What would you like to see the new commissioner accomplish? What would you put on his priority list?
I'd like to see him really work on big-picture things. Just think what it could mean to the entire league if he could somehow come up with a major, major sponsor for the entire league. That would take pressure off every team and give them a little breathing room in this economy. I don't have any specific ideas, but, hey, that's what he's for.
I would like to see some very detailed minimum standards for how players are treated as well. Let's face it, Fort Wayne treats their players very differently than some cities, and by that I'm talking about having mandatory trainers, equipment purchasing, bus standards, when overnight stays should be mandatory, etc. There's also a difference in the way some teams treat the road teams which is ridiculous. In general, no pun intended, there's really no reason there should be such a large discrepancy with the way some teams treat their players. In the past, some teams have tried to barely scrape by, and that's a little thing, but it makes the whole league look poor. I believe the league has those kind of minimum standards in place, but maybe they need to be expanded and strictly enforced.
I'd also like to see league minimum standards enforced somehow, things like hiring PR directors, lighting standards and sound standards in the arenas, etc. One idea I heard a few years ago that could be interesting was that season-ticket holders for every team could possibly get a discount on tickets at road games. Maybe that would encourage more fans to travel. And why not? Those are the people who are already paying for the league anyway, and it might lead to more money for home teams they would not normally receive. Who knows?
How about league-encouraged tailgating parties for the playoffs?
I also think he'll push for something more to do with youth hockey. I don't know what, but I think that is an area he's very interested in.
No, dollar beer nights will never happen as long as the Komets are tenants in the building, so don't waste your typing on that one. Besides, the teams that control their buildings make a lot of money off that and they are unlikely to give it up. I really doubt it would make them any more money.
Comments
$2 beer nights!!!
Everything takes money, maybe they need a director of money making.
$1 pizza nights? LOL. ;)
NO DOLLAR BEER NIGHTS, THEN HOW ABOUT FREE PARKING FOR SEASON TICKET HOLDERS/2048 OUNCES IN A 16 GAL KEG=170.6 12OZ BEERS
I am selfish! Having said that, I would like to see off-ice officials rotate between league cities during the Play-Offs. It would stop some of the problems that occured in Port Huron. It would be exspensive, I know, thus not real practical. They do it in the NHL. That, and uniformity on the way things are done in each city. Some cities issue 2 assists on every goal even if it may truly be unassisted. I will not mention any names. But Muskegon just jumps out at you. Some cities have not a clue what a shot on goal is.
I think the salary cap should be strickly inforced. That could be done by the League being responsable for the players pay. It could solve the problem of players not getting their paychecks. I am sure it is not that simple but you get my drift.
I think "ALL" teams need a PR person. They can be the mouth pieces for everything related to that team. Press releases, Promotions, Trades, Signings, Injury reports. It takes way to long to get information from the IHL web site. add to the teams it would hurt the league to have one also.
The first thing I think that really needs looked at is the IHL "Web Master" That information super highway moves way to slow. All most like it is involved in a traffic jam for days. I am not putting down the person who is doing it now. I believe they have other responsibilties that are very time consuming. The PR person would a good person to manage the Web Site.
Sorry Blake but you asked.
After reading that...I'd say Super Fan is hired. You have some awesome ideas there Blake. I'd like to see all the things you mentioned put together. Great job.
It would be nice if the league had an arrangement with a particular Hotel Franchise that would sponser the league that might give sweet deals to the teams when they have to stay the night, and would also offer package deals for the fans on roadtrip games. Maybe Holiday Inn? Just throwing that out there. If there were a league wide sponsorship from Holiday Inn, people would stay there exclusively when going to games and the teams, personel, etc.....I would think this could all be worked out with not too much difficulty.
Tailgaiting sponsored by Johnsonville? Weber Grills? Budweiser?
Great ideas Blake!!!
OK, I may not be very knowledgable or articulate here, but I'll give it a shot....in the playoffs, there was an occasion where Boucher sat on a goal, and Bertram may or may not have seen it cross the line. It might have been in Muskegon? Sorry, my memory is like Swiss cheese. I just remember the players involved. At any rate, I just remember at the time, that the call was so questionable and that the discussion afterwards centered around how Boucher was made to apologize about his comments to the press. He actually said that he was unsure if it went in, and that he knows that we have gotten some calls here in the MC, because we use our own goal judges. Well, I'm thinking that, at least in the playoffs, Hextall might want to change that whole practice. I'm not sure if that's what you were referring to, DSchebig, but I think that when that happened, it set off a firestorm, and it could have been avoided, had an impartial goal judge been there. I can't believe it's not done for every game. Yeah, I know there would be cost. But it's a professional league, not little league baseball, for heaven's sake! At the time, I believe I asked if the game could not be disputed due to the call, and I guess it can't, but it's the playoffs, and a trophy is on the line....I'm just thinking that practice should be changed. I'd like the Commish to look at that. That and Jeff Zehr's weird undressing of Maxime Graville last season, but it's a little late for that....I've already been traumatized by that incident.
I'm afraid I don't think that will ever happen BB because of the expenses, inconvenience, etc., plus you don't want to insult the people who have worked for you all season. But I also trust the impartiality of the off-ice officials. I truly believe they are trying to do their best and make calls on what they believe they saw at that moment. It's also something fun to argue about in the playoffs.
And I didn't edit the interview at all except to correct some of my own spelling mistakes.
I wonder just how much power a commissioner has, especially in a seven team league? Can he actually tell a owner he has to treat his players better or make sure there are videos and a working restroom on the team bus? I think ultimately his power is no more then what the owners will allow.
League stability, product on the ice, and consistency are IMHO three of the most important factors. The idea of league-wide sponsors sounds like a good one.
Free parking for season ticket holders? IIRC that was promised several years ago but never came about. Who would pay it, the Komets or the WMC? That's a pretty big chunk of change to expect the team to pick it up. They would have to work out some kind of deal with the coliseum in order to be able to afford it.
I remember free parking for everyone. Then they paved the lot and said season ticket holders would park free and others would pay only until the new lot was payed for. Kind of like taxes, isn't it?
I don't see the free parking thing happening. When I bought into season tickets for the Caps downtown, we were told there would be some type of good parking deal for season ticket holders and that just turned out to be paying the same amount as anyone else but you could park a little closer. I'm not a big-time business czar, but i think teams should take care of their season ticket holders a little. Maybe not free parking, but some type of discounted parking. I don't know that the new commish can do anything about how the arenas charge for their parking though.
I'm agreeing about the judges. I had no idea how that was all done until reading the comments by the bloggers on here. I've learned more on here in the past few months than I would've ever realized I didn't know. Good info/ideas by all.
$1 mixed drink nights........
Somehow, magically expand the sardine factory they call a bar for intermissions....
Make that guy give free german roasted almonds to STH's.....
In all seriousness, arent alot of what your calling for Blake covered in league's that have unions??? Better treatment of players, minimum standards for the facilities, etc... Can you get these things accomplished without bringing in the unions??? I think they are great ideas, dont get me wrong; I just dont see the owners collectively agreeing to spend even more money, especially when there are some we know who like to cut corners (or at least have in the past).
I see what you're saying, Blake, about not offending the people working for you all season. I guess that's where changing the whole system would be a good idea, then. Make all of it rotating. Again, though, the expense would be restrictive. No one could then complain that it would be partial... and you and I might trust the partiality of the off-ice officials....until it comes down to, did we win or lose a game because a "homer" official calls a game for the home crowd because, as Boucher said in his interview, the goal judge does not want to disappoint or anger the people he/she works for. It's just a thought....not like it's really gonna change. A girl can dream! ;) And I did not mean to imply you edited Hextall's words, I was just making the point that one view of the guy was so skewed that I disliked him, and yours made me like him....so unless you edited huge chunks of his words (and here I should have added "which I doubt")....now I am seriously starting to like this guy as the Commish. Sorry for the confusion.
And JR, I like your way of thinking....$1 mixed drinks. I'm sure that will never fly, but I raise a toast to you for your suggestion anyway.
And just as a topic of conversation, how much do any of you pay at any other minor league sport in any other city for parking? We go to baseball games, hockey games, and have even been to basketball games in other cities, and have rarely paid less than $8 for parking closer than 2 blocks of the arena where the event is being held. It's usually between $10-20 for 2 blocks or closer. WE did park free once (can't remember what city, and I was honestly afraid we would not have a car when we came back out, it was that bad....In my eyes, $4 or parking is really not that bad. Yeah, free is always better, but....nothing in life is free. What DO they use that money for, anyway?
You can't see the huge developments and improvements in the parking lot over the years, BlueLine??? J/K. I think I read some time ago that the money goes into paying for renovations and upkeep of the Coliseum and Expo Center, not so much the parking lot. I could be off on that, some of the insiders on here could tell you better.
I pay $10 at the Indy 500 and Brickyard 500 to park a half-mile away. TinCaps I park for $2. Colts games I park for $5. Both TinCaps and Colts are very short walks. For White Sox games I've paid $18 to walk 2 miles.
Parking sucks, there's no way around it and I doubt there will be. Just the price you pay to support your team.
I have two simple requests/priorities. 1) I want a Commissioner that I can believe in to tell me the truth and do what is in the best interest of the IHL. 2) I would like to se the intermission between periods drop from 18 minutes to 15 minutes. (Many times they are even longer than 18 minutes because, if you notice, sometimes they stop the clock.)
$35 to park across the street for Minn Wild Hockey, $10 and walk 6 blocks for the colts games, $2 tip to valet at casino walk right in the front door.
Blueline Baby- I have the letter of apology from Boucher about his comments of off-ice officials. There is no group of people who donate their time to the game of hockey that are appeciated less than the off-ice officials in hockey. We are appreciated by the owners and League for sure. The fans just don't understand everything that is involved. We want it right, not close, right. Not 90% of the time but 100% of the time. We want every player to get every point they have coming. In some cases there is a bonus attached to those points. They earn them they deserve them. I can assure you we just do not look at weather or not it was the home team or the visitors. It just does not make any difference. I feel I can say that about every city in the IHL. I would just like to see consistency between the cities. For example: It is not a shot on goal just because the goaltender touched it. It is if it would have went in the goal from the player who took the shot. There are many more saves in a game than shots on goal in the games. That is why we record "shots on goal" not saves. Sometimes to the fan that can be very confusing. While the fans are screaming and yelling for a goal we are very busy getting everything that lead up that goal recorded and just don't have time to as you might say "celebrate". I hope that helps you and others understand just a little bit better.
Things I'd start doing at very little cost to the organizations.
1. Ask each team to buy a Netbook and have a fan blog from their seat or the press box. No cost, and I'd look at this after every game and add my own thoughts. Put it on the team web page and gain some advertising revenue. Easiest way to find the fan would be to review these web pages for each team or an IHL message board. I'd rather watch the game than blog, but someone would do this. (Many already are from their portable devise) Control of content could be an issue, but some free speech would get more people involved.
2. Like what Quad City is already doing...open the locker rooms somehow...access to the coach before the game like in Kalamazoo. Have a different player blog each week (or have the equipment manager blog for them) Ask/Force the coaches to write something each week. Put all the coaches radio shows (does every team have one?) on the IHL website. Being a non union league, get the players more involved in this stuff...no brainer types of things, again at no cost.
3. Gather goals, great plays, and fights from the B2 feed and put them up on the IHL website. Traffic from die hard fans creates interest and enthusiasm. Imagine sending a buddy a link of a great goal, stone wall save, or fight and say, "You missed this last Saturday. Click on this link and see what you missed." As they click the link, they see the video and a coupon is available for a free program, $3 off a souvenir, $1 off a ticket. Food discounts for teams that control concessions. I'd send these like crazy to people I know. No real cost to the league if they implement idea #4.
4. DVD highlights from each team, again using B2 video. Have the IHL hire some 20 some year old to put all this together. Total cost to the league is next to nothing. If the DVDs sell, they could make money on this. The Komets sold the Game 7 Turner Cup game for $20. It was the local public access feed. Cost nothing to produce the content, little to produce the actual DVD. I'm sure that made some money.
Price these cheap, $7 a piece for "Great Goals" "Sick Saves" "Big Brawls" I'd buy 'em and bet most people on the board would as well. I'd love to watch something like that right now in the off season. If the IHL gets many/most of the 8 vets back from year to year, I'd probably buy the other teams' "year in review" DVD highlights. Have some of us from this board or season ticket holders get involved with voice overs, narration, or "hosting" the videos.
5. (Too late for this year) Stream the draft that's taking place. While some teams might trade players before it's finalized (Dayton drafts Bertram who's left unprotected by the Komets, who then trades the rights back to the Komets for a player that is on their protected list as an example), this would be fun to see. Don't stream the audio, but have a board that automatically refreshes when a new player is added. I'd have that open all day on my computer. Again, no cost, but increases fan interest. The same dude they hired for idea #4 does this.
I like Hextall as the new commish. Glad it's a hockey guy with business sense.
Good ideas Sal.
Why couldn't the IHL do their own B2 networking? How hard could that system be to figure out? They do this same thing at Indiana Tech for all of their sports, for free I think. They could really make it nice, and maybe even purchase an actual camera system that you can buy for less than $1000 at your local Big Box Store that is HD....wow, you might actually be able to see what is going on....unlike 75% of the B2 feeds from last season. Whatever they charge for it....say 5,6,7 dollars a game or $125 for the season could actually benefit the league and the teams instead of B2. They would own the rights to the video, and could make DVD's or even do Pay Per View Streaming Online for games that people might want to watch on their own time.....
I think they could do this and it would be another way to generate interest and revenue.
Me and the commish need to sit down over a root beer float so I can let him know my expectations for the officiating for this season, maybe we can do it up at Schebigs lake and drink his stinkin root beer, everyone have a safe weekend, oil up.
GREAT ideas, Salvucci....is it too late to make you the Commish?!
And, thanks for giving us a behind the scenes look, DSchebig. But we are just the fans, not involved in the day-to-day, and I guess what I was trying to say there was that, even though the goal judges are not biased and don't give anything to the home team, it's just gonna look that way if they aren't rotated. Maybe you can't understand that because you were in that position, but even to the home team, it can and does. I'm not saying I don't appreciate the work the off-ice officials do. Heck, I appreciate all the work that goes into the IHL. It's all part of what brings me my October thru May fix!!
Hit, I wonder if they don't do the B2-type feed in order to "encourage" more butts in the seats? FW doesn't have such a problem, but in places like, oh, I don't know, Flint comes to mind....$8 per game would be a heck of a lot cheaper than even $5 seats, or whatever their cheap seats are, if you have a family of 4. Plus drinks and snacks. Just a thought.
They should offer it up only for games that aren't at home for you.....road games. And you can access the home games once the game is over. That would be the only way this would work.
Hey, Blake. The Grabill Country Fair is coming up Thursday through Saturday. Last year the Komets were the "grand marshalls" of the parade, of course. The Turner Cup was there and it was supposed to be a big deal, but only staff, Guy and, as one fan noted, "the chicken" showed up. I wasn't going to bother dragging myself out of bed for it this time, but out of curiosity, is the Komets organization participating in this year's parade? And if so, are any players (okay... Guy) planning to be there?
Thanks for the update on the Grabill Fair Wendy. If I hitch up my horse and buggy now, start for Grabill this afternoon, I should be able to get there by Thursday.
Great, Alan. We'll be ready for you. Get yourself some homemade ice cream, strawberry shortcake and an apple dumpling while you're here. Good thing we have plenty of places to hitch that horse while you eat. LOL. And to clarify, I just meant I probably wouldn't be going to the parade. I'm still going to the fair. They have the best Walleye sandwiches around, and the price is actually very reasonable.
Will road apples be available at the fair?
Burgee, Gross Misconduct, go to the box and feel shame!
I have asked Wendy, but have not heard an answer yet.
wendy i heard that blake will be driving the zamboni with the cup down main st. grabill.
Thanks Blake. Burgee, they give those away for free all summer long for gardening and such. Why? Would you like some? I'll throw a few in your car. ;)
As for Blake and the Zamboni... Actually, that would pretty cool. B)
Here is my pic, if you see me get out of my car go ahead and fill 'er up!
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=8497