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.
Red Wings an Arrogant Organization?
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Originally Posted by Heaton
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