I just want to clear a few things up. Seems like the original post of this thread is mixing personal Facebook posts/messages with public Facebook posts.
The Wildcats were contacted this summer to see if a discount could perhaps be given on tickets to send a family whose never been to a hockey game to every home game or if they want to just run with the idea themselves thus we're welcomed to. The e-mail was ignored.
Throughout the first month or so, Al's Pals was featured on Global, CBC, XL96, Times and Transcript, etc. After getting a bit of media pressure (None of which was initiated by Al's Pals)a Wildcats sales representative contacts Al's Pals and offers 100 tickets that were donated by various customers. This could be businesses that just want to support the team but don't attend games or businesses that buy more tickets than they need and ask the Wildcats to donate them.
The Cats employee then asked for a "sales pitch" that he could use to potentially get more tickets. This was successful as another 50 tickets was added.
So kinda weird that the Cats won't offer tickets themselves and make it seem like it's impossible because someone has to pay for the tickets but it's their business, they want to make money. Whatever that's fine. They did help so it was a lot more than was expected of them after the ignored e-mail.
Now the part that Billy is referring to that caused the word Wildcats to be completely removed from all the Al's Pals posts is that the Wildcats insisted the tickets be used for one game because they wanted to have an "Al's Pals game". There was push back on having all because that's a heck of a lot of work for one guy with a full time job to try to line up and distribute 150 tickets to foreigners but ultimately the thought of being able to more than double the amount of tickets (4 x 34 =136) was too enticing to pass up.
There was a lot of ideas thrown around about what an Al's Pals game might entail (such as having an area to do a rules explanation before the game or having a couple of sticks and some pucks before the game for the guests to touch/feel) but a shoutout and being shown on the big screen was all that was all that was able to be granted to Al's Pals. Pretty simple, shouldn't be hard to do right?
Well the day comes, the guests were told to wear jerseys from their native country, some had flags, some had made signs, etc. The Wildcats were shutout by the Mooseheads and the Al's Pals shoutout never came. They never got to cheer. It was never mentioned on the PA system and they were never shown on the screen except for Wild Willie coincidentally coming down the stairs with pizza at some point. A text was sent to the team the morning of the game to confirm the shoutout was lined up and the text was acknowledged.
Deposite the frustration of putting in 40+ hours to get 156 people to their first ever Cats game with absolutely no mention from the team, Al's Pals has NEVER once bad mouthed the Cats organization publicly. You probably won't see the Wildcats referenced on the page ever again, good or bad. A week later the Cats did respond to the frustration e-mail that they received the following day but it was basically gas lighting and excuses.
"I reviewed the November 26th game details, and it shows that your group was to be given a live shoutout. I checked with the Audio-Visual team and unfortunately there was limited time for group shoutouts due to few stoppages of plays and paid sponsors that needed to fill in their paid time. However, from the game review it shows your group received a general shoutout during the 3rd period. "
Dumb excuse. They can give a shoutout to the Moncton U-9 Blue Jackets and every other minor hockey team mentioned that are around hockey 3-4 days a week but can't take the 5 seconds for Al's Pals? They were never mentioned. I was there. The 2 guys I sit with also confirmed they never heard it.
I don't know if I'd say it's repulsive as much as it's lazy and very on brand. Looking forward to more Friday night playoff games with 2800 fans because most people in the organization don't give a fuck and those that do aren't allowed to do anything about it.
Apologize for the long post and any typos I may have made on my cell phone with a cracked screen.
