Rogers SUCKS!

OK, I just have to get something off my chest.

As I've mentioned here on more than one occasion, I am a huge Toronto Blue Jays fan.

I do not, however, think much of their owner, Rogers Corporation.  Our recent visit to Toronto didn't do anything to endear them to me either.

Sunday, April 4th was a promotion day -- the first 10,000 fans through the gates would receive a Jose Bautista Bobblehead.

Anticipating high interest in the item, we headed off to the ball park early enough to ensure that we'd get one (we've always managed to receive the promotion item in the past).

Bob dropped us off near gate 9 so I could enter at the elevator access which we had discovered the day before.  John and I walked up to what was labelled gate 9 (it was a 'door' rather than the usual 'turnstile' entrance.  There were several security guards at the door but they didn't stop us from entering.  The usual ticket collector was inside and she scanned our tickets but did not offer us a bobblehead.  I saw that further back in the entranceway was another guard with a box full of the promotion items, so I asked for one.  She questioningly handed me one, then handed one to John.  I was perplexed by the attitude but proceeded on my way.

When Bob joined us, he was quite dejected because he thought we had not got them (they were in a bag, under my seat).  I was shocked that he didn't have one.

He had entered at gate 12 and was told that they had run out at 11:15am (we arrived at about 11:45am). 

We noticed that everybody else who arrived after us was without a bobblehead.  (We had agreed before the game that if John and I had each received one and Bob did not, we would give him one of ours since our household really didn't need two of them.)

Fast forward to the end of the game.

Bob left to go get the car and we waited for him across the street from where he had earlier dropped us off.  It was a much longer wait than usual due to some extreme traffic tie-ups.

While we waited, we witnessed several groups of police men leaving the Rogers Centre, their shifts over.  Each was carrying a bag containing one or two bobbleheads (a few even had three in their bags).

I was stunned!

The promotion is limited to the first 10,000 fans through the gate.  Attendance was reportedly 35,500 for that game, which means that a bobblehead should have been given to 3.5 out of 10 people who walked through those gates.  There were six people sitting behind us and none had a bobblehead.  Bob mentioned that as he walked to the parking lot to get the car, he calculated that about 1 in 20 people might have been carrying a bobblehead.

So now we know that the Bautista promotion was given to paid staff rather than distributed to paying fans.

Go Rogers Go.  Way to keep the fanbase happy!