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UrinalCake
12-30-2018, 09:17 AM
Did anybody attend the team’s autograph signing event yesterday? DukeMBB posted some videos showing a huge line, snaking all around campus. I’ve heard reports that tons of people showed up hours before it started and still didn’t get in. I hate it for the people who left empty handed, but as an outsider it’s pretty awesome to see the amount of fan support and the commitment by the team/players to show some appreciation. Curious to hear a first-hand account from anybody who attended.

wilko
12-30-2018, 09:43 AM
I was there.

They told us that if we made it IN Cameron by 3:30 we would be in the clear as they were shutting down the line and would honor those that made it in...
We made it IN, wound our way past the concourse, the concession and last second chance gear nook...

We thought we were in the clear. We could see the stairs to go to court level. THEN they told us the team had stopped signing but would be walking out high giving the folks remaining in line. That was weak tea after waiting so long. We left. There was no point to me for that. "We" being my uncle and me who has stage 4 cancer. My uncle was already late for his meds and due for an appointment with his feeding tube. It was his idea to go to the signing.

I don’t get to see him all that much so it was good to catch up and chat after pending 4.5 hours in line. That part I don’t regret.

However, the facilities line estimating/time management skills of whoever was running the show; SUCK.
They could have handled that way better and decided where the end/ cap was and called it THEN and ended the line so folks didn’t waste the day in line.
Poorly managed by the facilities crew IMHO.

uh_no
12-30-2018, 11:22 AM
I was there.

They told us that if we made it IN Cameron by 3:30 we would be in the clear as they were shutting down the line and would honor those that made it in...
We made it IN, wound our way past the concourse, the concession and last second chance gear nook...

We thought we were in the clear. We could see the stairs to go to court level. THEN they told us the team had stopped signing but would be walking out high giving the folks remaining in line. That was weak tea after waiting so long. We left. There was no point to me for that. "We" being my uncle and me who has stage 4 cancer. My uncle was already late for his meds and due for an appointment with his feeding tube. It was his idea to go to the signing.

I don’t get to see him all that much so it was good to catch up and chat after pending 4.5 hours in line. That part I don’t regret.

However, the facilities line estimating/time management skills of whoever was running the show; SUCK.
They could have handled that way better and decided where the end/ cap was and called it THEN and ended the line so folks didn’t waste the day in line.
Poorly managed by the facilities crew IMHO.

The line monitors probably blamed it on drunk people in line :D


hopefully you and some others who got screwed send some nasty-grams to the department. It's not like they don't have these things every year and don't know approximately how fast a line moves. They ought to be able to estimate who will or won't get in, and shut the line down.

I also do feel that they probably have some tough requirements. A reasonable organizer may say "if you get in the door it's fine," but I can understand if the players can't afford to sit there for an extra hour signing autographs simply because the planners didn't have their stuff together. That being the case, though, the organizers should have been even MORE conservative in their estimations.

Sadly, I imagine what happened is running this event was placed on some poor soul in the department who has a million other things to do, whose job is not really to run autograph signing events, and doesn't really have the time to do it right.

wilko
12-30-2018, 11:59 AM
The line monitors probably blamed it on drunk people in line :D

Everybody I saw was well behaved. Even the raucous bunch of elementary school teachers that drove down from G'boro that were behind us.
Family friendly affair.



Hopefully you and some others who got screwed send some nasty-grams to the department. It's not like they don't have these things every year and don't know approximately how fast a line moves. They ought to be able to estimate who will or won't get in, and shut the line down.

BINGO!
I'm not writing. Its not like they are gonna do anything about it to make it up to us. They have no way to know who was in line and who wasn't..
I have no intention of doing it again. If I happened to run across the team like I did the 86 team at RDU, then great. Otherwise I'll live.



I also do feel that they probably have some tough requirements. A reasonable organizer may say "if you get in the door it's fine," but I can understand if the players can't afford to sit there for an extra hour signing autographs simply because the planners didn't have their stuff together. That being the case, though, the organizers should have been even MORE conservative in their estimations.

To be clear, I don't blame the players.
The fault is clearly with the events/facilities folks. I heard that they were contracted out to temps. Not sure if that's true, but if so its an added layer of un-accountability.



Sadly, I imagine what happened is running this event was placed on some poor soul in the department who has a million other things to do, whose job is not really to run autograph signing events, and doesn't really have the time to do it right.

Quite possibly. but those issues should be transparent to the folks that show.

UrinalCake
12-30-2018, 12:39 PM
Everybody I saw was well behaved. Even the raucous bunch of elementary school teachers that drove down from G'boro that were behind us.
Family friendly affair.

LOL, I assume that uh_no was referring to last season’s UNC game debacle, where reportedly a bunch of drunken fratboys rushed the line and forced their way into the game while other renters who waited their turn were not able to get in.


Sadly, I imagine what happened is running this event was placed on some poor soul in the department who has a million other things to do, whose job is not really to run autograph signing events, and doesn't really have the time to do it right.

Coach K’s daughter manages a lot of these types of events, though I don’t know if she organized this one in particular. I’ve been to fundraisers for the children’s hospital and such that were always well run. I feel like Duke recognizes the importance of fan engagement, they run so many social media platforms and always get the players to make quotes acknowledging the fans, so I would imagine they are aware of the level of disappointment from the many fans who didn’t get in yesterday.

budwom
12-30-2018, 12:49 PM
I am fall down shocked that the athletic department could somehow bungle an event.
Cordial ineptitude is their stock in trade.

DukeFanSince1990
12-30-2018, 03:40 PM
I was there and got in after the doors were shut. There were about 20-30 people behind me. Soon after they told us the deal and my 9 year old was heart broken. But my 10 year old was pretty excited to high five Zion. They did take down my name, email and phone number. They said they were going to do something to make up for it so we will see. It was disappointing but not as much as 1999.

wilko
12-30-2018, 08:02 PM
They did take down my name, email and phone number. They said they were going to do something to make up for it so we will see. It was disappointing but not as much as 1999.

See that’s what I mean it was CF in planning.
No one bothered to tell me there was a consolation list... lame.

CameronBornAndBred
12-30-2018, 08:31 PM
See that’s what I mean it was CF in planning.
No one bothered to tell me there was a consolation list... lame.

It wouldn't hurt to email someone and explain what happened to you, and relay that you heard others such as DFS90 had their names taken. Ask to have yours included.

BeachBlueDevil
12-31-2018, 08:54 AM
I left my house a little before 9 in Norfolk, Va and picked up a friend in Zebulon and got in line at around 1230 as we were getting in line a monitor was counting folks on a clicker and we were 1038 & 1039 as we walked up. I remarked to my friend that we'd be lucky to make it. We waited til about 330 and get almost to the door (maybe 100ft back) and were told that we wouldn't be getting anything signed and wouldn't be allowed in the building but we could wait for the team to come out for high 5's. They gave us schedule cards and had us put down our contact information for a raffle of autographed memorabilia... So after a 3 hour drive and waiting 3 hours in line I was sent home with a schedule card and the hope of maybe winning something in the raffle but hanging out with other fans for the day wasn't terrible.

You could tell this event was thrown together. On top of that, the weather was beautiful and it caused more people to come out than they could ever have imagined. I hope in the future (if they do this again) it is better organized and turned more into a fanfest type deal where you can meet the players and coaches (only Nolan was with them). Heck, they could even charge $10 or so dollars (Is that against NCAA rules?) for this and the money could go to charity or something a long those lines.

budwom
12-31-2018, 09:15 AM
Standard operating procedure for Duke events. I bet you will find (should you pursue this, fruitless as that may be) that no one person had responsibility for making this work properly. And so it didn't.
It really shouldn't be that hard...roughly calculate the actual throughput of fans, then determine how many can be accommodated before the players have to leave...there is NO excuse for letting fans queue up for three hours and then sending them away.
The least they could do is tell fans as they arrive that there is too much demand so they don't waste their time.

El_Diablo
12-31-2018, 01:41 PM
It's not like they don't have these things every year and don't know approximately how fast a line moves.

I am not making any excuses for them, but is this true? I thought this was the first time they did a live meet/greet/signing event like this since the fall of 2009. I attended that one but had not seen anything like this advertised since then.

UrinalCake
12-31-2018, 02:29 PM
^ earlier this fall they did a fundraiser for hurricane relief, similar to what BeachBlueDevil was describing. For a minimum $10 donation you could go and meet some of the players and play HORSE and take pictures and stuff. And in past years they’ve made a whole day event around C2C with bounce houses for the kids that also included some players signing autographs. I don’t recall anything like this though.

wilko
12-31-2018, 03:10 PM
After urging from a couple of folks on the forum, I sent an email to someone who can maybe help.. Maybe.
I'll keep everyone posted how it works out. Id be surprised if anything comes of it - but who knows..

PensDevil
12-31-2018, 03:30 PM
Since my wife and I are both work at schools, we were off for winter break. Decided that this weekend would be a good opportunity to bring the children (6&9) to Duke for the first time.

We loaded up the ole family truckster and left Pensylvania on Thursday afternoon heading for Charlotte. Spent Friday morning and afternoon with some old friends in Charlotte and showing off the race shops to our son.

Took the kids to their first Duke game Friday night (women vs ECU). We sat front row right at the opening in press row across from the ECU bench. The little guy was especially into the cheers and was doing his best to do what the band did. Kudos to the staff that came around pre-game handing out the light-up devil horn headbands to all the kids (and some adults)! My daughter loves all sorts of novelty headbands. (She has quite the Minnie ear collection.). They are hooked and can’t wait to come back for another game and asked if they “could see the boys play too.” Amusingly, my wife got picked to be the sweetheart of the game. The two kids really got a kick out of that.

Saturday morning we showed them around campus a bit before heading over towards Cameron to get in line. Not sure if the exact time we got in line. Somewhere between 10:30 and 10:45. We were in the parking lot at the end of the soccer field before they rerouted the line through the walkway between the iron fence and the soccer field fence. Ended up in that claustrophobic corridor until they opened the doors to Cameron a bit before 1pm.

We ended up being the first group not let in during the initial wave. Stranded at the doors. All that was missing was Wally the moose saying “sorry we’re closed”. Luckily for use, they did let more in. We made it to the floor at 3:21. According to the person with the counter we were number 440-something.

My son started playing basketball this year and chose to wear #13 like his favorite player Matt Jones. He now also has a favorite current player, as he and AOC exchanged a fist bump over sharing a first name. When you’re 6 years old, that’ll do it.

FerryFor50
12-31-2018, 03:39 PM
I went. Planned on getting there at noon; got there at 1. Was number 1500 or so. As I walked by the line with my 5y/o, I knew prospects were bleak, but I stuck around until 3 before heading out. The line monitors were pretty realistic about our chances from the start, so I had no real complaints.

BeachBlueDevil
12-31-2018, 03:54 PM
I The line monitors were pretty realistic about our chances from the start, so I had no real complaints.

When we got there and were told we were 1038 & 1039 the fella followed it up with, "No guarantee you'll make it in".

Then as we got closer at 3:15 a couple of ladies in Duke polos said we had a good shot of making it as we were only about 100ft from the door. I however didnt see it happening... I was correct about 20 min later.

Garland
01-02-2019, 05:46 PM
So this is my first post here on the board. I actually did some searching to figure out how many people all together went after I got in and found this thread.

I went and did get in and did get a jersey signed. I got there at 11am. I was there almost 6 HOURS. But it was worth it.

I feel bad for the people who didn't make it in. I know I would have been crushed. I was part of the second group they let in after the initial 300 - 400 people were let in. Literally I was 20 people from the door and one of the staff told us "there was no guarantee we were getting inside."

I felt my stomach sink. I started thinking things like "if only I had got my jersey yesterday instead of today" or "if only I'd driven or walked a little faster."

But 30 mins later they let us in with the second group. I felt so much better, because we'd heard the same thing (posted on Facebook) that if you got inside the building you were good.

Everyone acted appropriate and had fun. We all got to know each other and joked around. I hit it off with the group in front of me (a guy, his daughter and I think his girlfriend). There was one guy in line wearing a CAROLINA hoodie of all things. We messed with him a lot.

"You know that if there's a fire you're the last one to be rescued, right?"

It took maybe another hour to get inside the gym to get our stuff signed. By then the players were visibly exhausted and I could only imagine how badly their hands hurt, but they were still friendly and appreciative, especially with the kids. I was especially impressed with Goldwire and Zion, who were super friendly and when thanked them both for doing the signing they both signed and said "Thanks for coming out!"

Jack White was at the end of the line and Jack is my favorite player. He first said "this is a beautiful jersey!" and then when I told him he was my favorite player he said "Yeah, I'm awesome." Lol.

Nolan Smith was also hanging around and signed my jersey as well.

So I left exhausted, but super happy.

When I walked out the front doors I saw maybe 300 more people still outside in the line. I didn't realize until reading this thread that some people who made it inside also didn't get anything signed.

A lot of people have been bashing the staff, but I found them to be professional and doing their best. That said, it could have been planned better for sure and I think around 1pm they should have had a hard cut off and said that if you weren't in line by that point you weren't getting inside.

But it is hard for me to feel too bad for people who got there at 12:00pm - 1:00pm or later and didn't get inside. I mean, showing up an hour before the doors were set to open or at the time they just isn't going to cut it. I showed up two hours before and it almost didn't

Hope those who didn't get autographs are able to get something, though.

DukeFanSince1990
01-03-2019, 03:13 PM
So just got a call from the athletic department. They are going to send me 3 tickets to next years countdown to craziness. Cant complain too much, especially if I get to see a banner raised.

Rich
01-03-2019, 04:44 PM
So just got a call from the athletic department. They are going to send me 3 tickets to next years countdown to craziness. Cant complain too much, especially if I get to see a banner raised.

One hundred lashes and a visit to The "I'm Not Going to Jinx It" Thread. C'mon man, you just don't say stuff like that!

DukeFanSince1990
01-03-2019, 04:47 PM
One hundred lashes and a visit to The "I'm Not Going to Jinx It" Thread. C'mon man, you just don't say stuff like that!

I live on the edge.