I Also Had A Call With The Director Of Fan Services

Ahab_Flanders

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Aug 17, 2014
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So, as a result of my email to the club after the jersey release, Dan Steeves, Director of Fan Services, emailed me asking for a chance to speak on the phone. I called him yesterday. It seemed like he said a lot of the same things that he said to @ghobs, but I think I got a few interesting new hints out of him.

First off, the call was very pleasant and friendly. It definitely seems like the club is interested in hearing and responding to fan concerns. He asked me to start by recapping my concerns with the jersey and what I would have liked to see. I told him, as I've said on here, that for me it's all a matter of it needing some minor details to set it off--that sky blue and Etihad were never my main concerns. He said he's been hearing similar things from other fans and that we should consider this kit a blank slate to build off of, though he understands why some of us were disappointed with it. He definitely suggested that there would be some more unique details in a year or two when the jersey gets redesigned. He also said that the away kit might be an "opportunity" to work in some more of these kind of details.

He told me that he is saving all the emails he receives on the subject and preparing a document with fan responses to pass on to the higher ups. If he is doing that, it's definitely a good sign. He also asked me to email or call when the 2nd kit comes out to give some more feedback. The club is definitely showing interest in fan reactions.

We also talked about the reveal event a bit and I got the impression that he was definitely aware of the concerns over it being too corporate and awkward. Hopefully they'll find a way to improve for future fan events.

Now on to some of the more interesting hints I got. I asked him if he knew to what extent the design process was controlled by the local team or City Football Group. He said that the local team had a lot of input, but CFG, MLS, and Adidas all had a role in the design. Not too surprising, but that combined with his characterizing the 2nd kit as an "opportunity" makes me think that the club has had a lot more freedom in developing the 2nd kit than they had with the first.

I also asked if he knew when the second jersey release would be, if it would be during jersey week, and his response was basically: MLS likes doing them all together during jersey week, but we're going to do what makes sense for our club, so it may be then or it may be sooner.

Tl:dr - Spoke to the directer of fan services, they're taking fan responses seriously, NYCFC likely has more design freedom with the second kit than with the first, and we might get to see the second kit released before jersey week.
 
So, as a result of my email to the club after the jersey release, Dan Steeves, Director of Fan Services, emailed me asking for a chance to speak on the phone. I called him yesterday. It seemed like he said a lot of the same things that he said to @ghobs, but I think I got a few interesting new hints out of him.

First off, the call was very pleasant and friendly. It definitely seems like the club is interested in hearing and responding to fan concerns. He asked me to start by recapping my concerns with the jersey and what I would have liked to see. I told him, as I've said on here, that for me it's all a matter of it needing some minor details to set it off--that sky blue and Etihad were never my main concerns. He said he's been hearing similar things from other fans and that we should consider this kit a blank slate to build off of, though he understands why some of us were disappointed with it. He definitely suggested that there would be some more unique details in a year or two when the jersey gets redesigned. He also said that the away kit might be an "opportunity" to work in some more of these kind of details.

He told me that he is saving all the emails he receives on the subject and preparing a document with fan responses to pass on to the higher ups. If he is doing that, it's definitely a good sign. He also asked me to email or call when the 2nd kit comes out to give some more feedback. The club is definitely showing interest in fan reactions.

We also talked about the reveal event a bit and I got the impression that he was definitely aware of the concerns over it being too corporate and awkward. Hopefully they'll find a way to improve for future fan events.

Now on to some of the more interesting hints I got. I asked him if he knew to what extent the design process was controlled by the local team or City Football Group. He said that the local team had a lot of input, but CFG, MLS, and Adidas all had a role in the design. Not too surprising, but that combined with his characterizing the 2nd kit as an "opportunity" makes me think that the club has had a lot more freedom in developing the 2nd kit than they had with the first.

I also asked if he knew when the second jersey release would be, if it would be during jersey week, and his response was basically: MLS likes doing them all together during jersey week, but we're going to do what makes sense for our club, so it may be then or it may be sooner.

Tl:dr - Spoke to the directer of fan services, they're taking fan responses seriously, NYCFC likely has more design freedom with the second kit than with the first, and we might get to see the second kit released before jersey week.
This guy Dan has always responded to all my emails. We have to give him and the organization credit for this. I've spoken with him myself on different issues. I'm usually the one to end the conversation, which show great interest on his part.
 
I don't know. He was pretty adamant about me keeping an eye out for the away jersey, contacting him when it comes out, etc. Jersey week didn't even come up until I asked about it. The whole tone of the conversion combined with the fact that the kit leaked a few days later tells me that this probably was planned.

They've been doing a lot of conscious damage control since the home kit came out so it makes sense to get this out sooner rather than letting us stew on it.