. To outright discourage fans from asking for fan packs is a sign of over-confidence and a disregard for one's fan base. Every team I have looked into while on my quest for fan packs had a way to contact them electronically, whether it was a web portal or an e-mail address. In contrast to other franchises, this omission makes the MLSE look even more out-of-touch with their fan base and the way in which sport franchises interact with their fans!

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