Thursday, December 13, 2007

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished


Last month we ran an interesting donation game for Operation Sauce Drop. Gloria and I donated our season tickets for two games to Operation Sauce Drop, which then ran a donation auction. We let people donate to Operation Sauce Drop and specify that they were interested in a particular game. The people who made the highest donation for a game got the tickets. We raised over $500 on $300 worth of tickets, and the winners got a good deal on some great seats.

We got a lot of good feedback from that program and were proud to be able to see our tickets that we spent real money on generate more than just their face value for the troops. Several people suggested that we do it again, but instead of just posting in the Hurricanes Swap Meet section of their fan forums, we asked the moderators for permission to post a notice of the event in their main board. This presumably would have generated a lot more traffic.

In short, they told us No. We wouldn't be allowed to post this offer, even in the swap meet. Frankly, why our organization offering tickets in exchange for people making donations is a violation of their TOS, while other people selling tickets for cash is not, is beyond me. But it's their forum, they can make whatever rules they want. It's a shame the troops will be waiting longer for their sauces because of the Cane's legal department.

One of the things that was said was that it couldn't be verified that the sauces were really going to the troops. Take a look at the Operation Sauce Drop Feedback page and think about how much money it would cost to fake those photos. How exactly do you get military people to pose with sauces in a helicopter as part of a hoax?

So instead of running another game, we're just going to sell our tickets for the Dec 28th game vs the Bruins and the New Year's Eve game vs the Islanders. I'm asking face value for the season ticket holder price of $75 each ($150/pair). These are section 103, Row K, seats 1 & 2. They're seven rows from the ice on the blue line at the end the Canes are on offense twice, behind the opposing team's bench. Frankly, you get a better view there than you do on the glass. These are Center Ice Premier seats, so you get access to the club level and The Deck, which will be an especially nice perk for the New Year's Eve game.

I'm going to donate the money to Operation Sauce Drop. First person to email me at grillinggreg at gmail dot com gets it.