Re-Release: Episode 7: Fan Behavior and Events Returning to Full Strength

The CT4E case gives an in-depth look at the recent experiences with fans, fan behavior and staff interactions as events return to full strength and the COVID-19 Pandemic winds down.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to Call Time for Events, a place for event workers. We chat about all aspects of the event slash enterment and entertainment industry. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. I'm Heather.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

I'm Colin.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I'm Kristen.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Call Time for Events is proud to be sponsored in part by Mike's Stadium Sports Cards, Colorado's best card shop. For all of your collecting needs, from sports cards to Pokemon and beyond, head to Mike's, located on the northeast corner of Parker and Quincy in Aurora, Colorado, but is also available on most social media platforms. Mike's Stadium Sports Cards. Mike is also a member of the event workers community, and we graciously thank him for his support.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Indeed, we do.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

I did it! Woohoo!

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Nicely done. Good ad read. Uh, as uh uh you loyal listeners will know, Jeff is not with us this evening for he is on assignment. Um battling space aliens right now and other event-related stuff. So uh Jeff should be back with us shortly when he returns from his adventure.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Phew pew.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Yeah, so want to talk about now that the events, uh especially sporting events, have really started to open up quite a bit with larger capacities. Most places are actually gonna be at 100% capacity if they're not already by now at the start of the summer here. Um, and just kind of want to talk about what the expectations are and what our what our experiences have been and what's been out there around the country because there's been all kinds of stuff. And we're gonna talk a lot about that today with what's happening on the national scope, what's been happening around the mile high area as well. It's been about the same. So fan behavior, let's start with that. Uh fan fan interactions. Um I've seen better.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

It's in the news.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

It's in the news. It's in the news. I mean, everything from the article that even was just posted today about the the men's team, the men's soccer team uh defeating Mexico in that CONCACAF uh final uh over the last previous weekend, and the behavior of the fans and CONCACAF's uh attempt to uh remove a anti-gay uh chant from the the Team Mexico supporters and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

And the even suspended the game temporarily.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Yeah, both games that Mexico played in in Colorado, they were suspended uh temporarily for further warnings. They could have stopped the match, they could have even led to Mexico being full uh having to forfeit one of those games or those games. Um, it also led to a lot of not necessarily that stoppage had a direct correlation, but then the fans also were not pleased with the outcome of the game or calls that were happening and debris started flying and and whatnot, probably worse than than I've ever seen at an event, um, at a sporting event. And so it's and it's all over. I mean, there's there's there's even the uh the article published in the Athletic from about a week ago that talks about how um NBA players have have been the target and uh the recipient of of many different uh issues with fans throwing popcorn and water bottles and running onto the court and spitting on players or saying racial slurs to the to the uh to the players' families in the stands, and that's just not acceptable. And you know, it's to the point where now the news conferences aren't talking so much about the actual game, and we're in the playoffs in most in uh a few of these sports right now, and instead we're hearing about the fan interactions, and and it's it's not just with basketball. I mean, uh, you see in baseball, you it's like a trek meet out there in the outfield almost every night. There's some kid that's trying to run from one end of the outfield to the other, and the fans are cheering them on to not get caught. Um, we we have uh we had at the at the end of the Colorado Avalanche St. Louis Blues game in St. Louis. Uh fans were not happy with the outcome of that game and started to throw uh stuff towards the the bench. I believe French fries was one of the items that was those thrown.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

And yeah, you can go with beer cans, beer, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

I mean, when did we well we did a quick Google search today? Colin and I did, and we found the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Denver Post, um, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, all of these in a quick Google search one time today are all about articles and stories about fan conduct and fans coming back. And it's like, I I think it's it's maybe the maybe it's because I have puppy brain. You know, I have a new puppy, and and when puppies get excited, they get the zoomies and they just start uncontrollably running around the house. They don't care what they knock over, they don't care what chaos they cause. And I feel like the that's the fans, like they have the zoomies right now.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah, they've been locked up for a year or 14.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

They've been locked up, and there is a but there's another problem. And and if you turn on the news, you hear about multiple pandemics happening at once. We had COVID at the same time, that we had a whole bunch of social justice stuff blow up, and that's just news. That's not us talking about it or having an opinion about it, but that became kind of a pandemic. We had an election, we had all these things happening in the United States that were that everybody had very strong opinions on. And so now here are these athletes, here are these performers. They all stayed home for a year as well. And when they weren't playing their sports, they got active in other ways. They got active politically, they started voicing their opinion about those kinds of things. And there is a direct correlation between some of this fan behavior and their disappointment, not just in the player, but their players, their those players' political beliefs. And that's what they're doing. You're throwing bottles of water because they don't like that someone is a certain party or has a certain opinion. And it is something we didn't see coming. We didn't see that coming. Yes, I think that fans have the zoomies and they're very excited and they kind of don't know how to control themselves, but they're also doing those kinds of things, and that bums me out a little.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah, I would definitely say this past year and a half has been absolutely and undoubtedly a time of heightened opinion, opinionated decision making. People who previously didn't have opinions about things had nothing but time to create opinions, to form their own um, you know, uh biases of what was going on in the world. And, you know, whichever direction they wait may have gone in, it definitely has spilled over into what we are experiencing here in this events industry right now.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

It's true. And I think that more than, and I'll we'll get right back to especially this soccer game that happened in Denver um yesterday. Was it yesterday? Um I think that for our event workers, for our people, our tribe, y'all have got to take the advice we've given several times on this podcast, which is just be patient and center yourself and find a place of compassion to lead from and do a lot of listening. Be patient, be firm, be fair. And I think we'll get through this as workers and consistent. Um consistent, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

And always, I mean, the thing that that really I've seen help out at the events is like just fall back on what the rules and the policies are. Yeah. And try not to allow for for too much gray area. Although we all know there are some incidents where there is some gray area, there needs to be more discussion, there needs to be more information. Um, I've had some of those, but then there's others where it's very black and white, very cut and dry. Um, I think the the other major factor that's affecting the fan behavior is social media. And I it's not just for the information you get from social media, social media, but the excuse me, the access that you have to these athletes, to these teams on social media, just like with you what you have to any other celebrity. When you get on Twitter, for instance, you can directly communicate with somebody that you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago and and and everything earlier, it was impossible to try to communicate with somebody. You had to send a fan letter and or you had to like wait outside and and in the cold or whatever, you know, and and um I think there's just there's just so there's just so much um just yuck that happens on there because the of the uh anonymity aspect of being able to say and do whatever you want on social media, and some people have their real faces or whatever, on especially on like Twitter where they're so anonymous. Um and there is that more direct access, or even someone Instagram, um, and you see that, and then people also like want to be their own influencer, and they think like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be TikTok famous, or whatever. If it's if I come out and say that this was me that was running across the field, or it was like and look back at the Super Bowl, even I think we talked about it on one of our earlier podcasts where we there was that field runner at the Super Bowl, and that guy bet there was a bet, there was a bet at in Vegas that that there was going to be a field runner, and he saw that bet and he bet on himself. And him and his buddy devised a plan to get on the field and run, and then they bet that there would be a field runner, and they bet a lot of money, and they won a lot of money. I'm not sure what the status of that money is now. I know there was some question, but little did we know that that was gonna be a foreshadow to other behavior. I mean, shoot, just just at this at the soccer game the other night, we had four field jumpers. Um, you know, and it was and and people just threw stuff on the field like it was like it was like that's where the trash can was was you just throw it at the team that you don't like, or you throw it at the refs or whatever. And there was a player that was injured from stuff hitting the field. And like, do you really want to be that fan that has that impact on an event where it's like, you know what? Like you just you you just made a negative impact on that event to the point where it could have an effect on the outcome of the game. You could also and not necessarily for your team, it could be your team gets disqualified for that, you know, or um your team gets penalized for that. Or I there's there's uh one last little thing, and and we'll move on from that. But the an example of like a fan interference from 25 years ago, for instance, uh, I think the kid's name was Jeremy something or other.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Um that's a very popular line.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

I for his name was Jeremy, I know that. I just forget his last name, but it was in New York and it was a Yankees Orioles playoff game, it was in like 1995, and uh a ball was hit, pop fly to right field, and the Orioles right fielder should have caught the ball if not for this 12-year-old reaching over the side because he's gonna catch the home run ball. He didn't know he's 12 years old. He caught the ball, they called it a home run. Yankees win the game. Oh no, yeah, it was it was truly. I mean, that's that's the kind of like impact that we were used to before is like oops, or like the this this the the Steve Bartman thing in in Chicago in 2003, those were oops, these are all acts of on purpose, and a lot of them are acts of anger and malice, not to mention how they're treating each other, like how the fans are treating each other is just no kidding.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

It's it's insane. And you know, before COVID, when we'd have instances like that, um they were easy to find, they were easy to identify, they were easy to yank that fan out of the stands. It was easy to get them out of the game so that they weren't ruining it for everybody, but now everybody is taking part, and so it's really hard to like separate the good from the bad and let the folks that are there to have fun have that fun because now it's everywhere. It's it's like somebody just opened up a can of something and spilled it, and we can't clean it back in that toothpaste back in that heat. I don't know, it's insane.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Everybody's been locked up for for that long, and like you said, they uh the case of the zoomies, and I think more of the behavior is you know, people are uh you get blowing off steam, and that steam, that steam is not just from the the coronavirus, the steam is from 14 months of several different life-changing events and 14 months of several different, you know, very highly emotional type of things that would have happened, and then no no way to take care of it. Like you can't go, you couldn't go to the gym, you know. Not everybody had the ability to go and exercise outside or get outside, you know, and and with concerts, concerts haven't really started up yet to the same magnitude at which sport you can say.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

I was I was gonna ask Heather about that. I was gonna say we can't talk about theater people doing that. I mean, we've had a lot of, you know, in the past, we've had some theater folk refuse to turn down their cell phone, and that is a travesty. But Heather, I was gonna ask you because you keep your finger on the pulse. Um, what are you hearing about? Concert.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I would say just from my personal um experience, not only uh working, but also I've attended a few shows lately, and it is not the same general atmosphere or general like mindset that what the sports side of our industry has been experiencing. I think that um I mean, I think a few episodes ago we touched on the fact that fans are just so grateful to be there. And I'm just I'm seeing a disconnect between the two uh or the three with theater and concerts being on one side and then sports industry. Sports fans are, you know, they're their own level of passionate. And I think that being uh misconstrued in certain ways, just from my own personal experiences, these uh these past few weeks and months.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah, I agree. And soccer especially is coming back on a world scale, right? Soccer's the largest spectator sport in the world, not in America, not in Canada, in the world. And so that's like a the world is exploding as well. So they get to come back. Ah I'm not I played soccer in the third grade. That is the beginning and end of my experience with soccer.

unknown 14:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Exactly. And oh, go ahead, Colin.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

I was just gonna say, like, I I feel in a lot of it is I think because there's such an emotional attachment to uh it's it's a different kind of emotional attachment. It's more like this team is mine, this city is mine, these colors are mine, where there's that representation of like you kind of feel, and uh speaking from a diehard fan of a lot of different teams, like you feel like a different kind of personal connection with that team where like you literally you live and die. That's where the term diehard fan comes from. You live and die by like how that team does, and you know, never have I ever gone to a concert and left that concert thinking, you know, man, that sucks they lost, you know, because you don't have that, you don't have those negative emotions after a you can't go to a concert and say, I bleed the mini colors of your t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I mean, but I mean you can definitely be a music fan for sure, but I would say you never you never leave a concert angry. Sports fans, it's it's a toss-up whether you're gonna leave the event that you paid for happy or extremely angry. So it's always you never know. It's true.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Yeah, there's the only the only time you could leave a concert angry is if it ends early because of weather or because of some sort of like malfunction of some kind or something like that. You're like, oh, you're not really angry, you're just kind of like disappointed, like, uh usually those bands come back and they're like, we're gonna play a better show.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Like it's true, and on the event worker side of that, when a concert gets canceled for like say weather, it all of a sudden becomes every event worker's fault. And I'm like, ah, I swear we don't control the weather. That's a whole nother hilarious issue. But I'm glad that I'm really glad that it's not an event-wide issue because, like here in Denver, the mission ballroom's got a show coming up this month, and they're an indoor venue, so that's gonna be really exciting. I think it's the first time we're able to see them. And um the mission, yes. Yeah, and it it's widespread panic that'll be there at the mission, and that's exciting. So I really hope that this like I hope we get it out of our system in the outdoor stadiums. I hope that this does not translate to the smaller places and the more intimate indoor places because I don't because they will shut that down. You know how they said they they tried to get through to the fans and pause the soccer game and say we're gonna do this kind of thing. Well, okay, bands will walk off. They'll shut that down. They're done.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

You know, they're not they're not gonna Yeah, we shall see if that's around the uh route that they take. I just wish that they could, I mean, I just I just wish I could stand out there in the world with this, with us, you know, uh megaphone and just tell them, please be understanding. We are only people just like you, and we can only do so much in this industry. And I had mentioned a few episodes ago how I was concerned about the you know, the bottleneck of events coming back and there not being enough of us, event workers, which in an economic system, there is a short supply of us for various and numerous factors, yeah, um, all as a result of the time that we've been through and the fact that um we are a product of this industry and we are currently in short supply. And I just wish I could voice that to people so they could be understanding. I think there's generally from our conversation these past few minutes and in previous episodes, I just I wish that people would be more understanding of people's mental capacity to either show up to an event or not to show up to an event, whether you know you are a fan or not, or whether you're a worker or not. It is just everyone's transitioning. We're in this extreme state of transition, and I just wish everyone would have a tiny bit more understanding and patience. But maybe that's just me being like the peace, love, respect type of person that I am.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Come on, it's like you have a crystal ball and you knew it was coming. I did, I called it, I called it, 100% called it. And you're you are absolutely not wrong. Um, no, the Kentucky Derby. I I know that I mentioned this to you guys in our pre-recording conversation. Um, it takes 5,000 people to run the Kentucky Derby and only 2,000 showed up. This can you imagine being short staffed by 3,000 people?

SPEAKER_03 19:27

I would die. I would die literally just like I can't put the chalk outline around me and be like, No, there's there's no coming back from being more than 50% short.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Cancel the Derby.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

I mean, it's like thousands.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Mad love, mad, mad love to the Kentucky Derby workers because they did it. I mean, I yeah, I didn't watch it, but I watched all the reruns, and I was like, all right, some horses just ran around track. It is not that easy, and they did it, and the Kentucky Derby against all odds happened. So mad love to those event workers. Holy cow!

SPEAKER_03 20:02

That was absolutely little known fun fact is that's a bucket list uh event for me to go to as I want to check it out. Um, not to say that I want to wear a funny hat.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

I mean, I might wear it for you gotta get a hat with like a ship on it. You need like the big derby hat. Nope. If you go, Heather and I are making your hat.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Okay, all right, all right, all right. Okay, well, well, so maybe I should like channel my inner Matt Stone and Trey Parker with them to the Oscars, except for not trip acid. I'm not gonna trip acid. Um, but go and then like when people comment on my attire, just say, like, oh, this is magical. This is such a great moment, it's just so magical. Um, just always have like a mint jewel look in my hand, even though they're disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Um that is absolutely a one-of-kind event, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

Just to go. I mean, I want to see it. I want to because like that's that that track, the the number of people it can hold is astronomical. Um, it's like 100,000, 150,000 people. It's uh massive. In fact, I'm gonna look it up while we discuss further.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Well, and I will say a little known fact, I have no desire to ever see the Kentucky Derby. So there's that.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Well, also a little known fact if you guys have never visited Kentucky, the parking around the Kentucky Derby grounds. Um, the name escapes me at this very moment. But the there is no parking. So shout out to our listeners who are the parking staff. I don't know how they get all of those people there, where they situate them, but honestly, major props to you guys for navigating that situation because I cannot even imagine.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

In a in a non-restricted COVID world, Churchill Downs.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Oh, Churchill Downs, yes.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Churchill Downs can can hold 165,000 people.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Kill me right now. That's so scary.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Empowered field can hold.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Which makes me I get I I have chills just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Nope, nope, nope, nope. Chris is like that's the moment where I would literally go and hide. Go hide in a horse stall.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

No, I would I would fake my authority and cancel the derby. I don't even care.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

I have like I have a bucket list of probably 20 to 25 uh event locations that I want to go see. Um some big, some small. And uh Churchill Downs is one of them for the Kentucky Derby. I want to go see. There's a lot of football stadiums I want to go see, especially college football stadiums, believe it or not, because they're a lot older, they have a lot more history. Um, some of those huge, huge stadiums like the big house in Michigan or the horseshoe and oh dang in Ohio State. Oh yeah, Touchdown Jesus. Um, you know, those those types of places would be really cool. Some baseball stadiums, Wrigley, Fenway, you know, things like that. Of course. But I want to go see the I want to go see the Apollo Theater. Like I want to go see uh uh I I never got a chance to see CBGB's in in New York, which would have been really, really cool. Um, but that was probably the smallest venue that I would want to see is C BGB's. I've seen the ones on like Sunset Strip, like the Viper Room and the Frolic Room and uh the House of Blues and all that. But at any rate, we're a little bit off topic here. But no, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Here, wait, I want to answer this as a fun little game. No, I was gonna say, I've I've got the Greek theater, and I mean I've got a list of places. Yeah, I think my number one venue I really want to go to is uh Tomorrowland in Belgium.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

I just I was just about to ask you that.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, that's my number one. I would love to see. Um, I mean, fun fact for any listeners that's the biggest uh EDM music festival that happens in the entire world. So I would love to see just that venue and how they coordinate it. And also, there's so many different languages. Like, how do you figure that out? How do you navigate it? I would just love to see like how that operates. And then also, second of all, I just want to see how they make Burning Man happen because technically true Burning Man. Um the whole premise behind it is that the patrons build the entire thing from nothing and they control pretty much the whole thing themselves. And then when it's gone, it just disappears.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Fun fact, three of us work with um two people. Well, okay, I work directly with them, but because we all work in the same very small group of people in Denver, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, I work with a mother-daughter pair every year. They take an RV to Burning Man and are part of the setting up of the streets and the setting up of the, I mean, that's part of their life culture. And then they come back, they work events here, and then they go to Burning Man. It's like a three-month adventure for them. They get there early, they set up, and then they stay afterwards. And I want to see Burning Man for the very just I want to see Burning Man. Yeah, I think exclusive what a spectacle. Yeah, that's that's incredible. I want to see that. Um, I think, oh my gosh, bucket list events and event venues that we want to see. What I want to go to the Grand O'Lopray I've never been there.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

That too, that's on mine.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

I think we could definitely make an entire episode. Maybe just the spin-off of this conversation will make an episode. I think that'll be so fun to just absolutely absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

So it's a teaser for another episode.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah, and then maybe I can share how I sang and danced on the Broadway stage.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Oh, yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

It's a very cool story. We'll have to do it later, though. All right.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

So we I mean, uh to to get back to the fans here and our experience of them coming back. I I 100% agree with Heather that like at the concerts, everybody is like, oh, giant unit together. And I always felt that way before, but I just see like even more so, whereas like on the on the and like again on the sporting event side, right now the timing is interesting, especially for the NBA and for the NHL, because we're in the playoffs, and these buildings started to really open up and get full capacity at the playoffs, and there's a lot on the line, you know, and there's a lot of emotions there, and there's just tension and anxiety, and just like, oh, and you walk into those places, although the excitement and that fuels some of those, like you know, those moments that you talk about, Chris, and where you're like those moments where the goal is scored. I've I've been inside of Pepsi Center slash ball arena for over 800 avalanche games. I don't know if I've ever heard anything louder than uh the the last like four playoff games, especially the last two. Um, and so I hope that I hope that gets to continue because that I mean that it's not even at full capacity yet. And it's just everybody's just so excited that their emotions are all like revved up. But then at the concerts, everybody's emotions are revved up in a different aspect where by far at the concerts I get thanked for being there more than at this point.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Oh excellent. That's so good to hear.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

And by far at concerts, you just have people helping each other out a lot more. Like, hey, this person fell. This person, this person needs some help, this person, yada yada, yada. And so, um, and also you just see like I I feel and I we'd have to, I can't wait until we get to talk to some of our friends on the service side, like uh like our bartender friends and our concessions friends and whatnot about what they are experiencing, and hopefully we're able to get some of them on soon. Uh, but to see what they're experiencing behind the counter and and what are how are the fans treating them um and whatnot. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

No, I'm I'm thrilled to hear that you're being thanked as much. And I think I think we were on a call, and Heather was at an event on the call and had some people coming and talk to her on our call and just kind of poking in their head. And and you know, that's it's very real-time, very cool stuff happening. And that so that is to say, it is not all fans that are, you know, one more time, it's it's the people who are doing the bad stuff that are getting the attention. And I think it's important that we we really, really highlight the amazing inspirational fans. I mean, we've all had we've all had stories that'll bring tears to your eyes because they're so inspirational, they're so touching. And that's with fans. It's not, you know, and um, you know, and it I think I come at that topic unfairly because I started at Disney and what is Disney if not a Mecca of inspirational moments. But um, even outside, we've had time and again these amazing people who come up and are just I think of the little boy that cried because his family finally made it to Bronco Stadium, and it was like his Christmas gift, and that's all he ever wanted, and he was so happy he could not control that emotion. And you just want you wanted it fans like that make us do our job better because I I stood up straighter and I wanted to throw roses in front of my wanted to do something, you know, and it's we want to do everything we can to make that the best experience possible. And those are the fans at least I come to work for.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah, I think that um it's just at the heart of it, we want we want the fans to have an amazing time. We want to have an amazing time. We at the at the very, very root of what we do, we want to see everyone enjoy themselves. And I think that's why it was important uh for us to bring this up, this topic today. We didn't mean to be Debbie Downers and kind of um, you know, bring up any negativity. It's just that it's like, why can't we all we have this beautiful gift of getting back to these wonderful events that are so meaningful to so many people? And it's just so sad that a couple bad apples here and there have chosen the wrong route and have just, and now that's what's that's what's the headlines is people misbehaving instead of the excitement and the thrill and the beauty that we're finally coming back and we're able to make this happen even with a short supply of people and even with this and even with that. I mean, we're not out of the clear yet, and right trying to do the best I we can, and so I think that's why it just kind of oh it irks us that these people, you know, this fan conduct is just not at the level that like it really, really should be.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Well, and and we know our fans, they're better than this. They are that's not them, they're better.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

Well, so the thing is is that there's the 80-20 ratio, you know what I mean? There's the the 80-20 where 80% of the people are they're they're gonna have a good time and everything else, and it's not quite 20%. You could play with that number, but um, at the same time, it goes the other way where as event workers you're spending 80% of your time on the 20% of the fans because they're the ones that need the attention for whatever reason, some of them because they're misbehaving, some of them because of the uh, you know, maybe it's because they drink too much, or maybe they slipped and fell, or whatever. And it's not 20%. I mean, believe me, we would be we would be still writing incident reports, or we would still be dealing with things if 20% of the people at every event. It's just that's that's just a a base ratio to start with. But you spend so much time trying to put out fires sometimes that you uh you a lot of time you see this where uh a lot of event workers get jaded and they feel like the whole crowd is misbehaving and they they apply that stereotype to everybody. And I've I've seen some pretty interesting interactions between staff members, even where they were getting on one staff member was was keeping another staff member accountable for for taunting and for harassing. It's like, shut up, you don't need to talk to excuse me, you need to talk to uh people like that. And and I worry how much that's happening across the country because we have a small slice of the pie that we get that we've got to see so far here in Denver, and we those articles have helped, but at the same time, that other large population of people, they're coming to have a good time, they're there, they're cheering loud, they're having a lot of fun, they're walking out, uh, you know, just like, oh my god, I miss this so much. Um, and it's close to being back to quote unquote normal, but what we had pre-pandemic is probably never going to come back to that same aspect, and it's gonna be a little bit different. And what I don't want to see, I know what I don't want to see happen is that I don't want to see fan behavior post-pandemic start to change policy and start to change rules to the point where there's just so much that a fan has to do that they don't make they're not fun going to games. I don't think we're there yet. I really don't think we are either.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Um, I hope I hope you're right that we don't get there. Oh man, because it policy's already changed, you know. We've already had to talk about the possibility of wearing masks, showing vaccination cards, whatever. Yeah. Oh man, absolutely. I'm scared. Now I'm scared.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Don't be scared, be excited, be out there and be a difference maker.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Fight to bring back the inspirational moments.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

And that's what we want everybody to be is we want to be a difference maker. And and just as we tell everybody, it doesn't matter what your job is, when you're working an event, you're a part of that event, and yes, you're seen as a representative of that event. Um, and even if you're you're you're you're working for your own personal enjoyment, that's great. But uh stay positive, stay patient, fall back on the rules and the briefing that you were given. And always remember you can always ask for help. It doesn't matter what level you're at or what you're doing, you can always ask for help.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Right. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Slow things down.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

We are here for you, and you can always turn to us, and we we got you. Just tag us and hit us up on social media, we will support you.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, if you guys want to chat about anything that we talked about today, we just reach out to us on our social media channels, and we are more than willing to like open up a conversation. If something happened to you, we're here for you as well. And um, we can give you tips and you know, just kind of just be like a good resource for you guys, which is like absolutely bonus of why we do this.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

That goes for fans and employees of any kind. We can help kind of like steer you with how to go about a conversation with somebody.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Absolutely. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to get back to the positive stuff. You guys know I'm addicted to that. Um, and I believe that on our 10th episode, um, which is just a few episodes away, we're gonna do a whole big um remembrance. Yeah, love fest, love fest. That's right. I'm excited about that. We're gonna tell some of these stories. We keep saying that we have. We're actually gonna Annie up.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah, and uh we might even hold the microphones, we might even hold the microphones close enough to we'll get real close, real personal, really we might even we might even sing love songs.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Love songs. Oh gosh, now everyone is like to-do list. Do not listen to the 10th episode.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

I'm kidding, we're not gonna do that for episode that the sound effects aspect.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

The topic, Heather is correct, that's the topic, but well, we just want to say thank you so much, you guys, for joining us for this episode. You are amazing, all of you who have been with us since the very beginning. We appreciate, appreciate, appreciate you. You're amazing. And thanks for uh coming along on this ride with us.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Yeah, like, share, subscribe. We need t-shirts like like, share, subscribe. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram coming soon, TikTok, YouTube, and a web page. Um, sorry, but we're too cool. Cool. Yep, we're gonna see you all uh next time, episode eight. Many surprises in store. Not gonna tell you what those are.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

Absolutely. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

I can't wait to hear about Jeff's fighting with the space aliens. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

I can't wait. Pew pew. All right, and with that, bye guys. Bye, everybody.