The Real Reason Why the Colts' Fans were Booing Andrew Luck

[LOVEMESOMEBILLS]

14 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Wow the owner told his QB not to quit but to wait a little longer before he made such a decision?  That's...wild!

 

How many season tickets do you think this "sexy SB pick" (really, who truly thought this team would beat out NE and KC?  LOL) sold since, say July?  He hasn't practiced all summer--everyone knew something was up.  He was at 3 practices all summer!  Given his injury history and the fact that the team could not give any info on his return, you would have to be a complete moron to be jumping into the Colts season ticket market----in August.  A TOTAL idiot.

 

So this "Conspiracy" of paying Luck--the man who was already falling apart--to keep his retirement a "secret" for another month or so for very late season ticket sales.....is just kind of dumb.

There's some saying that Luck may have let the team know as early as March that he was going to retire, but there were people inside the organization asking him to give it one more season before he decided to retire or not. This may or may not be true, but I've heard it multiple times, PFT was one of them.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Let him keep the money. It is a sunk cost in economic terms.  

It keeps good will with the player in the hope he changes his mind in 8 weeks or next off-season.

[cba fan]

9 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Let him keep the money. It is a sunk cost in economic terms.  

It keeps good will with the player in the hope he changes his mind in 8 weeks or next off-season.

It is not a sunk cost. 

 

Teams get credit back to their salary cap when any player has to pay back a sign bonus or loses salary due to suspension.

Edited August 29, 2019 by cba fan

[BringBackFergy]

15 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Let him keep the money. It is a sunk cost in economic terms.  

It keeps good will with the player in the hope he changes his mind in 8 weeks or next off-season.

This isn’t buying Luck’s jersey for $90, giving him $100 and saying “keep the change”. It’s $21 million freaking dollars. A/k/a Hush Money. 

[Thurman#1]

5 hours ago, BringBackFergy said:

I'm a little sick of all the talking heads and current / ex-football players saying the Colts' fans were wrong to "Boo" Andrew Luck.

 

Sure the guy has been thrown around like a rag doll for the last 6 years, but you have to dig deeper into one issue that has been talked about very little: MONEY

 

First, we can all agree that Jim Irsay is of questionable integrity. Had a few run-ins with the law, TANKED the year to get Luck, and is overall somewhat slimy.

 

If Luck was having this pain for the last few years and recently had problems with his calf muscle and ankle, why did it become a "career ending" problem just two weeks before the start of the season. MONEY

 

Second, take a look at what Luck said on his interview. Paraphrasing here but he said he's had discussions with Chris Ballard over the summer about his pain, physical condition, etc.  Why do you think he held off on making this announcement until two weeks before the season? MONEY

 

Third, when Irsay found out about Luck's condition and discussions with Ballard, I'll bet Irsay brought Luck into his office and said "Can you hold off for another month or two? Let's wait and see? I'll make it worth your while."  Meanwhile, the Colts were able to renew season tickets and generate revenue based on the assumption (by those same Booing fans) that Luck was all set to play this year.

 

Fourth, fast forward to the day after his retirement when we hear in passing that Irsay will not seek repayment of the $21 million bonus!!! What??

 

Something stinks in this whole thing.  Irsay, the delays in announcing retirement, and the "Go ahead and keep $21 million". I don't feel bad for Luck at all. Ironworkers, roofers, police officers, etc. all suffer through pain and discomfort and very rarely get a $21 million dollar golden parachute on retirement.  The dirt will come out soon enough...and the Fans will really start to Boo.

 

 

Nah.

 

Fans were jerks, he was injured. It ain't rocket science, or even single digit addition.

 

And it's very rare to seek the money back. The Bills didn't seek repayment from freaking Vontae Davis.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Thurman#1

[Mr. WEO]

38 minutes ago, LOVEMESOMEBILLS said:

There's some saying that Luck may have let the team know as early as March that he was going to retire, but there were people inside the organization asking him to give it one more season before he decided to retire or not. This may or may not be true, but I've heard it multiple times, PFT was one of them.

 

If true, well....of course they were!  Why wouldn't they??  What FO would NOT try to talk him out of it, even for another season?  

 

So what?

 

What the theorists are saying is that he was paid off to delay the announcement for a month or two, as though, after going 10-6 and Luck having a great season, some potential season ticket buyers would......wait until training camp to pull the trigger on those tickets.  And don't they have a waiting list?

 

That's as silly as it sounds.

[NoSaint]

5 hours ago, BringBackFergy said:

I'm a little sick of all the talking heads and current / ex-football players saying the Colts' fans were wrong to "Boo" Andrew Luck.

 

Sure the guy has been thrown around like a rag doll for the last 6 years, but you have to dig deeper into one issue that has been talked about very little: MONEY

 

First, we can all agree that Jim Irsay is of questionable integrity. Had a few run-ins with the law, TANKED the year to get Luck, and is overall somewhat slimy.

 

If Luck was having this pain for the last few years and recently had problems with his calf muscle and ankle, why did it become a "career ending" problem just two weeks before the start of the season. MONEY

 

Second, take a look at what Luck said on his interview. Paraphrasing here but he said he's had discussions with Chris Ballard over the summer about his pain, physical condition, etc.  Why do you think he held off on making this announcement until two weeks before the season? MONEY

 

Third, when Irsay found out about Luck's condition and discussions with Ballard, I'll bet Irsay brought Luck into his office and said "Can you hold off for another month or two? Let's wait and see? I'll make it worth your while."  Meanwhile, the Colts were able to renew season tickets and generate revenue based on the assumption (by those same Booing fans) that Luck was all set to play this year.

 

Fourth, fast forward to the day after his retirement when we hear in passing that Irsay will not seek repayment of the $21 million bonus!!! What??

 

Something stinks in this whole thing.  Irsay, the delays in announcing retirement, and the "Go ahead and keep $21 million". I don't feel bad for Luck at all. Ironworkers, roofers, police officers, etc. all suffer through pain and discomfort and very rarely get a $21 million dollar golden parachute on retirement.  The dirt will come out soon enough...and the Fans will really start to Boo.

 

Colts season ticket holders really have had a roller coaster of emotions (and value) the last 10 years.

[BuffaloBob]

I'm sorry but this conspiracy theory makes no sense given the numbers. 

 

While I don't have the specifics of the Colts ticket revenue values for season tickets they sold in 2019, their total gross receipts in 2017 were $59 million (the year he missed the entire season), and the average total gate receipts for the 2010 - 2017 seasons was about $57.3 million.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/320644/nfl-indianapolis-colts-revenue-from-ticket-sales/  

 

So ticket revenues have been virtually flat for the past 8 seasons.  So first off, there is no indication that somehow those gross receipts would have drastically fallen had Luck retired in the Spring vs when he did.  If Josh had blown out a knee late in training camp (now frantically knocking on wood for even typing that!), I would not have wanted my money back for my seasons.  And in those 8 years, one was before Luck was drafted, in one he played only 7 games, and in one he did not play at all. There was virtually no difference in revenue for those years versus the other 5.

 

Second, they are required to contibute one third of those revenues to the revenue shared pool (Roughly $20 Million).  Any loss in revenue that might have occurred would have been greatly mitigated by the fact that the reduced receipts for that 1/3 would have been averaged in with the other 32 teams.  In fact, some of the lost revenue may have been offset depending upon the value of the pool.

 

The Colts were entitled to recover nearly $25 million from Luck.  So even if they had lost 1/2 of their revenue or $30 million (which I highly doubt!), worst case it would have been close to a wash had they just recovered the bonus from Luck.

 

So I guess this theory requires us to believe that essentially, the Colts owner decided to take in the money from the supposed 50% of season ticket holders that would never have purchased had they known Luck was retiring, and then give it to Luck?  What sense does that make?  Or how about that Luck and Irsay worked out a deal where they postponed his retirement announcement to take in an extra $30 million in season ticket revenue, and then he would let Luck keep the bonues money of $25 million so that Luck could kick back half to Irsay so they both ended up with $15 million each of the defrauded season ticket holders money???

 

Sorry.  Not buying it. While there may have been a dip in season ticket sales, it is highly doubtful that it would have execeeded what they could have recovered from Luck.  It would have made far more sense to announce it right away (assuming they had known of it since the spring), and just recovered from Luck what was necessary to offset the loss.  They could always give it back to him next year, if he decided to come back.

 

Occam's Razor says that the simplest explanation is the most probable one.  Given the numbers, I'll go with that.  Luck tried to come back and once again, the cycle of pain and injury was extended far longer than anyone expected, and he'd just had enough.  So he decided to do it now, so that the team at least had a few weeks to get used to the idea that he wouldn't be back.  No reason to defraud unsuspecting Colts fans of their hard earned money. ?

[Augie]

29 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Nah.

 

Fans were jerks, he was injured. It ain't rocket science, or even single digit addition.

 

And it's very rare to seek the money back. The Bills didn't seek repayment from freaking Vontae Davis.

 

That could be why Vontae handled it in such a bizarre way. By quitting at halftime, they’d have had to do fractions. If you hate math, you avoid fractions, as I do. 

[machine gun kelly]

Luck in his first 6 years ranks up there with Marino and other greats in their first years starting as a QB.  There is nothing felonious about this decision.  The man was hurt so much, he said enough is enough, and yes the fans, not all, but those who booed should be ashamed.

 

They didn’t tank all year fir Luck.  Maybe the last game or two when all hope was gone.  In addition, he may have been able to keep part of his bonus, but would have made significantly more $, if he just went on IR, and the team would have put him there with the hope he would come back.

 

[Doc]

I don't have a problem with retiring for the reasons he stated.  But the timing was inexcusable. 

[Captain Hindsight]

15 hours ago, JoPar_v2 said:

 

If memory serves, there was talk of them tanking that year when Manning was hurt and Luck was looming in the draft, for the simple reason that they stuck with Curtis Painter (remember him!) instead of trying to find and sign a better option, because Painter was god awful. Like, Peterman-level awful. That’s where the narrative comes from.

They signed Kerry Collins in TC. Also brought in Dan Orvlosky towards the end of the year. 

 

Painter was bad, but he averaged 191 yards a game and had only 9ints in 8 starts. Peterman would get comeback player of the year with those numbers

[MILFHUNTER#518]

16 hours ago, BringBackFergy said:

I'm a little sick of all the talking heads and current / ex-football players saying the Colts' fans were wrong to "Boo" Andrew Luck.

 

Sure the guy has been thrown around like a rag doll for the last 6 years, but you have to dig deeper into one issue that has been talked about very little: MONEY

 

First, we can all agree that Jim Irsay is of questionable integrity. Had a few run-ins with the law, TANKED the year to get Luck, and is overall somewhat slimy.

 

If Luck was having this pain for the last few years and recently had problems with his calf muscle and ankle, why did it become a "career ending" problem just two weeks before the start of the season. MONEY

 

Second, take a look at what Luck said on his interview. Paraphrasing here but he said he's had discussions with Chris Ballard over the summer about his pain, physical condition, etc.  Why do you think he held off on making this announcement until two weeks before the season? MONEY

 

Third, when Irsay found out about Luck's condition and discussions with Ballard, I'll bet Irsay brought Luck into his office and said "Can you hold off for another month or two? Let's wait and see? I'll make it worth your while."  Meanwhile, the Colts were able to renew season tickets and generate revenue based on the assumption (by those same Booing fans) that Luck was all set to play this year.

 

Fourth, fast forward to the day after his retirement when we hear in passing that Irsay will not seek repayment of the $21 million bonus!!! What??

 

Something stinks in this whole thing.  Irsay, the delays in announcing retirement, and the "Go ahead and keep $21 million". I don't feel bad for Luck at all. Ironworkers, roofers, police officers, etc. all suffer through pain and discomfort and very rarely get a $21 million dollar golden parachute on retirement.  The dirt will come out soon enough...and the Fans will really start to Boo.

Actually, it does make sense. Good take!?

[JerseyBills]

Sorry if repeated. 

The real reason is the fans were acting off emotion. They were shocked that their franchise player retires . There was no info out as to why. 

It was the timing of the news that caused that reaction

[Captain Hindsight]

14 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

 

 

I have to agree if I was a season ticket holder I would definitely be upset also. Just the timing of this does kinda seem like a slap in the face of the ticket holders. A lot of money is spend on those tics and to have this happen now right before the season, I can certainly understand their frustration.

But how is it any different than Teddy Bridgewater blowing out his knee in TC? Or Brady getting hurt week one? Players get hurt, they dont meet expectations, but that doesnt mean your tickets are now null and void. You paid for the realty TV show that is 100% realty. Things will not always go to the FANs expectation and and thats just too damn bad for the fan.

 

Bills started 5-2, finished 7-9. Never once did i consider calling my ticket rep to demand a refund. I pad for reality and I got it

[Patrick Duffy]

49 minutes ago, Captain Hindsight said:

But how is it any different than Teddy Bridgewater blowing out his knee in TC? Or Brady getting hurt week one? Players get hurt, they dont meet expectations, but that doesnt mean your tickets are now null and void. You paid for the realty TV show that is 100% realty. Things will not always go to the FANs expectation and and thats just too damn bad for the fan.

 

Bills started 5-2, finished 7-9. Never once did i consider calling my ticket rep to demand a refund. I pad for reality and I got it

 

I guess it's maybe the fans had high hopes with Luck (assuming the colts fans thought he was starting) playing this season and he decides to wait til 2 weeks before the season started. I mean Bridgewater got hurt practicing if I remember right and you could kind of expect him to miss out after that maybe.

 

The fans were under the assumption that Luck was playing the season and they finally thought they could possibly go deep into the playoffs, then the rug was pulled from underneath so suddenly with the timing of it.

 

I think maybe it's the timing more than anything else. In any event they will get over it eventually.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Patrick_Duffy

[wagon127]

I've heard too many people suggest Fantasy Football had something to do with it. I love fantasy football, I'm in 3 leagues, but I would never boo a player for anything to do with that. Also, Luck is easily replaceable in most leagues.

[Mr. WEO]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

I don't have a problem with retiring for the reasons he stated.  But the timing was inexcusable. 

 

Why?

[Mr. WEO]

11 hours ago, BuffaloBob said:

I'm sorry but this conspiracy theory makes no sense given the numbers. 

 

While I don't have the specifics of the Colts ticket revenue values for season tickets they sold in 2019, their total gross receipts in 2017 were $59 million (the year he missed the entire season), and the average total gate receipts for the 2010 - 2017 seasons was about $57.3 million.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/320644/nfl-indianapolis-colts-revenue-from-ticket-sales/  

 

So ticket revenues have been virtually flat for the past 8 seasons.  So first off, there is no indication that somehow those gross receipts would have drastically fallen had Luck retired in the Spring vs when he did.  If Josh had blown out a knee late in training camp (now frantically knocking on wood for even typing that!), I would not have wanted my money back for my seasons.  And in those 8 years, one was before Luck was drafted, in one he played only 7 games, and in one he did not play at all. There was virtually no difference in revenue for those years versus the other 5.

 

Second, they are required to contibute one third of those revenues to the revenue shared pool (Roughly $20 Million).  Any loss in revenue that might have occurred would have been greatly mitigated by the fact that the reduced receipts for that 1/3 would have been averaged in with the other 32 teams.  In fact, some of the lost revenue may have been offset depending upon the value of the pool.

 

The Colts were entitled to recover nearly $25 million from Luck.  So even if they had lost 1/2 of their revenue or $30 million (which I highly doubt!), worst case it would have been close to a wash had they just recovered the bonus from Luck.

 

So I guess this theory requires us to believe that essentially, the Colts owner decided to take in the money from the supposed 50% of season ticket holders that would never have purchased had they known Luck was retiring, and then give it to Luck?  What sense does that make?  Or how about that Luck and Irsay worked out a deal where they postponed his retirement announcement to take in an extra $30 million in season ticket revenue, and then he would let Luck keep the bonues money of $25 million so that Luck could kick back half to Irsay so they both ended up with $15 million each of the defrauded season ticket holders money???

 

Sorry.  Not buying it. While there may have been a dip in season ticket sales, it is highly doubtful that it would have execeeded what they could have recovered from Luck.  It would have made far more sense to announce it right away (assuming they had known of it since the spring), and just recovered from Luck what was necessary to offset the loss.  They could always give it back to him next year, if he decided to come back.

 

Occam's Razor says that the simplest explanation is the most probable one.  Given the numbers, I'll go with that.  Luck tried to come back and once again, the cycle of pain and injury was extended far longer than anyone expected, and he'd just had enough.  So he decided to do it now, so that the team at least had a few weeks to get used to the idea that he wouldn't be back.  No reason to defraud unsuspecting Colts fans of their hard earned money. ?

 

Good points.

 

But this conspiracy theory is even dumber than what you describe in the bolded sentence:  they are saying that there is a group of season ticket buyers who decided NOT to jump in after Luck's great 2018 season and Colts immediate resurgence--but instead decided to wait until summer to buy......and then, despite Luck being essentially absent from camp and the Colts FO giving bizarre and uninformed descriptions of what was wrong with Luck.....these people THEN DECIDED TO BUY SEASON TICKETS!!   They were tricked!!

 

LOL.

 

Let's assume there are say, 1000 such morons in Indy (silly high number, but this is Indy):  Even at the high tier of $4000 a season, that's $4 million(before, as you point out, revenue sharing) extra in Irsay's pocket---for which he paid $21 million to Luck for.

 

It is to laugh....

[DrDawkinstein]

It was a raw, gut reaction in the heat of the moment to the worst possible way to "announce" (read:leak) the retirement.

 

I don't excuse the fans for their behavior, but I understand it.

 

It was still a ***** move on the fans part, and one I'm sure they'll regret and want to forget in the long run.