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Monday - May 5, 2008

What happened to the Mighty Fine Burger promotion?

All season long we've been hearing about Mighty Fine Burgers at Disch-Falk Field. They sponsor the fireworks. We're told at least once each game that if the Horns manage to shut out their opponent, everyone will get a coupon for a free chili-dog (or some such) on our way out the gate.

All. Season. Long. During. Every. Game.

That's the kind of promise that they don't really have to worry about very much. In 2006, the Horns only shut their opponent out once at home. In 2007, three times. So, Mighty Fine gets lots of advertising without much chance of having to pay up. But, the promo people who deal with these things have to be ready for each and every game. Just in case. Right?

Last Tuesday, Kenn Kasparek threw that no-hitter. And, sure enough, amidst the celebration and fireworks, the public address announcer was ready and he told us to make sure we collected our vouchers (or coupons or whatever he called them) on our way out the gates. And, we hung around and sang "The Eyes" and cheered for Kenn and generally were happy as clams. And, we left. And, nobody gave us any vouchers. Or coupons.

And, I didn't think a thing about it 'til I was back at the park on Saturday and Mr. PA-man made his announcement near the start of the game about how if the Horns were to shut out the Bears, we'd all get some free Mighty Fine food. And, I thought back to Tuesday. And, realized that nobody was at the gates as we left. And, I thought that maybe we left too late. That maybe they'd run out of paper before we got to the gates. And, I thought about posting something. But, I forgot all about it again by the time I got home.

Until Sunday when, once again, we were regaled with tales of free food from Mighty Fine should the Horns blank the Bears. And, lo (!), the Horns blanked the Bears! Yippee! And, again, as people celebrated and started to leave, the big booming voice told us to be sure and grab our coupons on the way out. I was gonna be taking photos of kids running the bases so thought I might miss out. But, Esther wasn't taking photos so she decided to check out the situation. She went off to the lf gate (which is the gate we normally enter and exit the stadium) and: no coupons. So, she walked back to the 3b gate. And: no coupons. So she went 'round to the main gate behind home plate. And, guess what? No coupons.

So, what's up Mighty Fine? And, UT advertising/sales folks? We're told that the only way UT can afford to field a team is for us to listen to droning announcers making ad pitches during every break in the action and being assaulted visually by billboards and blinking signs. So, we play along. We cheer on the team. And, we listen. And, we watch as each new billboard shows up. And, we take it. But, shouldn't we get the little bauble that we're promised? Instead, we apparently only get empty promises. Thanks a lot.

The thing is, most people probably won't use the coupon. And, "they" know that. Chances are, I wouldn't use it. I know I won't be using that coupon from Shoe Carnival. I frequently decline the free bauble. I don't need another plastic doo-dad gathering dust at my house. But, dammit, if you go on and on all season long, and we have to sit there and listen to it all season long, the least you could do is stand by your word. Right? Bah.

Was it Mighty Fine's fault? Or the UT promo people? Who dropped the ball? My guess? The folks at UT who run the promos. For this promo to work, they have to make sure there are people manning the gates at the end of the game. And, they have to have the boxes of coupons ready. As soon as the opponent scores, that's one less thing they have to take care of during a game. But, when it gets late in the game and there's a big fat zero on the Visitor line of the box, they need to set their plan in action. They need to make sure there are people manning the gates...people with coupons in hand. So, was it them? Does it matter? Not really. Well, it might matter to one of the muckity-mucks at Mighty Fine. I suspect they don't want people thinking they don't live up to their word. Some muckity-muck in UT Promotions (or whatever that office is be called) might care...should any of 'em ever even hear about the problem. The right thing to do, of course, is for Mighty Fine (or UT) to mail two coupons per ticket to every season ticket holder. One for each game. That won't address the problem for people who bought tickets at the gate, though, eh? Poor them.

Sigh...

Posted by Joanna at 11:38 PM