Lesson Learned: The Value of Listening More Than You Speak

May 19, 2013 by

One of the credos, at least in the business world, that I try to implement all the time was first told to me by my grandfather, Joe Sgro. Joe was an accountant by trade, educated at Boy’s High and St. John’s University and by many accounts the unofficial Mayor of South Brooklyn when I was young. He did lots of favors for people and was a pillar of the community. Especially in the political world of the Borough. He was a key member of the South Brooklyn Democratic Club, and I have vivid memories after 12:15 mass on Sundays where many of the people looking for influence in business or politics would stop by for a few minutes. He didn’t speak a lot, but he listened, and results often came. One of the key things he mentioned to me on several occasions as those around him were yelling and screaming for attention was “You have to ears and one mouth, so listen twice more than you speak.”

This past week there were two examples of leaders and innovators who I came across that were great examples of what can happen when you listen more to those around you. The first was in a New York Times story on baseball owner/promoter/innovator Mike Veeck. Veeck, in addition to coming from a healthy bloodline of baseball businessmen/promoters and innovators (one that is continuing on with his son “Night Train,” now working for the White Sox) is a great listener and thinker, one who gets a great deal of ideas, files them away and then strategically finds the right place to unveil them. The latest happened a few weeks ago with his American Association team, the St. Paul Saints, which held a baseball game without umpires.   There was a ceremonial judge behind the mound, fans chimed in on close calls, and a great deal of fun, sponsorable fun was had, with the independent league team. The game was similar to something his dad, the late Bill Veeck, had done, with some on field decisions decided by fans when he owned the St. Louis Browns, and it was certainly something Veeck could not have done with one of his affiliated clubs like the Charleston Riverdogs, but it made for a buzzworthy and thought provoking game, a throwback to what the roots of baseball as a game are supposed to be.

So why is listening so important? Because in addition to being a smart businessman, Veeck is also a teacher. He teaches sports marketing at The Citadel, and the idea for the umpireless game came from one of his students, a place where he gets a great deal of his inspiration. The young teach the teachers, because he took the time to listen.

The second example occurred last Thursday in a windowless conference room in Atlanta. I was invited to come down and talk to some legendary figures in the sports business about a potential opportunity, and to hear their concerns and thoughts about the forward-looking project. The room was filled with some of the greatest names in sports, all talking over each other and swapping stories. However as business plans were rolled out, one venerable leader sat quietly taking copious notes and asking questions about the details of the idea. His name is Johnny Majors, the Hall of Fame football coach from The University of Tennessee. Majors sat and listened and used a note pad for page after page of notes. He could have told more stories than anyone in the room, but instead he came to learn from those much younger than he about the business world of today. The teacher learns from the student.

Listen twice more than you speak.

In a world today that is all about shouting down  your opponents and proclaiming oneself to be the guru, the innovator, and the biggest and the brightest, it is great to have been able to see and read within 24 hours, two examples of leadership that involved listening and then executing, as opposed to running off to try and be first without thought.  Both of these men have accomplished more in a lifetime than almost anyone in their chosen field, yet they are still listening, and learning from those around them.

My grandpa would have been proud of Mr. Veeck and Coach Majors, as I’m sure so many thousands of people they have influenced in the past and in the future are and will be as well.  It’s the little things that you hear when you listen that can sometimes make the biggest difference, and in a world where self-proclamation is king, taking the time to listen to others is an art which needs to be embraced more than ever.

Filed Under: Ambush Marketing, CBS, College Football, ESPN, Minor League Hockey, New York Times Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Brewers Promo Scores…

May 16, 2013 by

Sometimes it’s the smallest markets that are the most innovative, and in baseball the Milwaukee Brewers certainly fall into the category of smaller markets, bigger ideas for fans.  For several years the club has created a cult following by creating scavenger hunts in the spring around the city for little gnomes looking like their beloved mascot Bernie Brewer. Fans would scatter out to find each hidden collectable, with a special prize connected to the beloved trinkets. Many times, within minutes, the trophies would even go viral and find their way on to eBay, helping create a pretty unique secondary market for the Brewers brand regardless of how they were faring on the field. The promotion drew lots of buzz and gave fans a special extra as baseball came into focus in Wisconsin.

This past week the Brew Crew continued the tradition with a little tasty expansion. The club placed thousands of sausage ornaments across the area around Miller Park,  as part of their innovative “Spring Madness” promotion.  Fans were tipped to the promo when earlier in the week, their famous polish sausage was missing from their nighty and popular race around the infield during the game. The result was a hunt that spread virally to help find the sausage somewhere in Miller Park. The popular activity had people lined up on a weekday at 5 am, all with the hopes of grabbing an ornament even before heading to work. Thousands disappeared in a few hours, and the secondary marketplace for the unique and limited collectables again heated up.

The promotion didn’t have lots of flash and a big marketing spend behind it. It took place at a time of year where the other professional teams, and the regions colleges, are in a lull. And it also hit just when the weather was starting to warm up and fans of sport are starting to think more about baseball.  Would it work in a major market? The numbers may get out of control to manage for people looking for something free.  Maybe also major market teams would not see the value in the giveaway like their smaller market cousins. However the Brewers understand their fan base and what motivates them to turn out on a spring morning and show their loyalty to their hometown team, albeit for some freebees. Those freebees can turn into sales down the line, and the collectable hanging around the house is a nice reminder for casual fans on who has been there for them when they have some disposable income to push out during the summer. Scavenger hunts,  even in a high tech would, always seem to have added value despite the logistical concerns, and they tie greatly to the traditions of baseball, which for all of its advances is still an activity steeped in tradition. Maybe Silicon Valley millennials would thumb their ipads at a trek for some trinkets, but in Milwaukee, the promo seems to work just fine.

Filed Under: Gaming, Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, MLB Tagged With: , , ,

Best Practices: Pole sitting, Chiefs score for fans, Rutgers scores for Sandy

April 28, 2013 by

Time for a little best practices roundup from the past few days…from Arizona to New Jersey…

Stunts Gone Wrong Still Pay Off: There is the adage that any publicity is good publicity, so the Arizona Sundogs of the Central Hockey League should take note. The minor league team sent its captain and three members of the front office staff aloft on a scissor lift with a vow not to come down until they sold 300 season tickets. Trouble is season subs for hockey are hard to find in the desert, and five days layer they hadn’t hit their goal.

With a small ad budget the hope was that the stunt would go viral and drive sales, and after a slow start they came close without ever coming down. While the team didn’t hit their number they did get the exposure they were looking for, with Fox Sports and Deadspin, grabbing the story, which made for a PR coups for the Phoenix Coyotes affiliate. Viral as many have learned doesn’t equate into dollars right away usually, but it put their brand forward and may lead to more creativity and a bigger payoff down the line. Maybe they won’t get full season subs, bit the creativity led to casual exposure and maybe an additional sponsor or two, as well as individual game sales as well. Bottom line, while some may deem the promo a failure, it was un reality a great success on many levels…with over 200 season subs during a week when the team would have been an afterthought, as well as some great viral and local press, play on Sundogs, great example of spinning a negative into a plus.

 Chiefs Go To The Fans: One of the positives if having the first pick in the NFL Draft is the ability to plan outreach a little better than those picking behind you. You also are usually the worst team in the league from the year before, so there is a lot of work to be done with casual fans and brand restoration. The Kansas City Chiefs found another way to go one step farther in grabbing some props with fans and also getting some additional national exposure.

Moments after the team selected offensive lineman Eric Fisher as the top puck in the draft they made him available first…to their fans instead of the local media. Ten season-ticket holders entered a makeshift studio at the team’s training complex to ask Fisher questions via a Google Plus Hangout, one of several platforms the property had created with the NFL and the NFLPA this past week…

The fans from as far away as Wisconsin and Iowa, lined up, slipped on headsets, stared into a laptop and found Fisher staring one on one with them.  The questions ranged from his interest in the city to his knowledge of Chiefs history. Not hard hitting journalism but a nice perk for those who may need a little more ROI and TLC from the downtrodden team.

 Maybe a few years ago this type of access to fans first would have been pooh pooed by the local media on deadline. Now it was accepted. It took less than 10 minutes, didn’t slow down the access to media by a great amount of time, was not done behind closed doors and was a feel good for all. Media got all the access needed after the brief interlude, which other years could have been done in a back room at Radio City Music Hall before Fisher entered a spot to do his first presser, so it was all transparent, and it sent the message that the team is liking to perk their fans, and that they understand the need for more access.

 Little damage, good upside and another innovation dropped into play through technology. A winning move by a team that needs more wins on the field and off.

 Rutgers Wins For Sandy:  The past winter has not been overly kind to Rutgers athletes on a national scale. However on Saturday the football team scored some much needed points with its community, wearing jerseys with the names of all the towns affected by Super Storm Sandy on player’s uniforms for their annual spring game. The team also dropped a “B” on their helmets for the tragedy in Boston, and carried out a series of recognition programs to raise money and awareness for the victims in their state still struggling to recover from the devastating storm. New Jersey seems to be all about recovery from tragedy of all kinds this spring, and the Scarlet Knights, in a time where it seems college athletic uniforms are all about bold and silly fashion statements, took the time to make a statement of their own for the people of their state. Good messaging and effective promotion, a nice legacy statement crated by former Athletic Director Tim Pernetti.

Filed Under: College Football, Fox, Minor League Hockey, NCAA, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

In 140 Characters or 120 Minutes…The Communicators Who Communicate

April 1, 2013 by

One of the opportunities and also one of the issues with social media is that the stream and the quest for information and access is never ending. The pipeline if you choose to use it, never really shuts off. So into that vacuum of information, especially for the consumer, comes the communications head in sport of teams, leagues, governing bodies, and broadcast entities.  Like every new medium, some choose to embrace, some run and hide and others take a wait and see approach. Sport, on the team level at least, is a business of ritual which can sometimes be endless, and for some teams with long rituals and full press areas, those rituals are sometimes hard, if not impossible to change, even if there is benefit.

Some teams see the social media space as a way to reinforce the company line and that’s about it. Buy tickets here, here is tonight’s promotion, here are some facts about our players…much of it is not new or innovative, but it is effective to use social media to make sure that followers have some information, especially about the bottom line for the team. Often times these feeds are not personalized, they are generic, and can be generated as much by an intern as they would be by a senior staff member. They provide a service, but don’t really give the consumer much more insight or added value than they would get in other places. It’s access, but not access that enhances the experience or sheds light into what is going on with the team, or the athlete they passionately follow.

As a communications tool to the masses, for those teams that choose that path it works for them.

The tragedy of taking that path is that many times those communicators on the staff are great storytellers who often times can provide a very unique glimpse through their daily interactions. Little slice of life anecdotes which followers of the team, media, business partners, would find interesting. Because these men and women spend so much time inside the business of sport, and they are usually skilled communicators, they have both a different take on things and see the business from a side that is pretty unique. Can they mix in the obligatory shill for a giveaway day? Sure. Would they take shots at the team or officials in lean times, probably not.  However using social media as a fun way to peer inside the glass tower is a way for those who do the communication to better communicate even humanize the team or the entity that they represent in sport.

Who does the mix well? Some, like Josh Rawitch at the Arizona  Diamondbacks or Ron Colangelo at the Detroit Tigers  or Jim Saccomano at the Denver Broncos, or Charles Bloom who was at the SEC for a long time and is now at the University of South Carolina, or Mike Kelly who went from the ACC to the BCS,  do a great job of mixing in information and anecdotes from a long career. One of the first, and best, adopters of social media is New York Giants longtime communications head Pat Hanlon, who not only gives some solid insight into team goings-on but is not afraid to mix it up with fans and the media, usually in a good natured way. Most recently, the New York Mets longtime PR leader Jay Horwitz became a media story himself when he took to twitter like a fish to water, and provided amazing insight every day from a life dedicated to the orange and blue, telling tales of players past and present, mixed in with a lighthearted look at himself, in 140 character bursts. It is a fun and very unique peer into the inner workings of sport at its highest level. It is genuine, fun and very sincere.

Now that type of look, or the work that Hanlon and others do is not sanctioned by every organization. The Brooklyn Nets for example, recently cut off their lighthearted “Nets PR” twitter feed, which was providing some fun, some silly little slices of life inside the team.  While no real reason was given, the feeling is similar to what other teams, colleges and leagues feel…social media should be a marketing tool to push product, not to entertain fans. It’s may not be the right approach for some, but it is the choice of the organization. Sure, sometimes the rat-tat of social can also burn those who get caught up. Several teams and colleges have had to recant statements when front office execs, even some in communications, have fired off shots at media members or fans too hastily. However all that can be avoided if you think before you hit send…the same advice, most communications executives give to their players and coaches.

So no it’s not for everyone…however for those who use the medium well, communicating with the top communicators can be fun and effective, and a strong tool to engage fans and even grow brand and media following. The folks who do it well don’t shill, they are good story tellers and communicators, with a gift to spin a tale efficiently and make the game and those who play very human.

They make social media fun and interesting to their followers with their genuine approach learned from a lifetime of being on the inside. After all, sport is big business, but it is supposed to be fun, and communicating that fun is what brings fans, brands, and even media, engaged and interested, in good times and bad.

Filed Under: College Baseball, College Basketball, College Football, Minor League Hockey, MLB, MLS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Majoring In The Minors, Hockey Style

March 19, 2013 by

Anyone who has ever been around minor league hockey knows that the challenge to fill seats can be even more daunting than for the toughest minor league baseball teams. Baseball is all about sun and fun and a family experience in the outdoors..an inexpensive rite of summer. Hockey is indoors, in the winter many times in markets where the sport was imported and has not been a part of the culture for a long period of time.

For sure there are exceptions…Kalamazoo, Hershey, Syracuse…but for the most part minor league hockey is more about the action and the moment than about the passed on storied traditions of its summer cousin. That probably means that minor league hockey promoter probably have to be a little more edgy and a little more adult focused to grab the attention of a crowded winter calendar for the casual fan. The good thing is that most teams, even more than baseball, are really adept at social and digital media, and usually control their own rights and content (most of minor league baseball’s rights are now controlled by MLB.com).  So there are less impediments to taking to the digital space for sometimes racy and often times  creative spur of the moment instances. From fights to people with a few too many to drink in the stands, minor league hockey is more about the edge to put butts in seats than it is about the wholesome. Even with all that in mind, the minors does deliver its share of the creative, here are a few recent ones.

Crunching The Billboards: The Syracuse Crunch of the AHL are always one of the more original clubs in finding ways to draw attention. In the fall, they ran some suggestive billboards with the attractive Carol Grow, replete with call in number. The promotion drew some fire from groups, but it got the team ink. How did they top it? In January, they took the same concept, and dropped veteran bearded winger   Eric Neilson into the “call for a good time” ad. The team got a double bounce on the exposure, showed they were more than willing to have some fun at their own expense, and also showed they were being responsive to the community….the idea of the male player on the board actually came from a female fan.  Smart all around move for a Central New York team that knows its market.

What Happens In Vegas:  The ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers are another franchise who knows its clients, especially in Sin City. While they don’t really cater to the tourists in the casino’s, they do know what will catch the attention of a veteran Nevadan. So what did they do?  They staged “Over 18 Night,” where the players went  “topless.” Well not really.

The team actually came up with a jersey design which had the guys done uniforms come complete with drawn on abs and nipples.  The night was replete with risqué promotions, and the jerseys went for charity on the clubs site after the game.  Bo blood, no nakedness, but lots of fun for the fans for a night off the strip.

The Condors Fly With Exposure:  Another club that always seems to find its way into the headlines for its promotions is the Bakersfield Condors are another ECHL club looking for an edge. They promote themselves as number one in family entertainment and tout the large amount of money they have raised for charity, but they are always known for some fun promotions like their Charlie Sheen Night a few seasons ago.

This year the team had their mascot come ice side, along with a real condor and its handler, for a little fun fly by to promote the values of the rare bird and the team. However the bird’s handler slipped on the ice, and said Condor got loose, flying round the arena and setting off a viral video stream that went global. The team found a way to get the video out as well, especially when there were no injuries as a result of the incident, but they did get an added publicity boost…from PETA.

Being good Californians, PETA saw the video, and immediately went to the aid of the distressed bird and its handler, even issuing a statement about the incident far and wide to an even bigger audience than those who saw the viral video or had ever heard of the Bakersfield Condors.  PETA asked the team to ban live animals from its games and basically stick with the mascot…which of course can give the team a whole new set of promotions in the future. Sometimes the best exposure come from the spur of the moment, and the Condors found a way to make some chicken salad out of a challenging situation.

So while the three promos may not fit in minor league baseball, at least with affiliated clubs, they did raise the attention and the interest during  long hockey winter for a trio of promoters that understand their markets and how to attract visibility, and the casual fan.

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Grabbing The Quietest Weekend In Sports…

February 9, 2013 by

A blizzard blanketed the Northeastern United States (kudos to The Weather Channel folks by the way, who took a lot of heat from The National Weather Service when they started naming winter storms like hurricanes but struck gold with Nemo!) this weekend, leaving millions with nothing to do but dig out and turn on the TV and fire up the computer. With the Super Bowl buzz a distant memory, and the NBA All-Star game a week away, there is a surprising gaping hole in the sports calendar this weekend that teams and brands may look to exploit in future years. The NHL for example, would have had its All-Star weekend the week before the Super Bowl (in Columbus, Ohio, helping a franchise…the Blue Jackets... that may be the least known of any team amongst the five major North American sports leagues), but that weekend still had the rise to Super Bowl and even the Pro Bowl. This weekend? Other than regular season NBA and NHL and college hoops? Nothing. USA Hockey has made NEXT weekend Hockey Weekend Across America, but it butts against the NBA All-Star Weekend…why not this weekend?

Now next year will be a bit different, as we will slide into the first weekend of the Sochi Olympics. But even the Winter Olympics will be six hours away from the States,  and usually the first few days do not bring the major events. Can the NHL take advantage and drop some elite early round pool matchups into those days, and in turn make the weekend in the States all about brand hockey? Peewee, minor league and college? Would be a great play. Could NASCAR  move Daytona back into the quiet week? How about a sport like lacrosse, with its indoor pro game, finding a place in the crowded schedule? Gold is tied to warm weather, tennis is indoors in Europe, but how about Davis Cup, which somehow decided to play a US-Brazil tie LAST WEEKEND in Jacksonville, Florida. Going up against the Super Bowl, even for a sport that says it is more global and doesn’t concern itself with local events, did not help the USTA or the sport, and a very exciting 3-2 result was lost amidst commercials for Super Bowl and mega pre game shows.

How about amateur and fitness sports? This past Wednesday was National Girls and  Women in Sports Day…yet it garnered little coverage and was lost in the post-Super Bowl hangover, the one year to Sochi campaigns and other mid-week happenings. How could such an important demo…from moms who are decision makers to young women who need to be active as part of a healthy lifestyle to elite and telegenic female athletes…be lost in the mix by brands and Madison Avenue. This week Sports Illustrated will unveil its swimsuit issue as part of Fashion Week in New York, and that well marketed “tribute ” to beauty and sport for sure will not get lost in the shuffle. Baseball? Pitchers and catchers have started to report and some teams will hold fan fests, but the logistic transition of most teams make this a difficult weekend to convene in most major markets, unless you are a warm weather club lie the Marlins or DBacks who don’t have to go far.

Now maybe the psyche needs a respite from the Super Bowl, and we needed a weekend of nothing. However if you are a league, a sport, a brand looking to engage and carve a niche, this weekend seems to be a good annual one. The NFL has found a great spot opening their season the Thursday after Labor Day unencumbered. The Kentucky Derby has its spot. The Masters has its own place on the calendar. The weekend after Super Bowl seems ripe for someone to claim and build upon, lets see if someone grabs it.

Filed Under: College Basketball, ESPN, FIFA, Minor League Hockey, MLS, NASCAR, NHL, NLL, Olympics, PGA Tour Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Majoring In The Minors, Hockey Style

January 2, 2013 by

Still with no NHL to talk of, we turn to the minor leagues of hockey for a few best practices to open the year…

An Outdoor game, Outdoors: While the Winter Classic did go by the boards this week, the Federal Hockey League continued its work to keep hockey going outdoors by staging their January 2 game outdoors at Airman Pond at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pa. the summer home of the New York-Penn League and the now winter home of the Williamsport Outlaws. The rink, which opened in November, is the defending FHL champions’ home ice, and pitted the Outlaws against All-Stars from the rest of the league, along with a multi-day youth hockey festival and other events. The guest of honor for the game, was none other than actor/skater Paul D’Amato, known to hockey fans as Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken from the original “Slapshot” movie, adding to the fun and festivities of a league which is still viewed as a notch below affiliated minor leagues in talent, but one not short on promotion.

An Outdoor Game,  Indoors: It’s not that easy selling hockey on the heat of Las Vegas, especially when you play in the East Coast Hockey League. However, the Las Vegas Wranglers always try to find unique ways to gain coverage in a city big on transition but short on professional sports. So for their New Year’s Day game against the Ontario Reign, the Wranglers held the “first-ever” indoor Winter Classic, complete with alternative jerseys and their own trophy. The club also left the doors to the arena open to get at least a little breeze blowing through, and used ice making machine to make the bleary-eyed Vegas crowd feel some “snow” falling from the rafters. As far as the trophy for the winning team goes, it was topped with dollar signs flanking a special bobblehead of the team’s mascot, Duke, and it was wrapped in a chain with a padlock prominently displayed, in homage to the on-going lockout. It was a great way to bring some attention and a little extra flavor to the team as they celebrate their 10th year of hockey in Vegas, ample proof the organization has found ways to engage a very fickle fan base.

Phantoms Don The Tuxes: While there is no hockey in Philly, the Adirondack Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, found a new type of throwback uniform to end 2012 with. The Phantoms created a tuxedo jersey for their New Year’s Eve game against the Bridgeport (Ct.) Sound Tigers and turned the year-ending game into a New Year’s party complete with giveaways, free rentals, and noisemakers, but no champagne. The jerseys were also auctioned off for charity afterwards, a nice one-off in the world of competing “alternate” jerseys, many of which have little or no real connection to anything going on other than gaining some attention.

While minor league baseball regularly gets props for innovation, there is a lot to be had in minor league hockey as well, indoor, outdoor, or on special occasions for the fan still looking for some fun on the ice while the NHL still sits things out.

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

There Was Another Hockey Team That Also Tried New York…

October 29, 2012 by

All that talk of the Islanders move to Brooklyn, and encouragement from an old friend (Charlie Cuttone) prompted this post about a New York hockey team that well…never was. But I was a part of it. Here is the story circa 1985, of a team which I left working for before it really started, 26 years ago this week.

Yes there have been other hockey teams in the New York area other than the current three, and that includes the one making the move eventually from Long Island to the new Barclay’s Center, the Islanders. The New York Raiders and Golden Blades, the Long Island Ducks,  the New York (Brooklyn as well) Americans, the River Vale Skeeters (in my current town, although no trace still exists), the New York Rovers, the just-departed Brooklyn Aviators and the Jersey Outlaws (now playing outdoors in the Federal Hockey League in Williamsport,Pa.), and…the New York Slapshots.

Never heard of the Slapshots, who were to play at the Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center on Staten Island in the fall of 1986? Good reason. The arena and for the most part the team, never really existed for a long time. Now it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Slapshots, named after the movie, were housed in the Windsor Terrace offices hard by the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, not far from where the Staten Island Yankees play in the New York Penn-League today. They were to be part of the fledgling Atlantic Coast Hockey League (there is a Wikipedia page for it) and would bring professional sports to the sometimes-forgotten but sports-crazy borough of Staten Island. They would be playing in a gleaming pre-fab building that would seats 3,500 (we had the diagrams) in the Travis section of Staten Island, near a new state-of-the art bowling center and easy access for fans coming from New Jersey and Brooklyn as well. The team had good senior management…Cuttone and longtime NHL and minor league sports empresario Norb Ecksl and we had a big time coach- Dave “The Hammer Schultz, not far removed from his days leading the Philadelphia Flyers to their Stanley Cups and looking to get into hockey adminstration.

There was a spring press conference in Manhattan, and a sales and marketing team was in place. So myself, fresh out of Fordham and working nights at SportsPhone (in the days before sports radio and regional networks this was how you git score updates, 976-1313) and a group of others looking to break into sports, including a former MLB umpire named Zach Rebekoff and a former Oakland A’s sales and marketing guy named Scott Alderman. I didn’t have a car so I would take the subway and the ferry to Staten Island and then set out on foot, train and bus to all parts of the Island selling tickets and advertising throughout the summer of 1986 and into the fall. There was great enthusiasm…we sold dasher boards and promotions, plastic cups and season tickets, eventhough no arena even existed. We hired a day-to-day guy to run the hockey operations (Joe Selenski who later went on to coach the Johnstown Chiefs in the city where “Slapshot: was filmed) and we had a draft and started to get players. All with seating charts and hope.

As the fall progressed even the most enthusiastic followers were getting worried. You see, the arena had yet to arrive. “It’s coming on a truck in pieces from Georgia, it will be here in a matter of days,” we were told. September turned into October, and players even started to arrive. We had a woman named Kate McCoy who helped arrange housing for the players as they showed up in Staten Island, staying at the Holiday Inn adjacent to the Staten Island Expressway. We started to plan for a season to start on the road in outposts like Erie, Pa., with hopes I had of broadcasting the games. We were hired to be the official statisticians for the ACHL (there were other franchises with real buildings in addition to players). Dave would do appearances and we would sign sponsors with the building arriving any day. It all seemed real…we had had real marketing people, real offices, a real logo, a VERY real coach and very real players. How couldn’t the building be real (we never did see Phil Esposito by the way, who never had any stake in the building or the project other than giving his name to it)? So I kept walking Staten Island with my sales kit (there were farms still at one end of the island) and kept talking to the players as they arrived from all parts of the hockey world, with training camp starting in the Ironbound Arena in Newark, New Jersey.

As the preseason started, we would now open the season on the road for a month and play the home opener before Christmas we were told, Alderman and I, neither with a car, decided to take a trip out to the site, which we heard was now being prepared for the area. As we arrived, the silence was deafening. Nothing. Not a worker or a construction trailer, just a blown down sign proclaiming the site as the “Future Home of The Slapshots.”  Tumble weeds, Staten Island style, blew across the huge empty expanse of land. We were crushed. We returned to the ferry terminal in hopes that we were missing something.

As luck would have it for me, an opportunity arose. Iona College’s Sports Information Director Tom Didato had suddenly resigned, and the Gaels needed a quick replacement. Their season was to open in two weeks at the University of North Carolina. My mentor, the late PR guru Mike Cohen, called Iona athletic director Rick Mazutto and the job was mine. I left Staten Island and the Slapshots as the season opened somewhere in upstate New York. Although I returned to the borough to do stats for the league through the first month of the season on Sunday nights…typing and then sending the league info out via telecopier…the team never arrived. They played a few games in Ironbound and then headed to other locales like Virgina to play “home” games. The arena was some sort of scam, the money disappeared, and the Slapshots faded into history.

Over the years I kept in touch with Cuttone who has been involved in a variety of business and currently runs a top soccer website. Ecksl went on to work again with several professional teams in various marketing functions and stays busy in various areas of sports. Rebekoff ran an umpiring school for a while and stayed in sales, while Schultz remained and is still a Philly icon, although never as a coach.  The others drifted away over time, some continuing on as the team ended up in Troy, New York before folding. As far as the ACHL, it eventually became part of the ECHL which exists today in the minors, but no team anywhere near Staten Island. The Yankees finally figured out the Staten Island passion and build their ballpark overlooking Manhattan and remain a strong force in minor league baseball. As far as the site goes, it had another brush with fame in sports a few years later, when NASCAR proposed building a track in the vast area close to New Jersey. Like the hockey building, that project never came to see the light of day either.

For me, the Slapshots were a great first step in a career, at the lowest rungs of sports, selling something that didn’t exist. It gave me that grassroots experience and a lot of fun with some very smart people who were in it for the passion as much as the money.  Luckily I emerged from the experience unscathed financially, with a business card that I still hold on to (my first) to this day.

So as the Isles make the move to Brooklyn, maybe somewhere down the line they will honor some of those teams of the past with a little retro night. If they do, I have the logo from a team that tried, and failed, to do what they will probably be successful at…creating fun and successful professional hockey outside of Manhattan.Nothing better than majoring in the minors to get a start, even on Staten Island.

 

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

As The NHL Lockout Looms, Can The Minors Make A Major Jump?

September 18, 2012 by

Just to be clear, there is little good that can come from an extended lockout for the NHL for those involved in the business of hockey. It comes at a time when the NHL and “brand hockey” has perhaps never been stronger in the eyes of a global public who have re-engaged or discovered the sport for the first time. While the clutter of the early fall may keep the lockout out of the minds of many casual sports fans in the United States for a few weeks, the dark clouds and loss of equity that can follow for both sides, especially with the NBA now back stronger than ever, the NFL going strong again and even college sports gaining equity, can be devastating for all involved in the game going forward.

So if the lockout continues and games are lost, is there any entity that could benefit in any way? Perhaps it could be in the minors. Unlike the two most recent lockouts, the NBA and the NFL, minor league hockey is a wide scale fallback for some looking for a hockey fix. While the NBA did have the D-League, the minor tiered minor league hockey system across North America is still pretty vast, with outposts from small markets in the south to emerging cities and even major cities like Chicago. It has many of the characteristics of minor league baseball as affordable fun and the affiliated leagues do hold the future stars of the game in their midst, all of which will be playing regardless of the NHL lockout. Their games can provide filler for regional networks, and their marketing partners could expand a bit wider if the NHL stays silent. Their are also a slew of very low minor league groups, some of which in places like Brooklyn for example, that could also get a little word of mouth bump for people needing a hockey fix.

Now in many ways minor league hockey and baseball couldn’t be father apart. Minor league baseball is an outdoor fun shared family experience. Minor league hockey is obviously indoors and is sometimes played in arenas which do not have the amenities or the charm of their minor league baseball compatriots. The game is still bred a bit more on violence in the minors, sometimes more akin to professional wrestling than the ebb and flow of a summer evening spent outside watching the local ball club. The budgets for many minor league hockey teams for promotion may also be much less than the best minor league baseball teams, creating a less than complete fan experience in some cases. Still even with the drawbacks, minor league hockey may be able to take advantage of a lack of NHL play to build its brand and its fan base.  Many affiliated clubs are not that far from the parent teams…Hartford, Albany and Bridgeport to the New York area, Providence to Boston, Hershey and Scranton to Philly etc., so the travel time for a weekend game in the winter is not that far out of the question. The rising execs in the minors for hockey are much like those in other sports…young people trying to be innovative and creative to move up the professional ladder, and the ability to stretch awareness using social media to a wanton fan base exists now more than ever.

Of course the best solution is for the NHL and the NHLPA to settle, the league to continue its growth and the halo effect from that growth trickles down to the minors as well. A rising tide floats all ships. However if the worst happens and the NHL does stay idle, the minor league clubs could benefit be added promotion, added eyeballs, added brand integration and maybe some additional fans, all looking for some fun entertainment on the ice while their primary source of hockey remains at the bargaining table.  It is a tricky slope not to bite the hands that feed you for the minor league teams, but an opportunity of necessity, not of choice, could exist for some exposure  in the short term.

Filed Under: Crisis Management, Minor League Hockey, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Nets Have The Sizzle, Will The Steak Follow?

September 3, 2012 by

Last week the Brooklyn Nets started their countdown clock to the long-discussed opening of Americas newest showplace, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Not a day goes by without another announcement of a concert, high school hoops extravaganza, new billboard going up, community visit, concert or “innovation” as the organization continues to scream “Look at Me” to anyone who will listen or not.

The team has re-made itself on the court under GM Billy King, re-signing Deron Williams and adding Joe Johnson while adding a host of other new faces to go along with the new look and their new arena. Every week there is a new boast of a sponsor or a ticket milestone, along with more than a few rumblings of other major attractions like an NHL game or the Women’s Final Four in the offing soon or down the line. Promote, promote, promote and never miss a moment to remind someone that a new building will be coming into vogue in at least part of the world’s largest media market, in its most populous borough.

There is probably no organization on the planet which has tried as hard to find ways to place itself in the media than the Nets and the Barclays Center in the past 18 months. From the added exposure coming from Kris Humphries’ ill-fated and short lived Karadashian experience, to the constant push of brand partners and the man who is pulling the pieces together from a sales side (Bret Yormark), everyone has at least a casual knowledge of where the Nets will be.  Every day there is a reason to at least be intrigues by the goings-on in Brooklyn, whether you like NBA basketball or not.

Now of course all of this is not going on in a vacuum. Just across the river Madison Square Garden is undergoing their second summer of renovation, occasionally parachuting in with updates for the media on what a renovated MSG will look like like. Following their Olympic performance, stars like Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler have made their way back to Gotham to grab their own headlines with teammate Amar’e Stoudamire taking in the US Open or attending Fashion Week, and if the NHL does start on time, the Rangers have made themselves more media friendly with their marketing of Henrik Lundquist and company. There is also the Nets recent home, the Prudential Center, which still remains the most accessible arena in the area thus far, with a team (the Devils) that has done a great job of engaging in the social space.  So the Nets and the Barclays Center have take the aggressive approach to position themselves and their partners as the “must see” venue of the fall, each and every day in the marketplace.

Now will it work?  First of all the market is big enough to adequately support the venues full time. The amount of shows and events coming through such a wide media market with amazing public transportation hubs can keep the event calendar flowing. The rebirth of New York as a tourist destination has also helped fill the distressed inventory of MSG in recent years, and that draw to a borough not far away should also help the Barclays. Will the team play well enough to have fans show up night in and night out for games against subpar opponents?  Will the arena be a technological innovation along the lines of Kansas City’s Livestrong Park, which has emerged as the most tech-savvy of all new facilities to date? Will die-hard Knicks fans who have to traverse Penn Station on their daily commutes be drawn consistently to an aggressive  vibe in Brooklyn? What happens when the sizzle comes off the new arena in a years time? Old habits are tough to break, and that’s when the real selling will come in…on the rainy days when there are few “firsts” left in the Nets bag of tricks. As much as the Jets have sold hype, the bottom line is their Stadium co-tenants, the Giants, have found smart and innovative ways to engage their fans AND win, which in a market like New York, is what you need.

There is no doubt the Nets and their PR and Marketing teams have created sizzle. Now they have to serve the steak as well. Great first step, one worth watching for what the next one will be.

Filed Under: College Baseball, Minor League Hockey, NBA Teams, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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