Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 17:58:57 -0400 
From: Anna Matyas <am2x+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Penguin Marketing Meeting/1


I've gotten many requests to give you the lowdown on the marketing meeting
I attended, so here goes. (In case you're wondering how people were
invited, fans filled out fan surveys at games late in the season, and we
somehow were selected from those.  I don't know if it was random or if it had
something to do with our responses.)

Demographics: Just to give you a sense of the participants, there were
6 women and 6 men; I would estimate the age range to be late 20s to
late 30s.  Everyone has been a season ticket holder for a minimum of
three years to a maximum of 12 years.  Most of us "older folks" have been
following the Penguins since roughly 1970. The session was videotaped.

*Perception of new owners
 There was a fair amount of DeBartolo bashing here.  We talked about
 the departure of EJ, the hiring of Esposito and Ubriaco, and the
 invisibility of DeBartolo.  Interestingly, some people said Craig
 Patrick is "just ok."  We criticized the media for the negative
 portrayal of Baldwin right from the get-go, and a few of us (myself
 included) pointed out that he had been accessible and seemingly up-front
 during the "players for sale" controversy and the strike.  We all
 appreciated that.
*Pay-per-view; simulcasts; Mike Lange/Paul Steigerwald
 During the discussion of Baldwin, I raised my two concerns, those of
 pay-per-view games and simulcasts.  It was a very strong feeling that
 instead of spending time developing pay-per-view packages, ALL owners
 should be working on a national TV contract.  In fact, one of our bottom
 lines of the entire meeting was a national TV contract.
 
(I'm going to do a separate post on tickets, prices, and season ticket
  holder perks -- I'll address PPV in more detail there.)
 
 Regarding the broadcast team, almost everyone bashed Steigy.  We said
 that it's a shame someone as good as Mike does not have a former player,
 or someone with decent hockey knowledge, with which to work.  Nobody
 seemed to have read what I did about Baldwin wanting to bring in a
 second crew for the radio side.  Most were in agreement that if it came
 down between keeping Steigy and having two separate crews, they'd keep
 Steigy because then we could be assured of hearing Mike whether on the
 TV side or radio side.
 A few other TV comments: commercials often run over and the action has
 started before play begins; camera work is particularly poor on road
 games; the cameras at the Civic Arena are too high
*The new logo
 NOBODY wants a new logo.  We said it's one of the best in the league.
 Someone remarked about how people said the Penguins never won the Cup
 because of their name and logo, that penguins are "wimpy birds."  Well,
 he said, we won the Cup last year with the name AND the logo -- why
 change it now?  I told them I was told by the Penguin merchandising
 director that it's a variation of the ugly penguin used last year
 during the playoffs.  They all hate that logo.  We are particularly
 displeased that it's changing since right after winning the Cup.
*Arena issues
 People complained A LOT about parking, lack of good food, dirty
 restrooms, how the arena staff isn't sensitive to people with handicaps
 and other special needs, being harrassed by the scalpers.  I won't go
 into detail on this stuff.
*Elvis; a team mascot; music; the scoreboard
 The moderator asked if we should have a team mascot, like baseball teams
 have.  NO!!  We don't want some idiot in a fuzzy penguin outfit running
 around during games.  It's bad enough ushers allow people to roam around
 during play.  But most people said Elvis was ok -- he doesn't bother
 anyone while the action is going on.  We said a mascot would be ok for
 community work, like going to kids' functions and schools, etc., but we
 don't want it at the games.
 The general assessment of the music was "Vince Lascheid needs a new
 song book."  There were major complaints about the rock music -- it's
 too loud, too frequent, and too repetitious.
 People requested additional shot clocks because depending upon where you
 sit they are hidden by those lamps that hang down or by the main
 scoreboard itself.  The scoreboard is ok, we said, but we'd love something
 that shows replays and maybe some highlights and NHL news before the games
 and between periods.

This is getting long.  As I said, I'll do another post with the rest
of the stuff.