Okay, I'm feeling the need to sound off on
a couple of things
that are bugging me lately. The first is
franchise restaurants;
specifically fast-food establishments. Correct
me if I'm wrong,
but I thought the IDEA of franchising is to give
patrons the same
menu, quality(or lack thereof), and taste(see
quality) at every
restaurant whether it is in Pierre, South
Dakota or Biloxi, Mississippi.
But it has become increasingly apparent to
this reviewer that
this is NOT always the case. Let me explain
...
The incident that has led me to this
revelation is my recent
addiction to Frozen Cokes at Burger King.
These were introduced
last Summer and have become my main
reason for visiting Burger
King. In fact my habit has become so
pronounced, that now I'm
almost obliged to order them 2 at a time. But
here's the problem.
When they were FIRST introduced, you
couldn't find them in ALL
of Burger King's locations. The reason for this
was that the machinery
was expensive and therefore was not
immediately available at all
restaurants. But if this was the case then WHY
roll out the ad
campaign??? You could wait a few weeks 'til
ALL your franchisees
are up to speed! But this is a minor
annoyance - there's something
much more dastardly going on with these. And
that is lack of QUALITY!
I have had at least one Frozen Coke at
every Burger King that
I've seen since their introduction, and there
can be a VAST difference
in taste from place to place. My question -
WHY???? I mean all
you have to do is pour the syrup into the damn
machine, turn it
on, and out comes frozen sweetness, right?
Can it be THAT hard???
I know that the employees of these types of
places are not exactly
the cream of the crop when it comes to our
nation's educational
system, but this isn't Rocket Science. Just
measure, pour, and
serve. That's It! And don't try and tell
me that I'm imagining
this. I've noticed differences in color ranging
from a very light
tan (too little syrup), to a deep brown (too
much melting.) Then
there's the texture. It should be relatively
smooth, not at all
coarse. If you can feel each ice granule
against your tongue,
something is wrong. We need more stringent
quality control to
nip this problem in the bud. In fact, I'm willing
to volunteer
my services. If there's anyone from Diageo
[ed. the parent
company of Burger King] reading this,
I can be reached
from the Mail link off the Bio page ...
Okay, I've got that off my chest and I'm
feeling a bit better.
On to my next annoyance. And that is the
Arena Football League!
In case you missed it, the AFL is unable to
reach a contract agreement
with its players and has canceled the entire
2000 season. Now
I realize that Union Contract Disputes have
become commonplace
in sports, but this is once again affecting the
most maligned
sports market in the Country (Connecticut),
and more importantly
it's affecting ME!
A bit of history on the sad state of
Connecticut Sports. This
is the state that the Hartford Whalers left after
draining their
loyal fans of every bit of cash they could
muster. It's the state
that was home to the most successful
franchise in the ABL, but
was soundly ignored by the rival WNBA when
the former league folded
and we begged for a franchise. It's the state
that has been teased
and tortured by promises of relocation by the
New England Patriots
every time the state of Massachusetts doesn't
give them what they
want. And it's the state that the AFL took the
Connecticut Coyotes
away from, even though in two years they
maintained a solid attendance,
though they only won three games during
those years.
And now, it looks like we've lost another
team - The New England
Seawolves. The Wolves actually ARE the
Coyotes, after two years
of suffering in Madison Square Garden as the
New York Cityhawks.
And once again, the Wolves were drawing a
solid 7,000 average
attendance, with yours truly as a season ticket
holder. Now normally
in a dispute such as this, I can ALMOST
understand the League's
position. They are trying to make a profit and
they don't feel
the players are bargaining in good faith. And I
can understand
that the players feel that they are entitled to
make a decent
living playing football. But this situation is
DIFFERENT. This
time the owners have decided that they are
tired of dealing with
the players as individuals and what the
players to unionize. And
the players are BALKING!!!! How stupid is
this? In the meantime,
neither group understands how the people of
Connecticut are being
affected by this. We were sold out by Peter
Karmanos and then
Governor Lowell Weicker when the Whalers
left town. We were toyed
with by Pats owner Robert Krafft much like a
kitten plays with
a ball of yarn to the point that the state is now
SUING the Patriots
for lost money spent on environmental studies
and planning at
the proposed site for a new stadium. And we
were told by the WNBA
that we couldn't get an expansion franchise
because we don't have
an NBA franchise, even though we have the
most fiercely devout
fans of women's basketball in the country!
At least we still have the Huskies. But
even in the light of
the UConn Men's and Women's remarkable
success of the past decade
it's getting harder and harder to feel good
about being a Connecticut
sports fan. We just keep getting told that we're
not a good market,
without being given a chance. And as the
WNBA has shown, we can't
get a team until we HAVE a team! It's a
Catch-22 situation that
is seeing small market teams across the
country struggling to
keep their heads above water, and franchise
free-agency killing
off even the most ardent fan's love of their
favorite sport. And
it's going to get worse. Unfortunately I haven't
got an answer.
Because when I would normally be sitting in
my seats above the
time-out sign in the far end zone at the
Hartford Civic Center
enjoying the kickoff fireworks, I'll be sitting at
home wondering
if I'll ever see another Arena Football game. I
think I'll just
drown my sorrows. Anyone know where I can
get a good Frozen Coke
??
ADDENDUM: Wouldn't you know it???? I
go and get my shorts in
a bunch over this whole AFL thing to the point
that I put it on
paper, and the next day the league and the
new players bargaining
committee agree to start talking and the
season is back on! And
to top that off, the NFL has settled out of court
with the state
of Connecticut for 2.4 million dollars to
reimburse any costs
incurred during the planning for a new
stadium. One last note,
if any of our intrepid readers out there are
attending any games
this season, I should be getting the same
seats I had last season.
It's the first row of one of the Three Hundred
sections. If you're
coming in through the mall entrance it's the
first set of stairs
on your left, right across from the beer stand.
I'll be the tall,
round, balding guy in the Black jersey, howling
like a moron.
GO SEAWOLVES!!!!
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