The MessageToAl billboards
by Kwester421 on Mar 11, 2010 11:16 PM PST
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OK people, we are all reasonable sports fans, and we all share the same goal. We want our team to win, period. MessageToAl is planning on going a little overboard soon. It appears they plan to put up 100 more "hire a gm" billboards in the near future. These cost over $5,000 each... Yes, that is real, they plan on spending $500,000 on freaking billboards.
Now, we all get frustrated with our sports teams, regardless of the cities we live in and teams we follow. Some things are just not within the scope of reason. There are so many other things that could be done with that amount of money. Al Davis does not care about your opinion, he never has, and never will. If you were true fans, you would know this. He does things his way, end of story.
$500,000 could help keep our struggling Oakland schools open. It could help fund our outdated and over run childrens hospital to provide care to many kids that are in desperate need of attention. It could aid in Nnamdi's scholarship program for the Oakland youth. It could open homeless shelters. It could help provide training to the 46% of Oaklands residents that are unemployed and living well below the poverty line. The list is endless.
I ask you as an OAKLAND RAIDER, to use better judgment here. Spending this amount of money on something of this nature is so beyond irresponsible, it is borderline criminal. Think of the headlines if your group did something of consequence. You want to get your message out? DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS WITH THAT MONEY! If you take this route, your message will be everywhere. Not just in the local media, but nation wide. I do not support your group, but we are all welcome to our own opinions. This is what makes our country great. Please, do the right thing, do not squander this much money on something this pointless.
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I don't think that having all our players walking around town seeing these billboards will help the team win.
I might be in the minority but I think we have made forward progress and want to see it out with the young guys this year and hopefully a steady Gradkowski at QB, I’m personally against these sorts of billboards in general tbh.
"Mel Kiper has his opinion and I respect it. But what does it mean? My 9-year-old nephew can watch film and make an opinion. I think I value the opinion of scouts who get paid to make their opinions. It will carry me through my career. It will serve as motivation for me." - Mike Mitchell
"I'll be the guy on top of the Quarterback" - Richard Seymour
Here they come baby, Just win baby, Feel the storm of the cold autum wind baby
Its the Oakland Raiders, Get your mouthpiece
You in the black hole, With the black beast! - Ice Cube 'Raider Nation'
I was OK with the 1 Billaboard
But 100? Thats a tad ridiculous. Like you said in a comment, That money can go to better places
In Bruce We Trust
True
but that money would have been going to Al and the Raiders in the form of ticket and merchandise sales. Not to mention all the food and booze/beer sales incurred while attending the game.
The fact is that people are taking their discretionary money, that they would have spent on going to games, complaining in a very public way about the product on the field. That money will probably not go anywhere else even though( as is pointed out) it chould.
Fanbase from around the whole country
This whole Message to Al thing is a NATIONWIDE thing. It isn’t just Oakland locals throwing their money at it. I am in Virginia(Redskins country——God save me), and we have our own little school issues—-Oakland isn’t alone in this problem. However, if I want to toss some money at this Raider Nation issue, that is my own damn business.
Last I checked, we were free to spend our money on whatever we want to spend it on. This whole thing is financed by the fans.
It takes a pretty damn pompous person to expect others to wear their morals on their sleeves.
Refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death
no, he is not pompous
He is making a good point – considering that Al doesn’t pay attention (and even perhaps enjoys the media attention coming from the billboards), it is a futile expenditure. Ozraider’s point above is also valid. On the other hand, you are right – you are free to spend your money whichever way you wish.
by Spirals galore on Mar 12, 2010 6:22 AM PST up reply actions
Yes, He is free to spend his money however he wants
But Im just saying, If your putting money into a group that is putting 100 Billaboards that all say the same thing, You shouldnt be allowed to have money! If your willing to spend that kind of money for something so ridiculous, Why not make put it towards a charity? Maybe if he goes to church or something. Or a struggling school, or anything!
In Bruce We Trust
I agree with you and Kwester on that
but the guy doesn’t want to accept the “right thing” argument, so I emphasized the other reason Qwester gave and the point Ozraider made.
by Spirals galore on Mar 12, 2010 6:44 AM PST up reply actions
Freedom of speech.
It is nothing hateful and they feel this is the best way to get their point across. Just because we think it’s a waste, does not make it so. It is worth something to them to make a point.
Also, do not Billboard companies employ people? This exercise may produce more (real) private sector jobs than the economic stimulus package!
Rusty23, noble sounding speech chock-full of both left and right wing rhetoric
I suppose an argument for the stimulus package that prostitutes offer could be made as well.
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 13, 2010 6:33 AM PST up reply actions
Wrong
People can spend on whatever they please. We may not like it but tough crap. This, to me, is a futile exercise but if they feel better having their voices heard this way, good on ‘em. How much money do you piss away on stuff you don’t need?
I'll tell you what
I will gladly send some money to help with the school situation in Oakland——but you all send some money to Virginia for the same thing. That makes just about as much sense as goldfish on mars. I chose to send a few bucks to the whole Message to Al thing because it entertains me—-I’m guessing you will ellicit the same response from anybody else who contributed.
Instead of bitching about this thing, why not start your own “Save the schools and hungry” fund? A Silver and Black fund for the schools would be a great way to address this problem——not complaining about what the money for an entirely different fund is going towards.
Quit complaining about shit and do something. Take action, you will feel great about that.
Refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death
I do take action!
I may not have money to donate, But Ive donated my time numerous times. Ive volunteered my efforts to heloing feed the homeless of tent city as they were being evicted. In fact, Ive been over there 3 times. Ive worked at the local Animal shelter, raising money for the shelter and the local pre school. And I recycle! haha Its because Ive done all this is why Im so upset at the outrageous request for 500k just for billaboards. I signed the petition to put up ONE billaboard. Not 100
In Bruce We Trust
Thats awesome!
That is something to be proud of.
I still will stick to my guns here———-there is no reason whatsoever for me or any other fan from other places to be held responsible for financing the budget problems in Oakland. Again, this whole thing is financed with fan money—-freely given. If they have $500k from donations, so be it. That just tells me that raider Nation is enormous indeed.
Start a fund for fans to give money to the schools in Oakland, and I will freely donate money to it, too. I’ll bet that a fund such as that would get every bit the response that this one did. It just needs to be specified what the money is going toward—just like this one is.
Refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death
What I am trying to get accross
Is the fact that if this group did something responsible with this money, yes, even help schools in another place, it would get a lot more media coverage while doing something good. I focus on Oakland, because this is where our team is. Half a million dollars is insane, especially when the man you are trying to reach does not care, and the rest of the sports world takes it all as one big joke.
THink if MessageToAl did something monumental with that money. It wouldn’t just be covered by ESPN and Yahoo sports, it would be on CNN, Fox News, every major media outlet would do a story on it. This way something good comes of all of it, and you guys can all get your “I hate Al” point across.
"We can't stop here... This is bat country."
No
Re-read your original post. The point you now speak of(which is a GREAT one)isn’t the same as original one. The original post simply states that the money should be used for Oaklands local problems. It very well may be, but, if that is how it should be, it should be stated that way. One can’t expect the funds from this to be diverted somewhere else without the statement actually saying so. That has misappropriation of funds written all over it.
Again, start a fund. If you build it, they will come. Just like they came to this one.
Refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death
Well...
I did state that,
Think of the headlines if your group did something of consequence. You want to get your message out? DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS WITH THAT MONEY! If you take this route, your message will be everywhere. Not just in the local media, but nation wide.
I focused on Oakland because we are discussing the OAKLAND RAIDERS. If this group did something locally, the media would be all over it. The reporters would be at the Raider headquarters front doorstep the next day grilling Herrera (hate that freaking guy) about the GM issue, what do they think of this, would they contribute as well… It would eventually go nationwide.
Or do something somewhere else, I wasn’t trying to say this is what needs to be done and that’s it! I was just throwing some ideas out there, thinking maybe I could plant a bug in one of these guys ears. Obviously you don’t agree with me, that’s fine.
"We can't stop here... This is bat country."
This would be a legitimate gripe
if the money going toward this was tax money. It isn’t.
Refuse to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death
Info
I don’t see anything on their site about this and don’t believe that they can raise $500K. The visits to their site has slowed and petitions are trickling in, so what is all the fuss about?
by Mallard Davis - aka Locutus on Mar 12, 2010 9:45 AM PST reply actions
If one billboard had no effect whatsoever increasing them is pointless - even stupid
We may get a GM when Al’s body assumes room temperature – not a day sooner.
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 12, 2010 10:11 AM PST reply actions
+1
Its futile to put these billboards up. At the same time I know other more significant things can be done with the same money for more appreciated causes. However it is their money and they can spend it however they want and express their opinions in their billboards.
One thing…………..WHY THE HELL ARE WE EVEN DISCUSSING THIS? If its this much of a bother or irritating the worst thing you can do is engage them. They just got what they wanted. There are 2-3 morons on this site who have opinions that border on irrational over emotional PMS type rages with no significant data to back it up. I choose not to reply to them when they say stoopid stuff for the most part and I think just cutting them off works best.
The billboards just probably from this posting alone increased traffic to their site 2x+. You gave them what they wanted….attention. My advice and last posting is dont post about it if you are so upset because that feeds into it.
Win at all costs! Winning ugly is still winning! Remember the past and what got us to the top before. Jim Plunkett and winning ugly......enough said!
by TheLyleAlzadoPunch on Mar 12, 2010 10:42 AM PST up reply actions
+2
one thing is for sure Al does not give a shit about the billboard. He’s going to do what he wants to do. It is his team.
All we can do as fans is not go to the games or watch on tv if their on the road. they are already blackedout for most home games and attendance is at an all time low. That’s the message to Al and I’m sure he gets it.
You can be sure that Al hates losing as much as we do.(see the just win baby slogan) He’s just having a hell of a time trying to right the ship, but he is trying.
I signed the original petition
but I won’t donate any money to the cause. Putting up more billboards isn’t going to do anything but cast a more negative light on the Silver and Black and that’s not what I wanted or will ever want.
I respect Al Davis like I respect no other historical football figure. He belongs on the Pro Football Mt Rushmore with the likes of George Halas, Paul Brown, and Vince Lombardi. He built this franchise his way, and it worked for 30 years to the tune of 4 Super Bowls and three titles. The man is a legend. Still over the past 7 years I have grown more and more frustrated with the direction he’s taking his once proud franchise, and had no other recourse but to voice my opinion by signing that petition. I knew it would fall on deaf ears, but I had to at least lend my voice to that of other frustrated, yet loyal fans.
I will continue to support the Raiders, and i will continue to buy Raiders gear (I’ve got my eye on a Jim Otto throwback this year.)
I Signed
I signed the original petition too, but now believe that Al will not get a GM possibly because of this effort. Al can be vindictive (Marcus Allen).
by Mallard Davis - aka Locutus on Mar 12, 2010 1:18 PM PST up reply actions
The original intent was good
even expanding to another billboard would be ok, but 100 is rediculas and goes beyond a message almost to the point of drawing attention to themselves and not their original intent.
The Airman of Westwood
Maybe...
that is the reason. They are selling ad space and clothing now. Could be all for attention and money.
"We can't stop here... This is bat country."
You nailed it, absolutely about money - I met one of these guys at tailgate and he talked of nothing else but "money"
I don’t believe he was there for the game and pretty sure he didn’t go in.
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 12, 2010 10:56 PM PST up reply actions
Sad...
It really is. I guess it is all about the money. I just wish they would take a different approach to this. We are all sick of being the NFL punching bag, and this just makes us look even worse.
"We can't stop here... This is bat country."
with 500k
they should just hire a hit man and be gone w/ that old piece of shit already. id happily chip in for that
by rat, el rat, mr. rat, the rat on Mar 12, 2010 8:37 PM PST reply actions
I doubt they can raise the 500k
If I remember correctly they barely raised the 5k for the one billboard. I threw 25 bucks at them the first time and promised myslef that was the last cash I spent on the Raiders till Al Davis was ousted. Id pitch in again for another round of billboards, and break my promise to myslef. I liked the idea, and still do.
Imagine the embarrassment Al would feel with billboards all around town. That would be awesome.
by rat, el rat, mr. rat, the rat on Mar 12, 2010 8:44 PM PST reply actions
you are very naive, Rat
if you think Al will be embarrassed. He thrives on the attention and doesn’t care if it’s negative. If you want to truly embarrass him, praise him – he’ll scoff.
by Spirals galore on Mar 12, 2010 8:49 PM PST up reply actions
disagree
If there were billboards all over town about you, wouldnt you be a bit embarrassed?
by rat, el rat, mr. rat, the rat on Mar 12, 2010 8:55 PM PST up reply actions
I know you're not but sometimes wonder if rat, el rat, mr. rat, the rat is Al Davis trolling the blogs
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 13, 2010 6:36 AM PST up reply actions
Posibly self-loathing, or probing for a reaction, possibly a form of cathasis or pushing with curiousity to see
how far some in the Nation will go. rat, el rat, mr. rat. the rat is probably Al Davis.
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 13, 2010 10:30 PM PST up reply actions
I'm still laughing from imagining Rat is Mr. D!lmfao!
that is too funny. Wouldn’t that be bizarre? xville could very well be someone to whom Jamarcus is related. I wouldn’t doubt that for a moment. Or from his entourage that works for his publicist team and his agent.
and I also believe MikeSD found him out for being MY too.
"If your only ambition in life, is to be a better person; well, that's just the best ambition you can have..." Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew
Only ones
embarrassed are the fans. I work with a bunch of niner fans, and they blew up a 4×6 photo of the billboard and it still hangs in our office to this day with HAHAHAHAHA written across the top. I think this just makes us look like fools to our cross bay rivals and the rest of the NFL. Al has never cared about any ones opinion other than his own.
"We can't stop here... This is bat country."
You shouldn't be embarrassed.
You didn’t put up the board. Take it from Al, who gives a crap what people think?!
Al isnt aware of a lot of things...
But I basically agree with you. His ego is so, that he would dismiss it as such.
Lucky us….
by rat, el rat, mr. rat, the rat on Mar 12, 2010 9:18 PM PST reply actions
See It
I bet Al did not see the billboard unless he asked to see it. You think someone like John Herrera would bring this effort up to Al? I don’t think so Tim…
again - you assume that Al would care
Face it – he doesn’t.
by Spirals galore on Mar 13, 2010 8:18 AM PST up reply actions
Correct
You are correct, but in “everything is wonderful land”, I am sure this was not a topic of discussion…
by Mallard Davis - aka Locutus on Mar 13, 2010 8:48 AM PST reply actions
He probably never saw this first billboard which is why
these guys wanted to put up more signs. Honestly he has too many yes men like that worthless turd Herrera telling him " Hey Look that kid’s wearing a Cliff Branch jersey!" whenever he passes it. Also with his 80-somthing year old vision & limo tint he probably would see it regardless. I agree with the post telling these guys to use their money towards the schools in the county or possibly something more worthwhile like assisting the youth living in & out of foster & half-way houses in the area.
i think they should fly the plane with the banner over the stadium 8 home games a year
and hire one on every road game to fly over that stadium. newspaper ads. mass junk mail. internet pop up adds. sign spinners on the way to the game. Fed-
Ex’s to Al place. Wrap around billboard limo’s.
a few billboards are cool but why limit it to just that. If people are willing to donate, lets get the message out there. Im sure there is a way to make sure Al sees it
who cares what society “should” spend money on. if you want to follow that logic no fans “should” spend any money on going to games period. or watching sports at home as they “should” be donating time to the community etc etc. you want to do that fine, dont tell me what i should be doing with my money or time.
If Bill Gates wants to build himself a 50 billion dollar pyrimid to bury his body in when he is dead thats his perogative. Al’s perogitive is to save his 100 million dollar war chest he’s been saving up for 30 years to fight the NFL the day they get the balls to try and take the team away from him.
it dosent really matter if Al cares or not either.
It makes me as a fan feel better if it works or not. Like it or not, Fans have taken some control over the teams propaganda by doing the billboard. Just like sports blogging has let fans take control over the topic of our sports discussions this type of extreme fan propaganda could be normal in ten years.
did i mention I’m FOR the Billboards?
"Gratuitous gesticulating together sounds even better"
GArrr, this talk of hidden treasure lad, be there merit to yer words? I not put it past th ol' pirate rat-holing is plunder a former days
“Al’s perogitive is to save his 100 million dollar war chest he’s been saving up for 30 years to fight the NFL the day they get the balls to try and take the team away from him.”
by Sons-of-Blanda on Mar 14, 2010 8:55 PM PDT up reply actions
You have the right to your opinion
and I to mine. Btw, the paragraph with the “pyrimid” and “perogative” needs streamlining.
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