Letter To Cfg And Nycfc

[roxfontaine]

To CFG and NYCFC,


My name is Rox Fontaine. I am President of the Third Rail supporters group. I am writing to you today with a very heavy heart. At our last home game versus the Columbus Crew, near the final moments of the game, there was a situation that ended up seeing a supporter tasered in his chest by NYPD. Of course you’ll want to know all of the details of how that happened and I’m sure your staff will get you some sort of answer.


What I am telling you with a clear head and conscience is that your staff and the NYPD were wrong!


You see, we are out in full force every home game and many of the away games holding up our end of the deal. We cheer our hearts out, jump and sing, spend countless hours discussing you and bouncing ideas about how to be the best we can for you and countless more dollars supporting this club that we love so much. Did you see the final vote totals when we lit the Empire State Building up in Blue? This is what we assumed you expected of us. We were verbally bludgeoned to no end about how fortunate we were to have CFG as a parent organization and told grand tales of how amazing our experience would be under your guidance.


Given what I’ve experienced to this point, and quite a fine one was put on this past Saturday, I have to disagree with that sentiment. You have not given us much in the way of reciprocation for the energy we have given to this club. Our team is marginal at best, we’re 0-3 versus our New Jersey rivals, we lost on PKs to the 2nd division team here, I can’t not mention the Lampard situation and we don’t have any news about a soccer specific stadium among a list of other things. Instead, you have entered into a deal with an organization that does not understand or care for the beautiful game and thus doesn’t understand or care for us as fans. You have put a product on the pitch that looks good on paper but doesn’t translate to wins. You have left us stranded in a baseball stadium that seemingly hates us even though we can put 30,000 people in there on a Thursday night, set an MLS sales record that eclipsed the Yankees’ opening day by a long shot and bring an energy to this park that you’d be lucky to get only close to watching the Yankees at any point in the season.


We are the best thing this club has going for it. If you don’t believe that, then ask the players if they agree. Jump the Hudson and ask those guys in New Jersey how they wish they had support like us. We deserve better and we demand better. We are not unreasonable people. We know that there are some unruly people at times and we are always working to self police and reduce those occurrences. The reality is that we don’t have any more egregious offenses than NHL, NFL, NBA or MLB.


We are in our first season and we’re fired up about this club and the possibilities that lie ahead. We demand assurance that we are valued beyond our ticket revenue. We demand properly trained stadium staff. We demand proper and ethical treatment from NYPD. Without those things this relationship is irreparably damaged.


You should be extremely concerned with the precedent Yankee Stadium, it’s employees and NYPD set on Saturday.


Signed,


Rox Fontaine

President

Third Rail SC


William Howell

Kevin Escobar

Carlos Delgado

Jonathan Sanchez

Emil R. Ljesnjanin

New York City Supporters Club

(Signatures to be added as they are confirmed.)

 

[franchise646]

One thing, I would add Yankees management and the Steinbrenner Family who are part our ownership and speak about there excitement for the club and fans. It would be nice if they show it.

 

[Albany_NYCFC]

Perfectly stated R roxfontaine. Clear, concise, reasonable and not defamatory in any way. Can't wait for their response........

 

[CP_Scouse]

im curious to see WHO answers and what the response is.
It could be the normal " we respect you opinion" bull shit OR the "we know this is fucked up and we got this"

 

[roxfontaine]

If you wish to sign, click here.

 

[SFphoto]

Rox. I really admire and respect your vocal leadership. It has been a refreshing and badly needed quality that TR has lacked from the beginning.

That said, I'm not really sure what this message is trying to accomplish. The message is a little unclear. Is this a message about security overstepping or about the quality of the team? The "voice" of this letter is also slightly informal. I also think that this letter should come from you and you alone. A letter from the leader of the biggest SG carries more weight than a few dozen signatures of some randoms.

Really great stuff, man. I hope it reaches the right people.

 

[Davo15]

Kind of what I was thinking. I'm not involved with the supporter group at all but I respect what you do so I hope this is taken as constructive criticism. It seems counter productive to me to be incorporating complaints about the team's on field performance here. It makes the missive seem meandering. I think it would have been more effective to stick to the police and security issues with a concise point they could potentially address.

Rox. I really admire and respect your vocal leadership. It has been a refreshing and badly needed quality that TR has lacked from the beginning.

That said, I'm not really sure what this message is trying to accomplish. The message is a little unclear. Is this a message about security overstepping or about the quality of the team? The "voice" of this letter is also slightly informal. I also think that this letter should come from you and you alone. A letter from the leader of the biggest SG carries more weight than a few dozen signatures of some randoms.

Really great stuff, man. I hope it reaches the right people.

 

[413Blue]

I'm happy to see TR position itself as an independent supporters group who operates independently and is not fearful of being critical of the organization. While a positive and productive relationship should be maintained, TR should not allow itself to become one of the SG's that essentially works for the FO.
I agree however that this letter lost it's narrative. Bringing up the on-the-field struggles seems unfair, seeing as this is a first-year team and you can't really argue that the organization has not put forth a legitimate effort in building a team. They did lure away a well-respected and successful manager (regardless of what you think of him now, it was certainly seen as a winning play at the time), brought in 2.5 high profile world-class players and have invested considerable money and other resources into this club. It's not as if they are the Colorado Rapids who have the least ambitious and most frugal and incompetent management.
It seems as the main point of the letter was to address the stadium issues and treatment of the supporters. As a result of putting so much focus into the teams performance, after yet another frustrating loss, you minimized the point of the letter. If I were the person reading this, I would not get the frustration about the stadium issues and would just chalk it up to a disgruntled fan who is pissed off after yet another loss.

 

[The Toe]

I really think patience is going to be key with regard to SGs being comfortable (at our own SSS), the team being consistent (not putting a team together based on other teams' leftovers) and CFG/Yankees' ability to do stuff their way and the right way. It will sometimes take years for a permit to build a porch on a house in NYC, let alone an entire stadium, a complete roster and a culture with mutual understanding among ownership, supporters and law enforcement/security. Rome wasn't built in a day, these things are going to take time and will eventually correct themselves.

 

[roxfontaine]

Yeah. I've heard the same criticism a few times now. It's entirely fair.

I'm not a professional writer and I can certainly see now where I could have been more narrow in the message. The point I was trying to make is that we have been promised/led to believe a lot of things and not much has come to fruition. We, as supporters, have done everything we can to hold up our end of the deal. All we have gotten in return are unwarranted ejections, wrongful ejections and abuse of power from Securitas employees who are often escalating situations they should be de-escalating. All of that on top of a poor product.

I apologize for missing the mark. I will work on my writing and improve going forward.

 

[horseytweets]

Good read but its a fact that CFG, NYCFC PR and the Skankees don't give a flying fuck about it. Money talks.

 

[Tony L]

Signed.

 

[mgarbowski]

Yeah. I've heard the same criticism a few times now. It's entirely fair.

I'm not a professional writer and I can certainly see now where I could have been more narrow in the message. The point I was trying to make is that we have been promised/led to believe a lot of things and not much has come to fruition. We, as supporters, have done everything we can to hold up our end of the deal. All we have gotten in return are unwarranted ejections, wrongful ejections and abuse of power from Securitas employees who are often escalating situations they should be de-escalating. All of that on top of a poor product.

I apologize for missing the mark. I will work on my writing and improve going forward.

I also had issues with the writing and didn't want to either lead the way or pile on, but now that you've acknowledged it I want to say that I have seen you write well and better here on the forums. So you're capable. I think this was just a misstep.

 

[NYC24]

The letter could have used more explanation of what happened in the SS on Saturday and why it is unacceptable. That said I immensely respect your point of view and that you took action. I also probably didn't need to write this because you say in your post above "I've heard the same criticism a few times now. It's entirely fair."

So now to the main point of my post, which is to highlight how disagreeable Mr. "I think this was just a misstep" continues to be with his little personal digs. I like his playoff maths, but lots of micro-aggressional personal comments always seem to be part of the deal.

 

[beaucoup_movement]

They are trying to put a good product on the field, it takes time. And if they weren't playing in Yankee Stadium the team would not exist at this point (well, maybe they'd exist at Citi Field; same thing).

I don't know enough about the issue with security this past weekend to comment on that specifically. Maybe the guy was treated harshly, maybe he got what he deserved. In my experience the best course of action is to just shut up and do as you're told when confronted by security or police. All I can say is I've been at 13 of 14 home games this season and I've kept up with news about the team/supporters throughout, and it's clear there's some culpability there.

Take the smoke bombs for example. As far as I know they've been banned since before the season even started. Yet they've been present at every single game except this past one. That's just one example of fans in that section deliberately flaunting the rules, but there have been other incidents throughout the year. You acknowledge that in your post, "We know that there are some unruly people at times and we are always working to self police and reduce those occurrences."

I'm not trying to be an ass but you know full well it's not your job to self-police. And you know full well that the club and the people who manage Yankee Stadium can't sit back and allow you to try and self-police. You're right that fights and various incidents occur at other sporting events all the time, but guess what happens? The offenders get roughed up by cops/security. Tossed out. Arrested. Probably tased but I don't know where you could find accurate stats on that. I've seen fans get hauled out of their sections plenty of times over the years at Yankee Stadium, Shea, Giants Stadium, the Garden. It's normal.

Point is unruly fans are dealt with at all stadiums. A ticket, even a founding member season ticket, doesn't give you license to do whatever you want at the game. The NYCFC supporters group gets special attention (as do the away fans) because it's the only area of the stadium where there's a large concentration of people that are deliberately trying to be MORE active and yes, unruly, than the other sections of fans.

Both sides probably have some work to do but the Third Rail and everyone in those sections need to understand the basics:

1) There are rules you have to adhere to in a stadium, and there are people in place (security/cops) to ensure that.

2) The supporter's section will always get special attention because it's one of two areas of the stadium (away support) where a group of people have decided to organize, draw attention to themselves and generally behave in a different way than the rest of the crowd. It only makes sense for the people in charge to focus there.

3) The supporter's section shouldn't get the kid glove treatment just because you guys feel you're somehow more vital than the rest of the fans. The rules are the same for everyone.

 

[horseytweets]

If you wish to sign, click here.

Signed.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

You wrote from the heart and that has a better chance of getting a genuine response than a perfectly worded document crafted by a lawyer. You are the president of a group of guys who want to scream for a soccer team not IBM.

Don't listen to all the guys who think they could have done it better, you are the one actually doing it. A rare quality.

 

[Christian]

Complete embarrassment. I signed up with Third Rail for this? I'm done.

Supporter culture here in the states is a cancer on the beautiful game and Third Rail is its biggest tumor. When you can stop self promoting and acting the fool and actually you know maybe support the product on the field win lose or draw then maybe you've figured it out.

At every turn you make it about yourself and never about the team. Thankfully the stadium has parts of it that watch the game and cheer our boys in blue on no matter how shitty it gets.

 

[roxfontaine]

I'm working on an addendum right now to address the concerns of those who had criticism about the inclusion of team performance in the letter.

If you share similar concern/criticism I ask that you please help me write a more effective message. Give bullet points to add and specific points to take out. I just want this to be effective.

 

[Davo15]

Would it be worth it , and I'm just putting this out there , might be a bone headed idea and tell me if it is . But could you ask CFG to send someone down for a few games undercover to sit with the SG's and see how they behave and how the security and police behave? Now they might already be doing this and be more inclined with siding with the police/security since to my somewhat liberal mind corporations are more likely to side with authority figures but just a thought that I had so throwing it there to be taken/criticized /ignored etc. as anyone sees fit.