Begininning with the letter "R"

Today’s word of the day and my final entry is “Reflection” and is described as: (1) a thought or an opinion resulting from intent consideration (2) an expression without words. (3) an implicit or explicit attribution of discredit or blame.

This will be my last blog entry and …yes…you guessed it, my gimmick is over. The reason for my choice to use this word is that I believe how you use PR in the media to put forward your reflection can influence opinions even after the event is over. Let’s briefly review the reflections of Jim Balsillie and Gary Bettman who realistically were the main players in the Bankruptcy of the Phoenix Coyotes case that was before the courts earlier this year. We have already discussed what each did well when it comes to using PR to represent their case (even losing, Balsillie did a better job) but what will their refection be to the public in years to come?

First there is Jim Balsillie, the master of public approval. By remaining accessible with media friendly PR throughout the case, Balsillie drew rave reviews in the press and in public opinion. While he may have lost in his bid to buy the Coyotes, his puppy dog looks, ever smiling face seen thousands of times in media outlets captured the hearts of millions and won his case in the publics mind. Sometimes expressions mean everything when it comes to effective PR and Balsillie ensured no words were needed.

Now when it comes to Gary Bettman…well this concept seemed foreign. He was often short with the media usually giving a quick statement then hurrying off. It was almost like he didn’t really care what the media or the public thought about him or the way he was handling the case. He was seen as arrogant, combative and unapproachable. While he may have won the case, Bettman should have considered what the end opinion may result in and stop the PR method of character assignation which he used to discredit Ballsillie throughout the case.

In the end one person won and one person didn’t. However, the only “Reflection” that the public will want to see again is the one who unfortunately came away from this case without the team.

At this time I would like to thank all of those that made comments throughout my blog gimmick. It was those comments that gave me great ideas’ and made me want to provide you with both an informative and reflective look into the PR respective of this case. You never know, maybe I’ll be required to do this type of gimmick again. If I do, I hope you’ll be along for the ride with me.

Jordene

Begininning with the letter "P"

Today’s word of the day is “Powerful” and can be described as: (1) having great power or force or potency or effect. (2) potent: having great influence.

As I mentioned in my entry yesterday when the word of the day was “effective”, I would use another word in the same topic. So now it’s time to take a look at just how well Gary Bettman and the NHL used PR to sell their case.

The reason why I choose the word “powerful” which is a synonym for the word effective was I thought the definitions described just how Bettman and the league tried to present itself during this case. Did this have the outcome they wanted? Well, they did kind of win. However, was it due to the way they played the PR game or was it more due to some of the rules they played out being just too complicated to have them lose?

There was no question that Bettman and the league had their Constitutions and Bylaws nailed down. This was repeated over and over during this case (by them). By having these in place and never before challenged prior to Jim Balsillie taking them on, it was almost impossible to rule against something that others had followed and seemingly had no problem with. It also didn’t hurt the organization that many of the franchise owners are also wealthy and well known in the business community. Talk about influence.

In part of Judge Baum’s final ruling he stated that in respect to Balsiilie’s claim it could not work because he could not properly satisfy the NHL's rights regarding relocation (hmmm, sounds like Section 36 of the Bylaw) . Baum noted "In the final analysis, the court cannot find or conclude that the interests of the NHL can be adequately protected if the Coyotes are moved to Hamilton without first having a final decision regarding the claimed rights of the NHL and the claims of the debtors and (Balsillie)". The best interests of the NHL, what about the best interests of the sport? Seems Judge Baum forgot about that part.

The thing is, Bettman and the league used what they had…power, and they used it well. By focusing on and using the media to report the lengths and depths they would go to in protecting their precious Constitutions and Bylaws they achieved the effect they wanted. That said, it may be the continuing effects of just how far they went to get it that makes the “Powerful” look petty and weak.

Begininning with the letter "E"

Today’s word of the day is “Effective” and can be described as: (1) producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a striking effect. (2) able to accomplish a purpose.

I choose this word to start wrapping up by blog (my gimmick is ending soon) on how all the parties involved in both the Phoenix Coyotes Bankruptcy case and the NHL as a whole has used PR in an effective way. My next entry will be the flip side to this (but I will need to find another word, ineffective is kind of cheating) as we look at what has not worked and maybe why.

So, let’s start where my blog began….the case that consumed the media earlier this year. While we all know what happened in the end, how did each side use PR in an effective way to gain support in their cause? We will begin with Jim Balsillie as he was the reason this whole case went before the courts. Without him, I would have been stuck for a topic both in this blog assignment and my Case Analysis (another gimmick).

What exactly did Balsillie do right? Well for starters the guy is friendly. People like him. He’s not hard to look at, he’s a Canadian success story, he’s camera friendly and he knew what he had to do before the case went high profile. That’s the whole trick in setting up effective PR. Knowing what you’ll settle for in the end and how to get there. Now, he might not of 100% believed he could win this (and he was right) but maybe in the end that wasn’t his master plan. Balsillie knew that the only way to stand a chance was to gain public support and by doing so turn the tables on what was wrong in the NHL and with its Commissioner Gary Bettman. Did he do this? The answer to that is …. absolutely.

By doing things like having the media in his dressing room before his pick-up Hockey games, always (well almost always) remaining above the name calling and character assignation, Balsillie was able to remain a positive connection in this case. He started a website with him appearing in the video “Make it seven” which was nothing short of contagious in Canada. Even always pro-Canadian Don Cherry plugged his cause in a segment of Hockey Night in Canada. His media release’s were filled with patriotic overtones and if he was quoted once he was quoted 1,000 times as saying “I just want an opportunity, to bring a NHL team back to the country where it belongs” A bit much?, well the public didn’t think so. Balsillie’s popularity and support continued to grow throughout this case while the other side…well...you’ll have to read tomorrow’s entry.

Even after the verdict was read, Balsillie used his prior tactics of the underdog to continue his character superiority in the media with saying “Although, I personally was unsuccessful, I hope my efforts may pave the way for what I have just always envisioned, another team in Southern Ontario. When that day comes, I will be the first in line to buy a ticket”. Oh, Jim, you nice guy, you.

All joking aside, Balsillie proved that good PR is majorly important in what you are trying to achieve. While you may not necessarily score the winning goal in the Stanly Cup, it’s sometimes the path you took to get there that can be as “effective”.

Begininning with the letter "D"

Today’s word of the day is "decline" and can be described as: (1) a downward movement (2) a change in something to becoming smaller or lower.

What I would like to do in today’s blog entry is to close the book on my parents photo’s they provided me ( thanks Mom) but also to start to show how if any PR related methods currently being used by some of the franchise’s can be considered effective. I believe we can agree that effective would mean increased ticket sales.

Let’s start with the obvious (and I’m sure some of you are getting tired of hearing about) Tampa Bay Lightning. I’ll begin here because I have a few previously unreleased photos’ that were taken that can help emphasis my intent here. The Lightning’s main PR campaign this year is “Together We Will” which would imply people becoming involved. Which would imply more people showing up at games, right? From some of my past entry’s we have seen as my parents did first hand that this campaign may be in trouble.

Part of the together thing is that the Lightning PR team is trying to promote the game as a social gathering so that the Tampa area can become involved, excited and wants the team to succeed. They offer a onstage pre game jazz band, those dreaded cheerleaders greeting those fans that actually showed up and an outside open bar area (remember it was 80 + degrees the night my parents went) with big screen televisions everywhere for those that prefer a less colder climate than that inside. Has this increased attendance so far?

It is estimated that attendance on average is down by 2,000 per game (wasn’t great to begin with) compared to last year. It is also common knowledge that new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie don't have the money to operate the team successfully as the purchase was financed with a $105 million, three-year bullet loan, meaning in 2011 they will either have to pay the loan off or refinance it. As well, TV ratings have dropped 21%, the most of any NHL club this season and the owners are on their third coach and also fired Jay Feaster, a qualified general manager. Kind of looks like the “Together We Will” has turned out to be more like “Looks like we won’t after-all”.

In this situation of over loan extensions, poor management and a culture that is just not into the Lightning’s effective PR is almost impossible. While some of the ideas are good (with the exception of those cheerleaders) the painful movement downward will continue until small becomes none and lower becomes underground in the “decline” of this franchise and others in the US.

Begininning with the letter "A"

Today’s word of the day is “Attendance” and can be defined as: (1) the number of people that are present. (2) the frequency with which a person is present.

In today’s entry I would like to once again take a small look at my parent’s recent trip (via photo’s) to Florida and their attendance at a Tampa Bay Lightning game. While they weren’t the only ones there, my step-dad was surprised at the amount that was not. As mentioned in my last entry, my parents estimated that the St. Pete’s Forum was about half full with a lot of empty sections throughout the arena. How does this compare to other relocated or expansion teams in the NHL and what PR methods are they using to draw in the crowds? It seems that in Tampa, having undressed girls skate and cheer that either once dreamed of being in the Ice Capades or on a professional football field but clearly settled in life hasn’t worked, has anything?

The obvious choice to start with (but I won’t because we already know what happened) would be the Phoenix Coyotes. Lets just all agree, whatever PR methods were used to increase attendance failed and will likely remain that way until the team is relocated (again). Lets then move to the Atlanta Thrashers that joined the NHL in 1999 as an expansion team and compare that to the Calgary Flames that were actually a relocation team from Atlanta in 1980. So, Atlanta had a team then lost the team then got another team. See where I’m going here?

The Atlanta Thrashers play out of the Philips Arena which has a capacity for NHL games to hold about 18,500 people. The average attendance in the 2008 playing season was about 14,600. The home website offers all kinds of promotions for tickets with the average ticket price on the second level ranging from $62 to $84 US. One of the marketing things used on this site that caught my attention was the promotion of “4 tickets and 4 combo’s starting at $89”. This sounded great until I drilled in and realized that the tickets were at the very top of the arena (the players would look like ants) and there was all kinds of restrictions on the food you were allowed. I’m not sure this would turn out as enjoyable as the price sounds.

In comparison the Calgary Flames play out of the Pengrowth Saddledome which has a capacity to hold about 19,500 people. The average attendance in the same season was 19,289 which tell us things are going well in Calgary. Average ticket prices for the same section ranged from $49 to $66 CAN with many group promotions as well. What I didn’t see on the home website were the same marketing grabbers that the Atlanta Thrasher had to boost ticket sales. Clearly Calgary doesn’t need them because the city supports the team already.

The main point in this entry is if you can’t fill the seats you can’t have a successful franchise. How much sense did it make to put another NHL team in Atlanta when years before you moved one out? Did something change in the city’s culture towards the game of Hockey that indicated a franchise would then succeed when it hadn’t before? With leaving an average of 4,000 seats empty per game I would say not. Perhaps the NHL and Bettman should have looked at what was wrong in Atlanta before pretending that “attendance” didn’t really matter.

Begininning with the letter "R"

Today’s word of the day is “Re-apply” and can de described: (1) to again request or solicit something. (2) to transfer something that has been successful and use it elsewhere.

For today’s entry (first of the next three), I am going to once again reference my parent’s recent trip to Florida and their attendance and observations at a Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Hockey game. With that I hope to compare some of this franchise’s marketing techniques to that of others sports and how or if our Canadian counter parts would and do use these methods to draw attendance. The main reason I chose the word reapply was because I think at the end of this we will all be able to draw a fairly informative conclusion on the success or failure in what some of this NHL expansion team is doing to market the sport of Hockey.

First let’s look at one of the marketing tools used by the Lightning that clearly is a re-apply from another sport, cheerleaders. That’s right cheerleaders. They have them and use them to as an apparent draw for increased attendance and I guess sport promotion. Both my parents found this not only surprising but somewhat demining to the sport itself. The NFL has been promoting its franchises cheerleaders beginning with the craze of the Dallas squad in the mid seventies right through to today’s teams. All teams have those good looking young ladies carrying pompoms and cheering on their team along the sidelines. Is this a marketing success for the NFL? Absolutely, because it has become part of the whole experience in the sport of football in the US and if they were not there it would be noticed. That’s all part of effective marketing. While the cheerleaders may not necessarily draw additional attendance just to see them adds to the whole marketing package.

So, can you take a successful marketing tool from one sport and re-apply it to another? In the case of cheerleaders on skates, my parents thought not. While there was whole mascot thing (Canadian teams have those as well) who ran around from section to section promoting people to “Make some Noise” and clearly entertaining young children, the Lightning Cheerleaders they felt were “just wrong” and did not belong in a sport played in a colder environment to which they were clearly underdressed. To add to this was the embarrassment (my mom thought but my step-dad didn’t seem to mind) of having a few come onto the ice and push a shovel around to assist the Zamboni in its ice cleaning duties. That would kind of be like the cheerleaders of an NFL team assisting the punt kicker by holding the ball?

There are many ways that marketing tools and Public Relation campaigns can be re-thought and re-applied to be used for other products. The use of animals and hit songs is an example. Recent TELUS, Dawn and the ever famous Super Bowl Budweiser commercials all use animals in brand recognition. Some memorable songs in recent commercials like AT & T’s “Come Together” by the Beatles, Buicks “Dream On” by Aerosmith and Chevrolets use of “Like a Rock” by Bob Seger, all have re-applied a common marketing tool and been successful. So has the re-application from the NFL to the NHL in respect to cheerleaders helped the over-all attendance in the case of the Tampa Bay Lightning?

The St. Pete’s Forum where the Lightning play out of for home games can seat approximately 19,500 fans. My parents figured there were approximately half that present, meaning a lot of empty sections. They also noted that there were not as much fan wear, meaning fans wearing hockey jerseys, waving those huge #1 foam hands or even fan slamming (this is when fans yell at their own team after a bad play). They found the whole experience uneventful. Would we use that word after attending a Leaf, Senators or Canadian game where fans are famous for turning on their own team at a game but defending them the next day at the water cooler?

The whole cheerleading thing is just a small example of a Hockey market in those NHL expansion teams that haven’t yet figured out what to do with what Bettman and the NHL have given them and in many cases do not seem to want. While the Tampa Bay Lightning may be desperately trying to take a marketing success from another sport and “re-apply” it to their own, they may have first wanted to solicit advice from some of the Canadian markets were the implementation of cheerleaders at a game would be a popular as Jim Balsillie seems to the NHL and Bettman right now.

Begininning with the letter "G"

Today’s word of the day is my second part of the same word “Gimmick” and can be used to describe: (1) an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project or product. (2) a significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.

The reason for this two part entry on the same word was mainly to start the focus on the Public Relations part of my blog. That said it will still pertain to the same topic but I am now going to take the information that I provided in the first half of my entries and look at how the use of effective or ineffective Public Relations played a part in the eventual perception of Jim Balsillie, Gary Bettman and the NHL.

Recently my parents were on vacation in Florida and took the opportunity to attend a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. When I realized this I asked them to take a few pictures so that perhaps I could use them in this blog. What I found by viewing them and talking to both was that it was quite a different experience than if they had of gone to a Toronto Maple Leafs or an Ottawa Senators game. Remember, the Tampa Bay Lightning Franchise was one of the US expansion teams that Gary Bettman and the NHL wanted so badly. How has this worked out so far financially and how are they marketing the game to draw the support of this sport? My next few entries will discuss what I believe the pictures reflect. They haven’t.

Let’s first start of with how the sport itself has been marketed in an area that is known for its NFL and college football teams and last years World Series contenders baseball team. Understand in Florida all three could be happening at the same time if the Tampa Bay Rays (baseball) make it into the playoffs. If not (as it was this year) there are still multiple football choices which are huge draws in the US. In a two week span (the length of my parents vacation) they could have attended four various high level football games within a hour drive since both the NFL team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the South Florida College football team both play out of the same stadium.

So how is the game of hockey itself being marketed? Are the traditions of the sport and its true tests of physical and athletic ability being promoted? Is the area and the franchise really building a culture that appreciates the game for really what it is? From what my parents saw and heard from people at the game, the answer is not surprising. While the marketing of the team has improved by catchy phrases like “Together We Will” and last years “Seen Stamkos” (who just happens to be a fan favorite) the franchise itself has missed the mark on promoting the actual sport of hockey.


The face of the stadium (which over-all my parents were impressed by) may have been overhauled but not necessarily to reflect the game. Instead is that of the five best looking players on the team. It just so happens that those same five are also plastered on the programs, area billboards and even 300 Big Yellow Taxis that the franchise joined in partnership this year. A great job in brand exposure to get the names and faces (good looking ones anyways) of the team out into the public but is it effective and sustainable?

Has this stratagem of marketing the players of the game instead of the game itself really improved the over-all perception and understanding of it? Or is it just an obscured and not clearly evident representation of the NHL’s continual use of a “gimmick” to hide the real agenda here which if you haven’t figured out yet is…..money.

Begininning with the letter "G"

Today’s word of the day is “Gimmick” and can be described as: (1) an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project or product. (2) a significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.

Today’s word of the day will actually be a two profile entry on the same word starting with this one which is a little more personal then the previous format I have used so far. Since starting my blog I have really been trying to focus on giving researched and informative information (hopefully on all subjects I have chosen) so that not only can I interject my own thoughts throughout the various entries but have those that are following and/or making comments do the same. While a blog is really just a personal website that allows an individual a format to express views and opinions about really….anything, it can also be used to assist that someone in forming and transposing those views to others and maybe in the end change them. In other words a blog can be an obscured or a not readily evident form of Public Relations.

My stratagem in this project thus far was that by providing clear and researched information about the current Public Relations frenzy of Jim Balsillie’s endless attempts at securing a Canadian NHL franchise and those involved that want to stop him (which I knew would draw strong opinions) I could provide a perspective that would not necessarily change the minds of those that read it but perhaps give them something to think about. While during the first half of this project I may have spent more time on the information part than the actual PR perspective (which by the way is my actual gimmick here) I do believe that I have been fairly successful in providing a format that has promoted some really good feedback.

Can the same be said about the Public Relations methods used by Jim Balsillie, Gary Bettman and the NHL as a whole? Did each provide researched information that drew its followers to their own desired project or product which then in turn influenced the positive opinions to those results? Or in the end did they become the ring leaders in a media circus of schemes and misrepresented strategies which included name calling; character assassination and media leaks that may have backfired? Instead of using a “gimmick” to benefit their own cause they each in their own way may have became one.

Begininning with the letter "P"

Today’s word of the day is “Persistent” and can be described as: (1) obstinately refusing to give up or let go. (2) dogged: stubbornly unyielding.

Since I believe in fair play, I thought in today’s entry, I should spend a bit of time exploring the third corner of this apparent triangle, Jim Balsillie and his unyielding effort to become an owner of an NHL franchise. So, the short and sweet version is Balsillie, a die hard Canadian (when it comes to Hockey anyways) is the co-CEO of the company Research in Motion (also Canadian) which is the manufacturer of the Blackberry wireless phone network. His net worth is around $1.9 billion so the approximate $220 million he offered in his third attempt to buy a NHL franchise is really irrelevant. What is may be the real reason for all of what has happened. Is Balsillie really the die hard Canadian that he claims to be or is he now just playing the PR game for his own benefit?

As I mentioned in my first blog entry, Public Relations in the end is about having people want something that was your idea. By clearly and effectively using what is wrong with the NHL and Bettman as its apparent CEO, Balsillie has marketed his vision to the magical number of seven with all Canadians behind the wrongs that it seems he has been dealt. It has helped him tremendously that the other two corners have all refused to play along but then again they’re playing a different PR game. Whether Balsillie truly wants to “Make it seven” for the right reasons or he just wants to draw from another sport and not make it his third strike is yet to be seen.

Really in the end, the best game that Balsillie could have hoped for in this scenario is exactly what the outcome has been. Did he get the Phoenix Coyotes in the end? The answer is unfortunately no. Let’s be honest, did he really expect to after what had taken place the last two times? I’m not sure. What Balsillie did however was to unite a country to stand up for him and a sport that should be their right to play and own more of. What the real question is though did Balsillie’s PR show the true difference of being dogged by being “Persistent” or just being plain old dogged?

Begininning with the letter "C"

Today’s word of the day is “Commissioner” and can be described as: (1) an individual, group or organization who appoints an individual/organization to perform a specific task. (2) an official chosen by an athletic association to exercise broad administrative or judicial authority.

Instead of spending some more time exploring what the NHL can do with rules and when they can do it, let’s spend a minute looking at the man who’s apparently leading it. For approximately 16 years, the NHL’s has been ruled by its Commissioner, Gary Bettman. That said, he just didn’t one day decide this would be a cool job to have and just got it. There was a reason for the owners to vote in Bettman and this was mainly to expand the NHL into the US market. Right there we now know that an agenda was long in the works before Jim Balsillie and his three attempts to secure an NHL team and relocate it to Canada. Did Bettman deliver? The answer is yes. Did Bettman deliver successfully? Well that ones up for debate.

Presently there are approximately ten NHL teams that have a higher operating cost than revenue. This is not good. Along with this is the fact that these teams are based in the US and most are those expansion teams that Gary Bettman was hired to deliver to his boss’s. So you could say that he did what he was supposed to. The problem here is that both the owners and Bettman continue to drive the sport of Hockey into US markets that really don’t want it.

Bettman has become the target by many especially in this last round with Balsillie. While both could be accused of playing a bit dirty especially in the media, just remember one thing. At the end of the day, like any employee, Bettman takes his direction from those that pay him. That said, this may be an example of when “Not to shoot the Commissioner”.

Begininning with the letter "B"

Today’s word is “Bankrupt” and can be described as: (1) Noun - a person or business which has made an assignment in bankruptcy or has been petitioned into bankruptcy. (2) Adjective - owing more money than you have assets or income to repay.

The word itself seems pretty straight forward. Someone owes more than they have and therefore applies for bankruptcy. This way they have some protection against any creditors. This type of state as happened to millions of people especially over the last few years with the mortgage fiasco in the US and an over-all recession. So, why is it that when Jerry Moyes, the owner and chief executive officer of the Phoenix Coyotes files for Chapter 11 (legal term for bankruptcy) a full blown court case needs to happen?

Jim Balsillie made a substantial (and only) bid to purchase the team (and was probably persuaded by Moyes) and the only way he should have been denied is if someone else bid higher. While there were some questions about secured versus unsecured creditors and who would get paid and who wouldn't, that was the job of the judge overseeing the case. The only reason the NHL got so ticked was this was a back door way for Balsillie to be able to move the team once his bid was accepted. They then remove Moyes from any position of authority (seems they don’t like him anymore) and proceed before the courts in the “best interests” of the NHL, its constitutions (here we go again) and other owners. I question the motives in this one.

To me, it so far seems that someone never truly owns a NHL team, can sell one or after losing millions by having one, declare bankruptcy. Why the NHL and its Commissioner, Gary Bettman are going to the lengths to stop Jim Balsillie from buying a losing team is the real question. The whole “bankrupt” part in this is just another asset for the NHL to play with.

Begininning with the letter "R"

Today’s word of the day is “rules” and can be described as: (1) Governing power or its possession or use; authority (2) To dominate by powerful influence (3) An authoritative, prescribed direction for conduct and regulations governing the procedures in a legislative body observed by the players in a game, sport, or contest.

Much as been talked about or written about the apparent rules that a prospective owner for a NHL franchise must follow to be awarded a team. Are these strictly followed by both the league and agreed to by the new owner or are they just guidelines that are only enforced if any of the parties choose to?

One of these rules surrounding much of the controversy is the so called NHL’s “seven year rule” which would require the new owner of the franchise to remain in the present team city for seven years before relocating it. So, is this an actual rule or regulation in the NHL’s Constitutions and Bylaws? If it is, I could not find it. I painfully undertook the task of reading through anything affiliated with relocation, transfer and new ownership but could only find something in the application process. That was more about the timing of an application to transfer a team having to be completed by January 1^st of the year prior to the year a team would start its first season in a new location. That’s all I found nothing more specific and finally gave up due to lack of time, patience and the general understanding in the misleading wording in the documents themselves. If someone knows of anything more, please feel free to post a comment.

I now believe that the “seven year “is not actually about a rule but more about the real power behind it. By trying to have Jim Balsillie agree to another seven years of financial loss by remaining in Phoenix where the Coyotes already own this record since relocating from Winnipeg seven years ago, the NHL can deter and monopolize its franchises and who owns them. This dismal prospect would be like receiving the maximum penalty for breaking two mirrors. So, does anyone ever truly own a NHL franchise or is it really just someone that’s allowed to play. Since the “rules” seemed to be arbitrary and the rulers have all authority when to direct them, it seems that either you play along or you don’t play at all.

Begininning with the letter "H"

Today’s word of the day is Ice Hockey or simply put “Hockey” (in countries where it is frequently played) and is: (1) a team sport played on ice that originated in Canada around 1800. (2) most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover, such as Canada, the northern United States, the Nordic countries and Russia. (3) The official national winter sports of Canada.

I thought today’s word should be about the sport that is as Canadian as the Maple Leaf, Don Cherry, Wayne Gretzky (before Janet and her aerobics video), The Tragically Hip and Molson’s beer. Anywhere you search for information on this word, the one thing that is constant is that this is a true Canadian born sport and passion. How then did we end up in the NHL with only six current teams compared to the twenty four that are based in US cities? If this is truly our countries sport why is starting to feel like it has obtained dual citizenship but prefers the US over its true nationality? Has the sport gone along with the Liberal Party, with the true leader, the NHL picking and choosing when to appear interested in building or even continuing a future for the sport on its own home ground? How do teams like the Quebec Nordics and the Winnipeg Jets get whisked to the US so quickly (no “seven year rule” there) but when ironically the city that the Jets relocate to (Phoenix) cannot support the sport, someone like Jim Balsillie cannot move it back to the country where it truly belongs? As well, how the heck do cities like San Joes, Los Angeles, Dallas, Anaheim, Raleigh, Tampa and some other place called Sunrise (another Florida team) even get awarded franchise’s when they don’t even have snow?

The real risk that we as Canadians run here is that while the NHL stands for National Hockey League, in what Nation does its interest truly lay? If people like Jim Balsillie stop fighting for us and for what’s truly right, we may just end up with the official winter sport but no professional teams in the game of “Hockey”.

Begininning with the letter "R"

Today's word of the day is "relocation", which can be defined as: (1) the transportation of something to a new settlement after an upheaval of some kind; (2) vacating fixed location (such as a residence or business) and settling in a different one. A move can be to a nearby location within the same neighborhood, a much farther location in a different city, or sometimes a different country.

This word alone seems to be one of the major controversies surrounding the subject of my blog. Now it has since been tied in with other questionable words, which will be, discussed in future entries but let’s start here. Relocation of a business happens frequently due to economic benefits. Why not move something that isn’t working where it is to some other place that will see it grow and do well? If a NHL Hockey team is losing scads of money in one city because the people in that city don’t support it, shouldn't the owner of that team be able to just sell it to someone else and the new owner move it to somewhere that really wants it? The necessary upheaval as already happened, we’ll call that bankruptcy, so why enforce the so-called “seven year rule"? This would now mean that a new owner who just paid millions of dollars to buy a non-profitable team would be forced to stay in the same city that made it that way for another seven years. Hello, am I the only one that thinks this does not make good business sense?

Is the relocation really more about Jim Balsillie’s choice of location? His plan has always been to move the Phoenix Coyotes out of the US and into a Canadian City. Since only six of the current NHL’s thirty teams are Canadian franchises, it is not like the NHL is at risk of seeming pro Canadian in this one. It would take another ten teams to move to have that happen. While Balsillie’s initial choice in The City of Hamilton has flared additional controversy, it is interesting to note that this city lies in between Toronto and Buffalo which both have long standing NHL teams. Are the present owners of these teams afraid of a little friendly competition in revenue? In the end, maybe this is the projected upheaval that is the underlying controversy in this purposed “relocation”.

Beginning with the letter "O"

Today’s word of the day on my first blog ever is: “overwhelmed”. The somewhat clinical definition is: (1) the temptation to despair or (2) so great as to render resistance or opposition useless. I believe this word applies to both how I am feeling sometimes in this PR Post Grad Program and what I will try to accomplish in this Blog.

First, let’s deal with the despair factor. That’s more about me. When I was planning my next move after completing the two year General Arts and Science Program, I looked at the PR Program at Loyalist for a few reasons. One, being that I found the teaching and program content at Loyalist College excellent and since I eventually plan to be a business owner in Event Management, I thought that this program would be beneficial. I was not really counting on the whole media type thing as this is really not my background thus far. I have always been involved in the actual planning and execution of events so this blog and twitter stuff is all too personal for me. While I am an outgoing and friendly person, I am not really comfortable exposing my thoughts to a mass population but despair or no despair, here I go.

Now, for the second interpretation: to render resistance or opposition useless. In a backhand kind of way, effective PR can achieve this. Whether the cause is to provide damage control or provide the damage, PR is a tool used to engage, sway and sell a view or product to potential opposition or resistance to the actual point that it becomes acceptable, believable and wanted. Who wins, depends on how the mass population feels about the end result and how it was delivered.

My goal in this blog is to take an ongoing PR case, which selfishly, I have already sought permission to use in my formal study and update readers on the status. While we will go back a bit in time as a way of bringing us to date, the case of the NHL versus Jim Basillie or Jim Basillie versus the NHL is far from over. By starting with one single word to sum up events, I hope to gain the opinions of my peers in what has become a PR circus. In the end, one side will render the resistance useless but at what cost? Since cost can be measured in different ways, the eventual outcome may leave the winner feeling like me at times, "overwhelmed".