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"Ball." |
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No shootaround today. I'm going to use this post to address a subject that has been of interest to me since I launched this site — the relationship between sports teams and bloggers. Since I've been running this blog on and off for the past six years, my direct communication with the Toronto Raptors organization has been fairly limited. In April 2006, I was granted access to interview Charlie Villanueva for a CBC TV feature on Charlie's involvement with the "Charlie's Angels" foundation for kids with Alopecia Areata. In November 2006, I took a job with Sympatico / MSN as Content Manager of their sports channel and I left a message with Raptors Director of Media Relations Jim LaBumbard asking for official press access. The way I figured it, Sympatico / MSN is more or less a mainstream media outlet (they're affiliated with Bell Canada) and since my office was mere blocks away from the Air Canada Centre, I figured I might as well take a shot at seeing if I could drop by once in a while to get player quotes if I thought they would add to a particular story. Now, I'm not sure if Jim knew who I was when I did the Charlie interview or if something changed between then and November, but Jim left a detailed message on my work voicemail explaining that I wouldn't be granted access because of the tone and content on RaptorBlog. I didn't save the message, but I recall that he mentioned not approving of the fact that I was including gambling lines on my site at the time — which I found amusing since the Toronto Sun had gambling lines in their sports section and that didn't preclude Sun beat reporters from getting access. I was disappointed by Jim's decision but not crestfallen — and I certainly wasn't surprised. It's understandable that the Raptors would not approve of some of the things I've written here and, more importantly, it's their business and they're entitled to run it how they see fit. The reason why I'm bringing this up now is that another of my favorite sports teams, the Edmonton Oilers, has been taking some flak in the blogosphere for banning Dave from the "Covered In Oil" blog for liveblogging from the press box. In the following post, Covered in Oil links to the roughly 20 or so responses from a variety of sites including Deadspin, Yahoo and AOL Fanhouse. The most succinct response is probably this one from Oilers blog "Hot Oil". If you take at face value that the Oilers' media relations group banned him because his specific press pass didn't give him the right to blog from the press box, then you might feel that the Oilers were simply enforcing their policy and don't deserve any criticism for their action. But when you read that subsequent conversations with the media reps included phrases like "when the guys upstairs see what you're doing" and "writing stuff like that," it's pretty obvious what truly motivated this decision. The misguided philosophy some pro teams have towards independent blogs is clearly evident in this statement from Oilers VP of Communications, Broadcasting and Publicity Alan Watt: "We spend $100 million more or less to put on NHL hockey in Edmonton. As a result of that, we own broadcast rights. When it comes to blogs we would like to think that edmontonoilers.com and nhl.com is the place to go for your e-information. What bloggers are is content people. When you have content and a critical mass of people, you're selling stuff and you can charge for stuff." Think about what Mr. Watt is essentially saying. He doesn't think you should read Oilers blogs because you can get "all the information you need" from the official website of the Edmonton Oilers. The unspoken meaning is that the Oilers would like to decide the information and commentary you do and don't need. In this interview with David Staples of the Edmonton Journal, Watt really makes my jaw drop with his philosophy on liveblogging: Watt says many of the blogs are trying to get increased traffic so they can make money, but the Oilers don't want to give up that traffic. "We spend $100 million a year to create NHL hockey in Edmonton and there are some things that we think we own. This is one of them (the live blogging rights)." Perhaps some blog company will come along with $10 million a year for the exclusive rights to live blogging, then the Oilers would look at that. "That's the business we are in," Watt says. Adds (Oilers media relations director J.J. Hebert): "Why would we want someone go to another site to catch game updates when we want them to go to Edmonton Oilers.com because it's going to generate bigger numbers and, in turn, generate money?" So there it is laid bare, the graphic ignorance and naked greed of the Oilers media relations group in regards to the right of their fans to publish (and god forbid, possibly profit from) their independent opinions on the team they root for. How prevalant is this attitude among the management of pro sports teams? I'm pretty sure most sports media relations reps would be too savvy to ever go on record with something as grossly ignorant as the viewpoints extolled by Watt and Hebert, but you have to know that the Oilers are not alone in this type of thinking. With that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to send an important message to the Toronto Raptors and every other sports franchise that sees bloggers as nuisances and a threat to their business. It's so important that I'm going to bold this for emphasis... Blogs are not your enemies. Blogs like this one generate conversation and interest in your team, regardless of the tone and content of the blogs. Sports fans that read and contribute to blogs and message boards do so because they want more than the party lines they'll get at your official websites. If you can develop thicker skin and recognize the value blogs bring to the fan experience and to your business as a whole, you will increase fan loyalty and therefore generate more revenue from those fans. In 2008, I'm really bored with media reps and mainstream media pros griping about the "lack of accountability and professionalism" in blogs. Welcome to "Completely Missing the Point: Population You". Blog readers understand that we're not professional journalists (although I do happen to have a journalism degree, for what it's worth) — and that's how they like it. RaptorBlog isn't competition or a replacement for raptors.com or any of the mainstream media outlets covering the team. It's just one more source for a dedicated fanbase with an endless appetite for information and discussion. The fact that the Raptors blogosphere is so well-populated means that there are a lot of diehard Raptors fans that love their team and just want an opportunity to make themselves heard. Once again, this isn't a bad thing. The good news about the Raptors is that I see signs that they're starting to "get it". Blogs like Dino Nation (who has been granted interviews with Matt Devlin, Jack Armstrong, Eric Smith and Paul Jones) are starting to get access to Raptors representatives that probably wouldn't have been granted back in 2002 when I launched this site. Of course, James from Dino Nation runs a much different kind of operation than I do, and it's understandable why they might be willing to give him access as opposed to someone like me. To be blunt, I don't doubt that a number of people with the Raptors and in the media think I'm basically just an asshole. I'm OK with that, and I feel that way about some of them. I don't think I really need to do what James and the beat reporters do because they already do a damn good job of doing it. Where I try to fill in the gaps is with a type of analysis, humor and a style of writing that you might not see elsewhere. If what I produce doesn't do it for you, then there are a ton of other blogs and mainstream websites for you to consume. The real beauty about the era we live in is that there's something for everyone. To wrap up this screed, it's a damn shame that the Oilers are so boneheaded about their policy on blogs but I do see progress and I think the Raptors, in particular, are becoming increasingly progressive on this front. I also think it's important to note that plenty of "professional media people" have blogs on the side these days so that they can express themselves in a way that their regular jobs don't allow. It's a very interesting time to be involved in online media these days — and here's hoping that the Oilers are the exception to how sports franchises will view and treat bloggers, rather than the rule. |
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