I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the following snippet out of Ed Moran’s column in today’s Daily News resonates with something that has been bugging me for a while now.
Ranger lawsuit
Flyers president said yesterday he was staying quiet on the New York Rangers’ lawsuit against the league until he has a better idea of the facts.The Rangers filed the suit in federal court claming that the league is violating U.S. anti-trust laws by fining the Rangers $100,000 a day for not giving the league control over the team’s Web site.
The Rangers’ suit alleges they have the right to run their own Web site and control the sale and promotion of team merchandise and branding and that the league seeks to take that away.
“By seeking to control the competitive activities of independent businesses in ways that are not necessary to the functioning of that legitimate joint venture, the NHL has become an illegal cartel,” the suit said.
Anyone that has a vested interested in the Web as a vehicle for marketing and promoting your business should be offended at the NHL requiring all of its teams to be held hostage to a content management system and e-commerce platform that is dictated by the league in almsot every regard. This has been slowly rearing its ugly head over the last few years. When you go to the Flyers website, it will look, act and behave exactly like the NY Rangers, New Jersey Devils or even the Nashville Predators site. Yeah that makes sense – because Nashville, New York and Philadelphia are so perfectly equivalent in their respective marketing, business and sports merchandising strategies.
I really hope the Rangers win this one; I have to believe the Flyers would welcome the chance to let their marketing and IT departments take back control of their website and internet marketing. By the way, this trend is not restricted to the NHL. MLB enforces the same stupid template and strategy on all of its teams.
Tags: Flyers Hockey
Well after a long hiatus, the Flyers are about to take to the ice again for their 40th season of NHL play. After the absolutely brutal display that was the 2006-2007 regular season, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this year’s team. However, for as many positives as there appears to be, there are just as many BIG questions that must yield answers before we will all find out how the 2007-2008 season will turn out. Last year’s debacle can be briefly recapped in a couple of bullet points:
- Lethargic training camp, the Keith Primeau questions, Hitchcock openly wondering where leadership would come from
- A god-awful start, Bob Clarke and Ken Hitchcock falling on the proverbial sword after 8 games
- Continual beatings at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres and the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins
- The Peter Forsberg “skate-gate” melodrama
- A horrendous losing streak @ home
- A completely lackluster power play
- A couple of intriguing trades (including Peter Forsberg) in the final 1/3 of the season – by “Mr Excitement” (Paul Holmgren)
Tags: Flyers Hockey
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