email from the Suns

[scotsman13]

so of you know what happened over at phxsuns.net board. while i dont post over there i did email them about the issue and today i got an email back from them. it was very nice. here it is

Greetings,

To begin, I would like to apologize for the delay in response to all of your e-mails (and there were a bunch) regarding the situation with phxsuns.net. My name is Kurt Pollex and I am the Customer Relations Manager for the Phoenix Suns. I would like to take a quick moment to thank all of you for being extremely passionate Suns fans. Please feel free to reply to this e-mail and include a good mailing address. I would be happy to mail each of you an Arena Sports Voucher Booklet which includes two vouchers for free tickets to a Suns, Mercury and Rattlers game (six vouchers total). The vouchers are redeemable at the AWA Box Office and are based on availability. I hope you enjoy the games.

If any of you ever have concerns, questions or suggests regarding the Phoenix Suns, please feel free to contact me directly via e-mail or by phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Have a great day and, of course, GO SUNS!!!

Kurt T. Pollex

yea i edited it a little.

 

[Stronso]

Yes, I got the same e-mail from him and I responded for the free vouchers. I ripped the Suns in my e-mail to Everyeffort.net....

 

[Chaz]

I missed something.

What happened at Phxsuns.net?

 

[scotsman13]

the suns sent them an email stating that they had to remove the suns logo from their website or they would be taken to court. to do this to a fun site it was kind of like a slap to the head. the guy that runs the site sose meet with the suns and he came away with an understanding about why the suns had to do what they did. it has to do with keeping the suns logo rights. but it still hurt some fans.

 

[sly fly]

This Sose guy should have called their bluff.

I have a hard time believing Jerry or Bryan Colangelo had anything to do with this.

Man, whatever happened to standing up to what you believe in?

I realize the owner of the site is no match for the deep pockets of the Suns organization, but I'm sure he could have found a pro-bono lawyer out there willing to help mediate or take his case to court.

And, I would have wanted a little more than a tour of the lockerroom and free nose-bleed tix.

 

[scotsman13]

the problem was just the suns. it was the nba and david stern. and the logo is trademarked that would have lost him any case even if he wasnt using it for personally gain. you cant use a trademarked logo without written permition.

 

[jw7]

I agree, if they don't act to protect their trademark, they could lose it in court. From what I read, they went WAY overboard compared to what most teams do.

That's funny to see the name Kurt Pollex. Last XMAS I bought my parents lower-level tickets to a Suns game as a gift from the ticket exchange. Unfortunately there was a system error and the tickets got double sold.

Curt called me up, apologized, and instead gave my parents 2nd row seats (right behind Senator McCain) for that game.

 

[Chaplin]

The problem is that blame was place on the wrong people. This is an NBA issue, not a Suns issue. Plain and simple.

 

[3rdside]

I interpreted the problem in a different way.

My understanding is that phxsuns.net had become known as an official suns site, even though it wasn't. This would have occurred because of its popularity, the fact that it would likely have come up quickly on most search engines if you typed 'phoenix suns' and, IIRC, this website was advertised at phoenix suns basketball games on billboards during the last season.

No doubt the suns organisation was aware of the popularity of this site, but were also aware of its uncensored (i.e. not family friendly) dialogue and the non PG avatars that were often being used by posters.

In marketing, brand association can have a large impact on an image a brand is trying to portray. Any negative images (e.g. 'phx suns.net') associated with a brand (e.g. 'The Phoenix Suns'), no matter how small or minor that negative image is (keeping in mind that negative opinion can spread broadly and quickly via word of mouth), it can have a huge impact on what message a firm is trying to relay to the public, and, in turn, its bottom line.

If a consumer sees a website that they believe to be sanctioned by an organisation, and this consumer is offended by what they see on this website, they may come to believe that the organisation actually endorses these offensive attitudes.

Considering the Suns organisation has ditched players for having perceived character flaws, and have now gone ballistic against phxsuns.net, you begin to see that they are attempting to create a squeaky clean image. As far as i know, Phoenix is a fairly conservative and small town, and the competition for sports viewers is extremely intense. In this type of situation, any negativity associated with 'the brand' (The Phoenix Suns) could have potentially dire consequences.

This is why, I believe, they have banned any form of logo on that site (even in avatars) because they want to completely disassociate themselves from it. In time they may relax these attitudes but not before 'suns.com' is known as the only official website.

This Sose guy should have called their bluff.

There is no way he should have done this - how does he achieve any kind of victory? The guy (sose), as far as i know, does this for a hobby - why the hell would he waste time and money in the courts when he probably has a full time job already. Thats not even taking into consideration that;

a) He would put the entire suns organisation offside which would mean no cooperation whatsoever at any time now or in the future. At present, the suns org is giving free seats away and will do who knows whatever else in the future.

b) He would likely lose (not being able to afford a team of crack lawyers like the suns org would, and, in all honesty, it really did seem like an official site even though it wasn't so it wouldn't have been that hard a case to prove against them anyway)

c) When they lose, they would likely have to close the site down and change its domain name. No need to mention how much extra hassle this would create.


So, before you go saying:

Man, whatever happened to standing up to what you believe in?

I think you need to understand the facts a bit better.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Well thought out post tts

But I still agree with Chaplin that this was an NBA thing not a Phoenix Suns thing

 

[sly fly]

tTs**, you're probably right. I had no idea that they were advertising the site at PHX home games. And, I didn't know that they were "known" as the official Suns site.

The point that I was trying to make was that the Internet is full of "parody" web sites, "fan-based" web sites, and the such.

 

[Chaplin]

We'd probably be going through the same thing here if this site had more Suns content.

 

[elindholm]

We'd probably be going through the same thing here if this site had more Suns content.

Heh! Let's hear it for off-topic bickering!

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by elindholm
We'd probably be going through the same thing here if this site had more Suns content.

Heh! Let's hear it for off-topic bickering!

Nice Eric. Very mature--that's not what I meant and you damn well know it.

 

[elindholm]

Nice Eric. Very mature--that's not what I meant and you damn well know it.

Excellent, that's exactly what I had in mind. Way to answer the call.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by elindholm
Nice Eric. Very mature--that's not what I meant and you damn well know it.

Excellent, that's exactly what I had in mind. Way to answer the call.

What's your problem? Do you have a need to be this sarcastic this early in the morning?

 

[elindholm]

Chaplin, just because I'm not including smiley faces doesn't mean I'm not making a joke. In fact, if I begin a post with "Heh!", that usually means that the rest will be in a light-hearted, hopefully humorous vein.

For my taste, putting a smiley face after each joke is a bit like a comedian who laughs after every punchline. It seems forced and amateurish. I'd rather that people either get my humor or not, without needing a laugh track to tell them how to respond when.

 

[Chaplin]

sorry.

 

[Dr. Dumas]

Can someone please direct me on how I can get free tickets? I don't care if they are nose-bleeders or not.