Been Away

I've been away. And on top of that, I had actually deleted
a couple of my last posts in disgust, making the lapse
seem longer.

You see, my life-long love affair with the Boston Celtics
has come to an end. It was a painful breakup and I
needed time to regroup.

"But Mr. L, they WON. Why would you desert them
NOW?"

Thanks for asking. For the last 20 years or so, I've
dutifully bought tickets as part of a group. We were
there the year the team won only 15 games - sitting
ALONE in the top of the building. And I mean ALONE.
There was our group, and the rest of the seats were
empty. For years, our group had about 30 people
who came to all the crappy games when the
Celtics were just awful.

Forward to this year. The team went out and bought
what they needed to win (see "Florida Marlins Win
World Series"). As the year progressed, the
building filled up. People were coming back because,
hey, the team wins now!

Then the unthinkable happened: when the Finals arrived,
the Celtics office decided to 'reserve' 1400 seats for
"VIPs and celebrities". Needless to say, these had to
be seats right down in front because celebrities have
severe myopia, as evidenced by their views on
the world....

So, those 1400 seats had to come from somewhere.
You can see this one coming, right?? Our group
ticket allotment was reduced from 30 per game
to FOUR for Game Two ONLY. And - they weren't
even our normal seats. . . they were high in the balcony,
in an endzone, and $100 per ticket more expensive!
[From the time the building opened, our seats were
actually HIGHER than the balcony, but you'd have
to see them to know why they were 'better']

This is how the Celtics show "appreciation" for all the
years we supported them. But hey, Ellen Pompeo
wanted tickets . . . gotta make room! She plays a
doctor on TV!

I wrote a letter to the office asking for an explanation.
No response.

The ultimate insult was an interview in the Boston
press with the Celtics' guy in charge of doling out
the "VIP" tickets. When asked if the "VIPs"
have to pay for the seats, he responded:
"That's at the discretion of management."

In other words, "No - we get the prestige of
showing them on national television in our
building, we're aren't going to charge THEM
anything."

So. After supporting the team since childhood,
I can no longer do so in good conscience. The
organization is just a bunch of greedy bastards.

Are you listening, Kevin Garnett? The player
who said he wanted to "win it in front of [our]
fans" . . . who is so disconnected from the
business that he doesn't know that real fans
were ousted for come-lately 'VIPs' . . .

Not that he'd care, he probably scored 30 of
those tickets for his friends!

But I'm not bitter. They ARE saving me a lot
of money next season. I won't go!

So to recap: Celtics' ownership = BAD.
Or did I not mention that?