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This has been floating around the Internet today, and I figured I would share it with you. The San Francisco 49ers sent out an internal memo (found this version on Deadspin) discussing their "Home Field Advantage" plan for the coming week as the team prepares for the Seahawks.
You can read over the details below, but the part starting with "Introducing the 49ers Home Field Advantage Plan for Gameday" was sent along to season ticket holders to prepare them for Sunday.
Naturally this is quickly provided fodder for Seattle and national media to poke fun at 49ers fans. It is not surprising that people would take this in that tone given that it's basically a non-video version of "Rams Rules".
I'm not surprised the 49ers would put something like this together, but for very specific reasons. For those that didn't know, I worked for the Oakland A's for five years before going to law school. I actually started Niners Nation during my final year with the A's. I spent most of my time with the team as an accountant, but my first year was spent in sales. I spent six months as a "ticket marketing" intern, and then another nine months selling season tickets as a tele-marketer of sorts.
In working with the sales and marketing department, they always tried to come up with stuff like this. Maybe not specifically about when to cheer, but this is very much a sales and marketing thing to do. The team is asking for mockery with something like this, but they are far from the first team to do it.
Non-49ers fans will make fun of it, and there's not a whole lot that be can said to counter it. The 49ers just need to go out and win. This has quickly become a story but it's importance is somewhere between slim and none. Well, except for the fact that I really can't make fun of the Rams for "Rams Rules" anymore.
