BART'S shiny new lime green and blue vinyl seats have sparked a Twitter feud between Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers fans after the rail service on Wednesday unveiled its new "fleet of the future" in San Francisco.
Twitter was buzzing Saturday with tweets from Seahawks fans who greeted the news with a flurry of smiles, smirks and #GoHawks.
"LOL! BART's new trains have @Seahawks colored seats! #49ers fans riot.. (ie. start petition)," tweeted Seahawks fan Joshua Decker.
"Glad BART is going with the #Seahawks colors. Feel like a winner on the way to work. :)," tweeted another Seahawks fan.
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The color combination upset one 49ers fan so much that he started a Change.org petition, asking BART to "refrain from outfitting the seats in BART cars in neon green and blue, the colors of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks."
It's "a slap in the face of every San Francisco 49ers fan who rides BART," the petition said.
SFGate blogger Kale Williams also noticed the colors, noting that "the new design is based on the feedback of more than 17,000 BART riders who apparently decided that the color scheme of the Seattle Seahawks was the best we could do for the new seat cushions."
Sports columnists John Breech and Ray Ratto also chimed in:
"Apparently no one working for BART watches football because the seats in the new train cars are Seahawks colors," wrote Breech. He questioned whether this was "an accidental mistake or a conspiracy at the highest levels of BART."
BART spokesperson Jim Allison said BART has been using the color blue before the Seattle Seahawks even joined the NFL.
As for the new seats, "while both brands use a combination of blue and green, the primary Seahawks color is a dark navy, whereas the BART train cars use a traditional BART blue," Allison said.
CSN Bay Area's Ratto asked whether the rage was misguided.
"Hey, if you’re going to be a fan, you can’t just stop at seat colors because your principles only extend so far. Demand your full panoply of rights as the desperately deluded internet-savvy maniac you are," Ratto wrote. "For instance, ride BART, but refuse to sit, even if you’re the only one in the car. Your buttocks demand ethical purity."
The story was all over Seattle on Friday and Saturday, with The Seattle Times commenting that the rivalry between the two teams was "starting to become almost college-like."
Hahaha! The Bay Area BART train is now sporting blue 'n' green seats. #GoHawks pic.twitter.com/DFBGolZcxU — ReppinThe12 (@ReppinThe12) April 19, 2014
LOL! BART's new trains have @Seahawks colored seats! #49ers fans riot.. (ie. start petition). http://t.co/GLhnpxLdyl pic.twitter.com/ldJceoySct" — Joshua Decker (@jdbt) April 19, 2014
Saturday links: 49ers’ fans not loving color of new BART seats http://t.co/72ukbQabAM — Seahawk News Now (@SeahawkNewsNow) April 19, 2014
