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Bosc Ulrich II
OTP Resident Historian
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 3202
Location: Sweetest lid in the league
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 Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:35 pm Post subject: A2Y: Detroit sports writers are a problem |
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http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/A2Y/comments/thursday_digging/
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On to Detroit, the hockey town that can’t sell out, the hockey town that Michigan forgot. Too strong? Maybe. Khan(!) does a nice job of recognizing some factors that have kept the Detroit sports fan away from the JLA this season. I’ve got my own reasons that we’ll get to in a minute.
MLive
Last week, on the same night the Red Wings played in Montreal for the first time in four years, the Tigers shocked the baseball world with a blockbuster trade that landed them Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. And the Red Wings’ current seven-game winning streak has been overshadowed by the Michigan football coaching search-turned-soap opera and the Lions’ collapse. If that wasn’t enough, the Pistons are also off to a hot start.
It’s a sound argument, one that carries a little more weight with me than “the economy.” Khan(!)’s telling us the attention span of the Michigan sports fan is a little too short to expect them to be able to focus on the Wings and all else that’s going on around town these days. Well? Who determines the priorities? Do you, the sports fan? Naturally, you have the final say so, but who sets the agenda? The columnists, that’s who. The guy with the big ears, the other one with the big gut, the bitter one who’s relegated to covering prep sports now. Albom, Wojnowski, Foster, Parker, Sharp, Rosenberg. Six columnists in Detroit. You may not agree with what they write, but you read it. And what you read affects your level of interest.
Having made that startling claim, I’ll give you something else to think about. Of the last 65 columns written by Albom, Wojo, Parker, Sharp or Rosenberg...guess how many have been Wing-related.
Yep. Zero.
And here we are, full circle. Time for my yearly rant. The columnists in Detroit can all kiss my ass. April hockey writers..all of them. Who the hell is Bob Wojnowski to even discuss Red Wing hockey on the radio when he won’t waddle down to the Joe to write about the best team in hockey--by a long shot. We won’t even dwell on The Delicate Genius. Maybe Oprah can pry a few Wing observations out of him next time they’re crying together on TV. Rosenberg? That’s the biggest disappointment because I like the way he writes. But...too bad, because he ignores your Wings too.
Best team in hockey. Arguably three of the five top players in hockey. A dynasty. The most successful sports team in the state’s history. Zero columns out of the last 65. And that’s just as far back as I looked. It’s not like 66 was devoted to the Wings. I’d be surprised if that number wasn’t closer to 100. You want a reason for Wing fan apathy, take a look at that gaggle of “journalists.”
John Niyo? He’s not included in that. I like that kid. You know who he is? He’s frigging Ryan from The Office, the funniest show ever invented. He’s Ryan the temp to Ted Kulfan’s Michael Scott.
Niyo’s the occasional Wing writer, and it’s too bad that’s not more permanent. I think he avoids it because he doesn’t want to be associated with the Diggers, but he pops in from time to time like he does today--discussing the fact that the Wings have stolen from Bubba to cure some woe.
Times are tough. Tough enough, in fact, that the Red Wings, the standard-bearers for success in the NHL the last two decades, have turned to a teetering expansion franchise for help.
In an attempt to halt sagging attendance at Joe Louis Arena and reclaim the “Hockeytown” crown Sports Illustrated unceremoniously bequeathed to the Minnesota Wild last week, the Wings have hired a new vice president of business affairs. Enter Steve Violetta, who leaves a similar position he held with the Nashville Predators?
“It’s Hockeytown instead of Honkytonk town, right?” Violetta joked Monday, shortly after meeting the staff at Joe Louis Arena.
Idiotic joke from Violetta aside, it’s a good article that betrays the Kulfan style of Digging. Niyo actually, sit down, talks to more than one person to write his story. Fans, Pistons execs, Wing staffers...real digging, instead of the surface garbage Michael Scott throws at us thumb tapping his stories from his couch on his Blackberry. |
I generally don't follow Detroit's press, so I guess I haven't missed much. RW and Lil, is it as bad as he described?
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RW
Distinguished Gentleman of the Post
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 342
Location: Seat 10, Row 8, Section 226B
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| Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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He's just a blogger trying to make a name for himself. Look most of the writers in Detroit have to pull multiple duty. Kulfan writes about the Lions, The Red Wings and where ever else he's sent. John Niyo, the same and it's that way for almost every other writer for a major daily newspaper. Mitch Albom is a combinatoion columnist / sports writer / author. I don't even pay any attention to his ramblings. There's also the Windsor Star's Bob Duff who writes about the Red Wings. Anser Khan of M-Live is decent. Truthfully they aren't any worse and in a lot of cases bateer than most of the other hockey writers located elsewhere. They uunderstand the game and won't ask stupid questions at pressers. No, as a group, they are not Red Fisher, Joe Falls or Jerry Green. Those guys came from a differant era where the team's only news came through the major daily newspapers and the Hockey News. Now you have newspapers, online versions of the same, bloggers, hickey forums, etc. The news and rumors just comes faster. I personally like it better although I miss reading Joe Falls, God rest his soul, he could paint a picture in a story. My RW reports are based partly on his influence. He didn't just tell you what happened on te ice but about getting to the game, the game itself, the experience in the stands and the events afterwards. You really felt like a part of the Red Wings and as if you attended games regularly. I still enjoy reading Montreal's Red Fisher columns. Enjoy him while you can he won't be here forever.
Back to Kukla's position. How in the fuck do you blame the writers for a drop off in attendance? The fact is the Tigers, the towns major sport to begin with are back. The Red Wings had a marvelous oppertunistic period, up until recently, where both the Tigers and the Lions (If I hear / see one one god damned, "and Bears oh, my" I will personally track your ass down, pull your eyes out of your head and then I will piss into your empty eye sockets - promise) were terrible. It made the Red Wings the only winning game in town. Ergo everyone likes a winner everyone want's to go. Now the proverbial worm has turned. The Pistons and Tigers are serious title contenders and the Red Wings have to compete within that market. The Lions, oh well. People still sell that joit out and the Lions suck I will say this, if the Lions every get it right and win a title? Detroit will lose it's collective mind. Detroit is a baseball town first followed by the rest. The Red Wings have to win and be creative. This is a bad economy. No writer can change that.
The final nail in the Red Wings coffin is ticket prices. They never lowered ticket prices after the lockout. The player costs were reduced by almost ½ right after the lockout. No drop in ticket prices what so ever. They have finally promissed, today, to lower playoff ticket prices. That's a start. Because of revenue needs they may not be able to do much but offer a lot of promotions and freebies for a while because of the local economy. If they win another Stanley Cup they'll be back attendance wise. A lot of folks just don't trust them to not have another great regular season and then a playoff flame out. It's happended way too often even though they've won 3 Cups. It will take another serious cup run to bring fans back, especially corporate fan support.
To finish it off. I usually like Kukla's blog. But on this one he's just being a tool....
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RW
Distinguished Gentleman of the Post
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 342
Location: Seat 10, Row 8, Section 226B
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Bosc Ulrich II
OTP Resident Historian
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 3202
Location: Sweetest lid in the league
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| Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, RW. I've heard all about the factors that you have mentioned before such as the economic state and the other major sports, but was wondering how accurate A2Y's description of the media being a problem was. For clarification, this wasn't Kukla, but A2Y. Kukla's blog has posts that come from the other bloggers he has joined to his site.
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