Parking Predicament Is Only A Symptom of Greater McCourt Management Problems

In the aftermath of the Dodgers' home opener, there seem to be more articles about the parking fiasco than about the game itself. The LA Times had pieces on the cover of the California nee Metro section as well as the Sports section decrying the horrors of Frank McCourt's new parking system, which led to confusion, anger, and a traffic situation that seemed even worse than before.

Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts posted a piece today that appealed for patience from the already frustrated fans (many of whom commented below on this and prior posts). He correctly points out that under McCourt leadership, the Dodgers have become distanced and unresponsive to fan concerns, and this parking situation is just another symptom of a bigger issue:

That message should go straight to the top. The McCourts need to be responsive to fan complaints, not in denial. Something didn't work yesterday. Something might not work again tonight. If that's true, the Dodgers need to be prepared to say why things aren't working and what they plan to do about it. They need to be able to say what's going to be different tonight or Wednesday.

They can't just blame the fans for not knowing what they should be doing, ask for patience, then be silent. This is the approach they took when they first bought the Dodgers, and it was a disaster.

First off, having been at the game yesterday, I have to say that the parking situation wasn't so bad for me. I know I am in the minority here, so let me also indicate that this was largely due to the fact that I had a preferred-lot pass (as a season ticket holder), which allowed me to zip in and out rather quickly. I got there plenty early (11.05a) and also was unfortunately forced to leave early (top of the seventh inning) due to another appointment. The parking lot looked pretty bad as I left, but I also wasn't fighting many cars at that time of departure.

It was clear as I left, though, that the new parking mechanisms left the stadium even more difficult to maneuver than before. Had I been able to stay until the end of the game, it would have been a disaster to get out of even the preferred lot, most notably due to an inexplicable ring of cars parked smack dab in the middle of the inner ring. This tactic seemed so idiotic and bound to cause horror afterward, that I'm a little shocked they didn't have overflow parking up the foul lines of the stadium. I was lucky to have left early. Others would not be so fortunate (as other friends and family members attested after the game).

But again, Opening Days are always bad, and maybe this was an aberration due to the insanely high traffic. We will see if the parking situation is any better the rest of this homestand. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that it will be more of the same.

Rather than dwell on this specific issue, however, I'm more concerned with the McCourt administration's ability to dream up and implement half-baked ideas without thinking any of them all the way through. With the exception of the Olmedo Saenz Pavilion (which apparently got rave reviews, according to the LA Times, on day one), Frank McCourt has a long history of rash and questionable decisions that would have failed any sanity test considering public impact, timing, or execution/implementation issues. Let's recap just a portion of the poor decisions made by Frank and Jamie McCourt to date (with details of the execution disaster following in parentheses):

• Expanding the dugout club up both foul lines (without having thought through the poor sight-line issue, they had to be completely remodeled one year after they went in, leading to the bandaid of new "box seats" which still have poor sightlines to the field);
• Removing the names off the player jerseys (which was met with public frustration and outcry, further exacerbated by a new GM who sought to remake the entire roster in his first year, leading to fans not knowing who any of the players were (at one point, ushers were actually handing out wallet-sized roster cards just so everyone could keep them straight. Efforts to replace the names faced a one-year delay due to MLB rules, such that the disaster lasted twice as long as it should have);
• Adding a ribbon scoreboard to the base of the loge level (which impeded views for the highest-elevation rows of the field level);
• Prematurely announcing that every game would be televised (which later turned out to be untrue due to last-minute scheduling issues, not to mention eroded negotiating leverage of the Dodgers as they tried to deal with the team's television network partners);
• Unceremoniously firing broadcaster Ross Porter (while continuing to inflict Rick Monday on us, as well as Steve Lyons for random games);
• Deciding to swap between-innings periods formerly filled by Nancy Bea Hefley's organ with obnoxious rock music (another widely-criticized move by the public, which has led to at least one instance of playing explicit and offensive lyrics over the speakers (Nancy Bea never had that problem));
• Firing GM Paul DePodesta three weeks after firing Manager Jim Tracy back in 2005 (leading to widespread and well-founded questions and concerns about ownership's mercurial management style and unstable foundation);
• Putting son Drew McCourt in place as the "Vice President of Marketing" (whose inexperience level and naivete led to stadium giveaway fiascoes like a commemorative championship fleece blanket that printed the wrong years of the Dodgers' world championships, among many other well-documented gaffes);
• Initiating a much-ballyhooed Dodger Rewards Club to create incentives for spending at the stadium and usage of a Dodger credit card (only to shutter the program one year later, without warning or recompense to any of the club members who had accumulated points in the program, reflecting the poor consumer response);
• Constructing left and right field Team Stores (but not including air conditioning for these ugly portable construction sites, meaning that they will become saunas and hothouses by mid-May);
• Adding new color-screen scoreboards to the outfield wall (but including a hard plastic facing with that scoreboard which may have injured Dodger Matt Kemp in his first game during what would normally have been a routine play);
• And finally, implementing a new and confusing parking program (which has arguably worsened the stadium's pre- and post-game traffic flow, and already has many speculating it will not last).

That's a long list of miscues, by any stretch. And worse than that, on each occasion, the eventual pitfall issue complementing each idea is so obvious that one would think any reasonable management team would be able to consider the downside. The McCourts have chosen to surround themselves with family members and yesmen, and the result is an organization that treats one of the few crown jewel franchises of major league baseball like it's a traveling circus, complete with liability and safety issues and a whole lot of clowns.

To be fair, there are some ideas that the McCourts may have gotten right (I for one am a fan of the new Team Stores in concept, though the air conditioning issue needs to happen soon or they'll have asphyxiated employees with which to deal). But they're few and far between. On the field, their three years of management has led to two winning and one losing season, as well as no playoff wins--at best, this can be called "mixed."

But the miscues they have caused in their management have real costs, not only in declining fan appreciation and enjoyment. Often, the remedies for the execution mistakes that they have made (dugout club seating replacements as a prime example) are so expensive, that they compensate for any increase in "consumer value" that their fan base receives. Couple that with a doubling of parking and ticket prices, and it's clear where this money is going--right to the McCourt's pockets.

And throughout all of this, the McCourt's public response has been either disaffected obliviousness or reclusive hibernation. It appears McCourt is back out on the campaign trail trying to improve his public image (as evidenced by his public view yesterday at the stadium). He appears to be a personable enough guy who may even be likable should you get the chance to talk to him--in which case his publicist is clearly dropping the ball, particularly when online chat transcripts appear to be rife with planted questions (come on, what reasonable fan "really enjoys hearing McCourt visit the announcing booth?"--don't insult our intelligence!) If Frank wants to be a public figure, he should be held publicly accountable. And that includes public accountability for the failures.

Maybe it would be worthwhile for Frank and Jamie to hire a non-McCourt-named advisor to help them think about vetting ideas and considering execution / implementation issues before they sign the checks and announce the deals. For a small six-figure income, one would think that they could hire someone to add some sanity to an otherwise insane way of managing.