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Wings’ Foul-Out Endemic Of An Arrogant Organization
by George James Malik on 10/19/06 at 05:35 PM ET
Comments (21)
By George Malik:
from the Detroit News:
A promotion in which fans could snag the right to buy two World Series tickets by purchasing a Detroit Red Wings ticket package has ended.
At noon on Wednesday the offer was made to existing Red Wing season ticket holders and members of the Red Wings World fan club. All of the ticket packages were gone by 9 a.m. today, said Mike Brinich, Red Wings media relations manager.
Brinich would not say how many of the packages were sold. Buyers had to purchase 20 single game tickets to be able to buy two of the World Series tickets for either Saturday’s or Sunday’s games.
He said the promotion was a way of saying thanks to season ticket holders and members of the fan club for their support.
“We thought it was a fun way for fans of both teams to participate,” Brinich said.
How sweet! “You want World Series tickets? We’ll sell ‘em to ya for 20 Wings tickets!” That’s scalping, not “saying thanks.” The Wings’ front office and PR staff are this arrogant all the time, and that’s why the Red Wings--who’re by and large a good organization--are hated around the NHL.
The front office is horribly in and downright rude to both the press and fans alike, John Hahn heavily censors what gets out to the general public (ever wonder why Fox Sports Detroit shows the same Red Wings Weekly clips five times over during pre-game shows and intermissions?), and the team is kept at arm’s length from everybody.
In an age of open practices, free meet-and-greets, goodwill ambassadors, and lush multimedia content on websites, from “glogs” to player blogs, well-produced web feature stories, team-produced videos, highlights, press conference summaries, and lush and lavish in-game productions, what do Wings fans get?
The team makes its players as accessible as one can when you hide them behind a brick wall; no open practices, fan-friendly player availabilities that’re limited to paid autograph signings and lavish charity gallas that the average fan can’t afford, and a virtual blackout in terms of substantial or in-depth media coverage of some very glib and outspoken players.
The team’s website is horrible, with a few press releases and snippets of photos available on a page designed in 2003, and Red Wings World hasn’t been updated since the lockout--all it consists of is a repository of Inside Hockeytown features and a bulletin board. The NHL and all sorts of web studies acknowledge that hockey fans are the most web-savvy sports fans around, and yet you wonder if the Wings’ front office even knows that a “podcast” has nothing to do with spitting out sunflower seeds.
And as several KK members have noted, the Red Wings’ in-game production budget includes the music that hasn’t been updated since Brendan Shanahan requested Republica’s “Ready to Go” in 1998, a scoreboard and sound-system boasting cutting-edge, 1990 technology in an age of gigantic LCD screens and rink-wrapping bands, no in-game promotions or exclusive media content to shake up the crowd, and the same old $20 pizza you can buy for $5, $7 beer, and $4 hot dogs.
The Joe used to be an intimidating, rocking rink, and now it’s one of the quieter barns in the NHL. Clearly, they’re having trouble filling the stands in a terrible Michigan economy--why spend $55 for an upper-bowl seat, $8 for parking, and $30 for food when you can get the same bang for your buck by sitting at home? Why cough up a pre-lockout prices to bankroll a team that has half the salary, and in the eyes of so many of us Wings fans, half the talent of the mighty, free-spending Red Wings of old?
Even a “Nick Lidstrom bobblehead night” instead of a “free Rock Financial Wings refrigerator magnet” night would show some sort of willingness to bring people into the rink.
Why get interested in a team whose media and fan access are held under lock and key? Unless you know somebody who knows a Red Wing, or bump into them at a mall or grocery store, you barely see the players, and the dearth of meaningful, get-to-know-you media content, especially online, renders the team as a corporate monolith.
That inaccessibility is why the Red Wings are hated with a passion by the national media, and it’s why a hockey-mad city has become much more enamored with the Pistons, Tigers, and even the struggling Lions--while the city’s other teams actually make an investment in their fan base, the Wings’ front office sees us as what we are: walking dollar signs who’re generally grateful for any sort of access to the team because we’re so bloody used to getting nothing.
In 94-95, the Wings welcomed fans back from the lockout with an open training camp--here in Detroit, so those of us who can’t afford to go to Traverse City could attend it--as well as a “fan fest” where anybody who attended could get their pictures taken on the Zamboni, see the NHL’s trophies, play bubble hockey with the players, and get autographs--I still have my Scotty Bowman, Dwight Foster, Ben Hankinson, Darren McCarty, Ray Lane, and Keith Primeau sigs, and I’m proud of that Hankinson autograph-- and there were open practices.
Last year, the Red Wings held two open practices, opening the doors for the first time since the mid 90s, and you needed to be a member of Red Wings World to get into one of them. The organization treats opening the rink to their us like a ridiculous expenditure instead of an investment in their rabid fan base.
Can you imagine the number of ticket sales that a dozen open practices, an open prospect camp (the Wings held it at the Joe in July, but locked it down), and maybe a training camp session or two in Detroit would generate?
Ken Holland said it himself:
Holland said the Red Wings found the right fit when they decided in 1997 to move training camp away from Joe Louis Arena.
“The reason you come up here is the atmosphere,” Holland said. “You practice in the Joe, a 25,000-seat building with just 25 scouts there, and there’s no atmosphere.
“You come here, the rink is full. Players leave the rink and all the fans are waiting outside.
“It’s a chance for us to take our players to another part of Michigan. And the fans of northern Michigan, this is their opportunity to get really close to the players.”
There’d be 15,000 fans at a training camp session, and all sorts of smiling moms, dads, and kids waiting to see their favourite players come outside to sign autographs afterwards.
Teams like the Canes, Stars, and Panthers get innovative and hold barbecues in the summer, have “hockey caravans” to go out and meet their ticket-buying public, and they hold autograph sessions for either no charge or a charitable donation. Would this ever happen in Metro Detroit?
It was not a typical hockey practice for 11-year-old goalie Nick Potvin.
Potvin, from Corona, was in his goal crease, waiting for the puck to head in his direction when he saw a big guy wearing an Ilya Bryz jersey suddenly walking toward him on the ice.
It turned out that it actually was Bryz.
The Ducks goalie and playoff hero had just completed an autograph-signing session with teammates Ryan Shannon and Shane O’Brien at Riverside IceTown on Monday night. Just before leaving, after speaking with Potvin’s dad, Steve, Bryz hopped over the boards and went out on the ice to offer the young goalie some pointers.
“It was pretty cool,” said Nick, who plays for the Valley Wild in the Pee-Wee A League. “I’m not really good on the breakaways, so my dad asked Bryz if he had any tips. He worked with me, and we picked five people from my team to do a shootout kind of thing. After each shot, he’d tell me something.”
Of course not.
But the Wings can’t conceive of making players so readily available to people who don’t actually pay for the privilege, nor do they realize that if they’d make a tenth of the effort the Maple Leafs do to promote their Original Six team--with Leafs TV generating all sorts of original content, a great website, players who make themselves available to fans, and a decent in-house game presentation, Leaf Nation’s willing to pay $300 to sit on the glass and watch a team that hasn’t won the Cup in 40 years!--Detroit would reclaim its title as “Hockeytown,” and then some.
The Joe would rock during every home game--even that eighth game against Columbus--and ratings for Wings games would shoot up. A decent website would generate hundreds of thousands of hits, and would generate big merchandising and ticket revenues. Red Wings Weekly would become a must-see.
And you could actually talk to a player without having to pay for his autograph first. Wouldn’t Jiri Fischer make a perfect “team ambassador?” Or Dino? Or Burrsie?
We’d all go ape over such a deluge of actual care and concern for our time and money.
Instead, the Wings hoodwink us into buying 20 Wings tickets to attend a World Series game. Or they reward the fans who ponied up $40 to join Red Wings World for the single-game ticket presale by hoarding up the few thousand tickets to Steve Yzerman jersey retirement ceremony, and only offering them to those of us who could afford buying a ten-game mini pack.
The Red Wings’ players, coaches, and training staff are, by and large, good human beings who’re down-to-earth, friendly, and more than willing to have an actual conversation with you or I, but John Hahn and Mike Brinich hold the team at arm’s length from fans, and the Wings’ front office invests so little in its us, in terms of opening the rink and players up to media and fans alike, investing in decent and new content both on-line, at the rink, and on TV (isn’t the commercial where Kris Draper’s at Hockeytown Authentics a little outdated?), actual promotions inside and outside the rink, that “Ready To Go” is indeed an appropriate, ten-year-old theme song…
Because that’s how a lot of fans feel about the team in the post-Yzerman, post-Shanahan era.
The Red Wings’ front office and PR staff need a serious attitude adjustment towards the fans that bankroll a still-profitable team, because the Wings-hating media are right about one thing: while the claims of the team’s imminent demise have been incorrect for over a decade, the imminent demise of the Red Wings’ paying fan base is already here.
We can spend what little discretionary funds we have in an age of closing auto plants and massive layoffs to get our sports fix from Detroit teams that treat us like actual human beings instead of walking dollar signs.
When Wings fans “baa” in the crowded corridor that leads to the Joe Louis Arena garage after games, we’re beginning to realize that the organization hears those same bleats when we walk into the rink.
That’s why a very proud franchise full of very good individuals is slowly fading from the sporting consciousness of a hockey-mad town.
As a die-hard fan since the time when first-round ousters were signs of progress, I find the whole situation to be disturbing and depressing, but I know that the Wings are unlikely to ever acknowledge that you or I aren’t anything other than walking, talking dollar signs.
Filed in: NHL Talk, George James Malik, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
As a working member of the NHL media, I applaude you George for writing this.
We receive the exact same treatment from the Wings. The players and coaching staff are great as you describe, the rest of them are leading their team into PR hell.
Posted by OutEast on 10/19/06 at 07:35 PM ET
Bravo, George. That pretty much says it all. And God knows, there are a couple other teams that could use the same treatment, too.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 10/19/06 at 08:52 PM ET
How long have these jerks you speak of been in PR? Were they always like this, or did the people grow more arrogant with time spent in the job?
I only ask because I haven’t had any dealings with the Detroit organization, so I had no idea they were so horrible in their contacts with the public.
Posted by Baroque on 10/19/06 at 09:46 PM ET
Here, here!
This really needed to be addressed and should be echoed on any hockey forum or bulletin board on the net. Hockey fans of all teams should e-mail the Wings or make calls voicing their complaints to create a change!
Posted by Matthew Adler from Royal Oak, MI on 10/19/06 at 10:47 PM ET
Baroque: John Hahn has been in “office” for at least ten years, and Brinick is his new helper boy.
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 10/20/06 at 12:14 AM ET
Thats a great article.
Posted by TC from Westland on 10/20/06 at 01:23 AM ET
Get the views on this from the fans at LGW.
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/20/06 at 07:14 AM ET
Check out what Christy from Behind the Jersey has to say…
Also a suggestion for other sites linking to this post from George. Leave trackback or a link in the comments so people reading this can also read your opinion too.
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/20/06 at 07:24 AM ET
Good on ya George,about time somebody in Detroit had the guts to stand up and be counted.The games at the Joe are a shell of what they once were,pathetic.A corporate meeting place where the hockey is a reason,not THE reason.They turned their backs on the real hockey fans for so long(10 year waiting list my arse) they now have to look to gimmicks.
Very sad because now there are a lot of hard working folks who supported the team when they were down and could no longer afford to go to a game,who will say the heck with it.
The beginning of the end of a great run started while they were on top.Arrogance will kill you every time.
Posted by TLW from Tampa,FL on 10/20/06 at 07:49 AM ET
I linked it at the Sports Inferno- here
but great, great article, really refreshing to read stuff like his.. And maybe if the wings were more accessible to media they’d talk about them more!!
Kukla, you’re a local guy, you need a radio show around here, there really aren’t any hockey people on the air in the area!!!
Posted by sfa2 on 10/20/06 at 10:00 AM ET
sfa2, Both sports radio stations have been contacted, but I was told they have no interest in getting into hockey.
They both have their mandatory, once a weeknight hockey show, but other than that, hockey is not on their radar.
A podcast is being looked into, but no decision has been made yet.
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/20/06 at 10:16 AM ET
Bang-on, George.
In regard to people ‘tolerating’ the PR department over the years, I think that the team’s success over the last decade is the great elixir in letting issues like this slide by.
But all things come to an end and the “free pass” the fans and media have given the team in light of winning looks to be passing as the team goes through a season of transition.
The most amusing thing for me this year was parking at the JLA garage. Was $7 pre-lockout, $10-post… And after getting a pair of preseason tickets for $25 the JLA parking price of $15 generated a hearty laugh from myself and my brother-in-law. Nothing like almost spending as much on parking as you did on preseason tickets…
Posted by Matt Schwartz from Royal Oak, MI on 10/20/06 at 11:40 AM ET
Title: FLAMES PRACTICE POLICY FOR FANS
Date: October 20, 2006
Welcome to the Pengrowth Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames! We are pleased you are interested in attending a Flames practice. We are also proud that we can provide our fans with the opportunity to see our team at work in a more intimate setting at the Saddledome. And of course, we love seeing you at the games with 19,000 plus fans, cheering the Flames on to victory!
For the 2006-2007, I would like to outline a few guidelines around our practice sessions that will assist you in planning your practice attendance.
o All our practice sessions at the Pengrowth Saddledome are open to our fans to attend.
o On non-game days, fans are welcome to sit in the lower bowl behind our bench and feel free to say hello or request an autograph from the players as they depart the ice following practice.
more from the Flames press release…
Another example of a team doing it right…
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 10/20/06 at 12:05 PM ET
I guess this article was serious? Seven games into the 1st season after Stevie Y retires & the grumbling has already begun?
Basic rule of the sport business, when you win, you get to make the rules. The players clearly wanted to focus --without fan distractions --and did (except during those 2, or sometimes 4, weeks in the playoffs).
As soon as club finishes it’s trip to medicrity, (figure another 10 -12 games before it become undeniable) THEN the fans start to have leverage.
The business will react accordingly. After that, we’ll learn if you’d rather have a mediocre team that wastes energy doing media exercises or a really good one that doesn’t come out before & after games to kiss your behind…
Posted by vfsv from Silicon Valley on 10/20/06 at 09:51 PM ET
You took the words right out of my mouth. I forked over the money to get to training camp in Traverse City, forked over the money to get a ticket to the Yzerman jersey retirement ceremony. I love my Wings, more than any other franchise in sports, but I have to admit that there are times I wished I lived in Columbus, Ohio. My relatives that live there have no problem getting tickets to games at reasonable price, as well as getting chances to meet players without bending over backwards. And it’s not just because hockey is less popular there. It’s because, like this post discusses, the Red Wings make it so damn hard to get close to the team. Put that on top of the Joe being more of a nostalgia experience rather than an entertainment experience and it’s obvious why hockey ticket sales are slumping in Detroit. In the past, these obvious faults for maintaining a fan base were easily remedied by consistent success in the NHL, but with so many early playoff exits and the way the 06-07 season has been going so far (6-1 loss to San Jose? Ouch...), it’s getting to the point where you can say that the Red Wings aren’t going to be able to rely solely on winning hockey games to sell tickets anymore. But then, maybe all of this will be a turn for the better for our beloved franchise. Maybe it will take a little bit of inconsistency to signal a wake-up call to the organization and start letting the fans inside the franchise without an entrance fee.
Posted by Adam Channell from Kalamazoo, MI on 10/21/06 at 01:39 AM ET
I think this has been coming for a while, and while the Wings’ winning ways greased the rails a bit, the Wings’ PR machine has been stuck in reverse for half a decade.
The Wings themselves admit that they get a real charge out of their fans on the road, and they love the shows of support, and we’ve heard that for ten years. Why? The team’s actually much easier to get close to away from Detroit. You might actually get an autograph or a conversation with a player if you’re in Columbus or Nashville.
Christy at Behind the Jersey noted that the Wings had at least some sort of semblance of acknowledgement of their fans during the championship years, and even in 02-03, but, over the years, even going back to the mid 90’s, things have been going backwards, not forwards.
In an age where teams with the biggest profit margins are responsive to their fans because they know we’re a whole lot savvier and have more information as to who’s going to give us more bang for our hockey buck, the Wings’ attitude seems to be that Detroit fans have the same access to information regarding competing organizations--OHL, AHL, and CCHA teams, as well as other NHL organizations--as we did in the day and age where you either got your information from the 11 O’Clock news, waited till the paper came out the next day, or heard it on the radio.
Even RedWingsWorld was considered pretty cutting edge in 02-03...It just hasn’t changed since then, and the whole “pay for your access” NHL sites fell by the wayside pretty fast because free sites were offering more content.
Hockey fans are comparison shoppers now, and if you’re a working parent in Metro Detroit, you’re probably going to give your kid a more authentic and meaningful hockey experience--and you’ll probably save a few hundred bucks, too--by taking him or her to a Whalers game.
We see the Wings organization’s attitude towards us at the Joe when players come on and come off the ice before the game and during intermissions. In most every other NHL rink, teams let fans crowd around the tunnel, and most players slap hands with those who’re cheering ‘em on. The Wings post guards at the railings, and ushers shuffle you away fast if you try to get anywhere near the tunnel.
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 10/21/06 at 02:11 AM ET
According to the Wings’ official website, Steve Yzerman is not only playing, but is the current captain. I wonder if Lidstrom knows.
http://www.detroitredwings.com/history/stats-allTimeCapts.jsp
Posted by Matthew Adler from Royal Oak, MI on 10/21/06 at 09:23 AM ET
George please send this piece to the Detroit Free Press, this needs to reach more people than this website. Thank you for saying exactly how I feel.
Posted by Chris Koslinski on 10/22/06 at 04:46 PM ET
Signed Steve Yzerman’s Jersey is being auctioned off. I got it signed by Steve. I was in a box with Steve at a hockey game and got him to signed the jersey.
I am Ron Giles and I was a bone marrow donor to a young child Tom Garrett and he is doing very well now. He wanted to meet Steve and we did everything in our power for him for Tom to meet Steve. Finally he met him and now they are close.
They did a story on Tom, on the NHL site.
http://www.teaparty-online.com/forum/profile.php?mode=register&agreed=true
When I met Tom it inspired me to want to help other. We started a foundation called Better World today. We are
planning a camp on July 13th - 15.
Many events are planned for the camp. for more information go to http://www.camp4compassion.com
We are looking for many members of the media to write.
Ron Giles
519-991-4919
Posted by Ron Giles from Windsor, Ontario on 06/25/07 at 02:49 AM ET
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Very well stated George, you have hit on many point that I meself was going to turn into Paul tomorrow for his open Friday post. For example, If Henry does not figure whos wife he is taping and is brain dead because of Arby’s and the ever popular Draper in the shirt rack “YEA I WORE IT”
I get very emotional, not crying emotional when talking the Wings. I have been a stead fast Michigan Fan since the Dead Wings of years past. The funny thing is that a lot of the spots then are still being shoved our way now. Like you said, you have to be a member of this and a member of that to get close. Are you tired of paying bucks to follow your team and get nothing in return.
How about the management telling us all one thing and then doing the same old things. We were going to get younger and faster and, well that happened. Greg Johnson Retires, why? your never heard another word about this and the Wings are giving him a spot in player development, thats a great jester, and I wish Greg and his family all the best, Jiri, what is he doing, collecting a paycheck for how long. I am beginning to feel that Hahn loves to play the games and keep the fans, you know the ones that pay the BILLS! in the dark. We get no information and in case a lot of you know this already, the Red Wings are loved by the NHL and they go out of their way to see that Detroit gets the best of everything (insert sarcasim) here.
Try going through the Red Wings Official Site and find tickets, the Joe is half empty and yet you can not hardly find 2 tickets available. Well, I am getting really upset and sorry but I am pissed off. This is BS and Hahn and the others in the media and front office know this but will do nothing for you the fan. So I got to rant a little and will write something else for the Friday submission. Thanks George for the great posting, it’s exactly what I wanted to say.
Posted by Tony from Mid-Michigan on 10/19/06 at 05:41 PM ET