Nobody quite knows the pulse of a fan base like an owner, right? Wrong. Arthur Blank and Grima Wormtongue (Rich McKay) are hilariously out of touch with Falcons fans.
I go to a handful of games every season, tailgate from 7 am until game time, live in Atlanta, blog about the Falcons every single day, talk constantly to peers about the club, and ingest just as much Falcons content as anyone; Blank and McKay have no idea what the average fan thinks about the franchise.
In their end of the season press conference as they answered questions related to Arthur Smith’s firing, both men went on separate rants about how the fan base still supports the Falcons franchise vehemently.
“I know you don’t believe this, but our fan base and what’s gone on here the past two years is crazy. I mean, first of all, we’ve created a home field advantage, when we first opened Mercedes-Benz Stadium we didn’t have it,” Rich McKay said.
If you’ve been to any game in Atlanta outside of a season opener, you know just how foreign it can sometimes feel. Plenty of games against clubs with a national fan base, like the Cowboys or Steelers, feel like away games in Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Even in the game against the Saints this season, the Falcons put on one hell of a show honoring 50 years of hip-hop, but there was still an embarrassing amount of smelly Saints fans. That’s never the case in New Orleans, which actually features a home field advantage.
McKay didn’t stop there; he doubled down, noting the NFL’s Voice of the Fan, which is a league-wide study that rates the gameday experience satisfaction of fans.
“Secondly, coach Smith leaned into it and we finished number one in the NFL in the voice of the fan last year. We’ve never really been in the top 20. This year we might not end up number one, we might be number two and that’s because of the environment they (fans) created,” Rich McKay said.
This is disingenuous of McKay. The Falcons earned the best “Overall Gameday Satisfaction” in the NFL, ranking first in 14 categories, including No. 1 in “Family-Oriented Entertainment,” No. 1 in “Overall Gameday Staff,” No. 1 in “Overall Stadium Technology” and No. 1 in “Overall Food & Beverage.”
Now, I love Mercedes Benz Stadium and the Home Depot lot before Falcons games, but let’s not confuse “Gameday satisfaction” with a home field advantage or fan confidence in management. That didn’t stop Arthur Blank from tripling down.
“I don’t think our fans have lost faith in our franchise and our ability to be successful at the very highest level… I look at how the fans are in the building the last two years, the results that Rich is talking about (voice of the fan), that’s done by the National Football League independently, that’s not my personal opinion,” Arthur Blank said.
Again, there’s a distinct difference between the satisfaction of amenities and staff of Mercedes Benz and the average fan’s confidence in the Falcons’ ability to put together a successful product on the field. Blank is either blatantly ignoring that fact or is genuinely that out of touch.
“So, do our fans believe in the experience? Do they believe in our franchise? Do they believe in our capability to produce at the highest level? My answer is yes they do. They have not given up hope. They’re angry; they’re frustrated. I’m angry; I’m frustrated,” Arthur Blank said.
If you ask 100 fans if they believe Arthur Blank and Rich McKay will get this next head coaching hire right, I believe more than 70% of them would say they have little to no faith.
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