BY: Ray Schmitt, Voice of the Greenville Road Warriors
GREENVILLE, SC – When the Greenville Road Warriors host the Gwinnett Gladiators on Friday, January 13, 2012 they will look more like Tigers than Road Warriors as they will wear special Clemson University-themed jerseys.
Clemson University is a pillar of the Upstate, South Carolina community, and the success of Clemson’s football team this fall is something that should be celebrated. In that spirit the Road Warriors will wear the Tigers’ orange and purple for one night only,” said Road Warriors president and general manager Neil Smith.
The special Clemson-themed jerseys are modeled after the Road Warriors’ standard jerseys, except that it is a solid orange with purple trim on the elbows, wrists and waistline, and features the Clemson Tiger paw as a patch on each shoulder. The Road Warriors will also wear orange socks with purple trim to match the jerseys.
Immediately following the game against Gwinnett, there will be a live jersey auction at which fans can bid on their favorite player’s jersey. The winning bidders will get to take the jersey home with them that night, have a chance to meet the player whose jersey they win, and get it autographed. A portion of the proceeds from the jersey auction will be donated to charity.
Fans can save on their tickets to that night’s game by purchasing the Spinx Family Four Pack which features four tickets, four hot dogs, four soft drinks, and four bags of chips for just $48! Fans can also save off the box office price and get preferred seating based on availability by booking a group outing. Group pricing is available to any group of 10 or more. You can book your group by calling 864-674-PUCK (7825).
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Show CommentsYou will never see me at a Warrior game by honoring Clemson.
Ron,
I totally get it when guys favor one school over another. Well, actually I don’t. It’s a college for goodness sake. To me anyhow, that’s like saying I won’t go to (fill in the blank’s games) because they’re having in people from IBM. Awfully silly to me. Request to the team for them to honor the school you favor? There’s a novel idea… 🙂
Mitch,
You don’t get it because youre not a part of it. I won’t be at that game either. I don’t ask that you get it or agree with my decision. Living in the upstate and having to live with many Clemson fans is difficult enough. The last couple of years have been nice. Not just because USC has won a few games, but because the mouths of the Clemson constituency has been mighty quiet. I said constituency because I’ll guarantee you that somewhere along the way a Clemson Alum had something to do with this promotion. Clemson politics are widely known. It started with Ben “Pitchfork” Tilman and that Tilman mindset continues to this day. Why not a Furman day? BJU day? GTC day?North Greenville day? I’ll tell you why. These schools don’t use political ploys to gain recognition.
Don’t be condescending to those who are “chaffed” by this. We put up with enough malarky from the Clemson folks!
John, I’m not condescending at all. What I am saying is this whole flag-waving thing whether it’s a sports team or college or whatever is lost on me. Even in my passion for the New York Rangers organization, which manifests itself in this site, I can still go to a NY Islander or Bridgeport Sound Tiger game or a NJ Devils game or for that matter, ANY team and still have a great time. It’s the sport I love and that comes first to me.
You know what I would suggest to you or to any other people that have an issue with this? Solicit the team to have a night at the Bi-Lo Center that supports the school or schools that you like. I know Neil Smith personally and he’s NOT doing this to say F-U to other colleges, or because some booster wants it. He’s doing it because he’s in business to make money and this idea and promotion they feel will make them money. It’s a promotion; nothing more and nothing less. If Neil and his partners felt that promoting another school would make him money, I’m sure he’d do that too. You’ll never know unless you ask…
Don’t you think that’s a bit better idea than hurting a franchise that you obviously have passion about because they are supporting a promotion of a team you don’t like? Honestly, that makes no sense to me at all. Truly, there is no condescension in what I am writing here. I’m truly being sincere.
Guess I will be staying home this hockey season….why alienate some fans when you aren’t exactly selling out as it is. There are Gamecock fans all over the state and plenty in the Upstate.
As I’ve said now several times, why not approach the team management and ask them to sponsor a night for the school you like…? This to me is just REALLY silly. Who cares what jersey the team is wearing as long as they’re still the same team and they still are your team?
As stated earlier, you don’t get it. And that’s fine. I personally won’t solicate anything from the Bi-Lo Center. It’s great you know Neil Smith and it’s great he’s in the business to make money. I hope he makes a lot of it. He sounds like a peach of a guy.
I’m not hurting a franchise with my refusal to go to this game. He should have done his homework about the effects this promotion would bring about. Your condescension is clear in your writing about what would be a “bit” better in your “sincere” opinion. It may be better for you, and that’s cool, but please don’t suggest how others should feel when we are the ones who are being alienated. We’ll get over it and life will go on. But as I stated earlier, don’t expect me to support this. I won’t.
John,
First, Are you sure you know what condescension is? How am I talking down to you? Did I somewhere write as if I were speaking to a child? If you see that, it’s in your imagination because none was written or intended as I see it.
Does expressing a contrary opinion constitute condescension?
Look, you can go, not go, you can do whatever you like. It doesn’t affect me a single iota. The fact is that it DOES hurt the team when a fan who normally would doesn’t. Look, it we were talking about the NY Rangers or an NHL team, I would tend to agree with you and your position. The money that you do or don’t spend isn’t really going to hurt them. The Road Warriors are a VERY small business run on a VERY tight budget and EVERY ticket sale matters to them.
I’m NOT speaking for Neil or anyone there, just sharing my thoughts also as a small business owner. You try anything that you think you can make money on. As I’ve suggested, if you think another school is better and you’d like to see them honored, talk to the school and talk to the team and make it happen. I GUARANTEE they won’t turn you aside if what you have in mind would make them money.
These guys are in business in Greenville because they weren’t making money in Johnstown. They’d move the team to Timbuktu if they thought it would sell tickets and make money. That’s what minor league hockey is all about.
So the bottom line on this is a simple one. You can easily keep your money out of it and punish the players by having one less passionate fan there for something they had nothing to do with, or you can ignore the fact that there’s some promotion that you aren’t fond of, let the team know that you’d like to have them honor your team and be more mature about it.
That’s my opinion. If you don’t agree, and you don’t want to go, be my guest…don’t go. I am TOTALLY fine with it. Like I said, it doesn’t affect me a single iota. All I am doing is pointing out some simple, basic common sense reasons as to why it’s being done. You’re acting as if it was done deliberately to antagonize fans and even having not spoken a word to the team about this, I can GUARANTEE it wasn’t done for that. It was done as a means to make money, nothing more and nothing less…
Now, if you consider that condescension I guess there’s nothing I can write that’s going to convince you otherwise. I’m just sharing… you can take it however you like. Regardless, I’m grateful that you support the franchise and of course this site….