2013 Braves Country Caravan

[19Braves77]

Everyone I mentioned will be at the Braves 400 event on the 26th with Jones being inducted. Kimbrel is doing the Rome Lunch event, and a Alabama Lead Off Dinner in Birmingham this week. Hudson is doing so something with his baseball academy with McCann. I post more info when I get it.

 

[jimjim]

The Braves events are a joke. Who do they think is going to take off a day from work to wait in line for 5 hours to get Don Sutton or BMac? Not sure about you guys, but my time is worth way more than that. Like Woods said above. If they really cared, they would have a fan fest or do it on a weekend. This Caravan is much cheaper, as they don't have to rent a venue and they get sponsorship money out of it.

 

[smallfry121]

Thanks for the info

 

[bbridger]

info. is up now. Not a whole lot to look forward to in some places. Nashville and Birmingham stops are the worst they've been in years.

 

[pittgrad0214]

Nashville is a complete joke

 

[19Braves77]

that Montgomery stop is brutal.

 

[Mike8]

Heyward and Freeman are doing a paid public signing on the 26th as well which I'm sure further complicated things for the Braves. McCann is doing a non-team related appearance the 26th as well.

I highly doubt the team will ever do a FanFest again. They outwardly dislike the fact it turns into an autograph fest so instead they hold these Caravans on school/work days where people wait in the cold for at least 2 hours (and sometimes much more - I drove past the Acamemy Sports yesterday on my way to work and there were arround 5 or 10 people in line at 7:30. I got in line at 1:20 and was #94) and get to see the players for around 45 seconds. At least the FanFest did have other non-autograph things to do where you felt like you were connecting with the Franchise and getting more than 45 seconds of interaction for your time invested.

They want a FanFest that will raise a bunch of money for their Foundation but without it being primarily a signing event. Which will never happen. So instead of just accepting it is what it is and people mostly attended the FanFest for autographs, they cut off their nose to spite their face and don't have one at all. At one of their last FanFest debacles, one of the Braves employees told me the event wasn't about autographs and I told her to hold a FanFest without autographs and see how many people paid $10 a day to get in.

If they would just do something like the Twins or Cardinals and charge a fee for autographs, they could make a killing. Not huge dollars like the Cardinals because Braves fans are cheap and aren't willing to spend like St. Loius fans are - but something along the lines of $20 - $25 tops for the big names like Chipper, Murphy, Glavine, Smoltz down to $10-$15 for the Heyward, Freeman, Hudsons and keep the rookies and prospects free, they could do really well.

 

[pittgrad0214]

this is just another example of a MLB team urinating on its fans

 

[psugator02]

this is just another example of a MLB team urinating on its fans

don't you mean 'defecating?"

 

[jimjim]

Heyward and Freeman are doing a paid public signing on the 26th as well which I'm sure further complicated things for the Braves. McCann is doing a non-team related appearance the 26th as well.

I highly doubt the team will ever do a FanFest again. They outwardly dislike the fact it turns into an autograph fest so instead they hold these Caravans on school/work days where people wait in the cold for at least 2 hours (and sometimes much more - I drove past the Acamemy Sports yesterday on my way to work and there were arround 5 or 10 people in line at 7:30. I got in line at 1:20 and was #94) and get to see the players for around 45 seconds. At least the FanFest did have other non-autograph things to do where you felt like you were connecting with the Franchise and getting more than 45 seconds of interaction for your time invested.

They want a FanFest that will raise a bunch of money for their Foundation but without it being primarily a signing event. Which will never happen. So instead of just accepting it is what it is and people mostly attended the FanFest for autographs, they cut off their nose to spite their face and don't have one at all. At one of their last FanFest debacles, one of the Braves employees told me the event wasn't about autographs and I told her to hold a FanFest without autographs and see how many people paid $10 a day to get in.

If they would just do something like the Twins or Cardinals and charge a fee for autographs, they could make a killing. Not huge dollars like the Cardinals because Braves fans are cheap and aren't willing to spend like St. Loius fans are - but something along the lines of $20 - $25 tops for the big names like Chipper, Murphy, Glavine, Smoltz down to $10-$15 for the Heyward, Freeman, Hudsons and keep the rookies and prospects free, they could do really well.

Very nice summary. I agree 100%. This is also a team that sells fake autographs to their fans willingly throughout the season.