By Kyle Gunn-Taylor:
The Buffalo Sabres media relations department welcomed some of the team's most dedicated followers through the doors of the First Niagara Center for a meet and greet style event, Monday.
On the same day the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Stanley Cup with a 6-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, the Sabres staff put on the event which featured a happy hour, followed by an organizational announcement and a predetermined topic period one-on-one with team President, Ted Black.
Before the topics flew, Entercom (WGR 550) station manager, Greg Reid accompanied President Black to make the announcement of a new Sabres radio show on WGR that will be hosted by former pre-game and post-game television personality Kevin Sylvester.
"Sabres Hockey Hotline will give fans an additional 350-plus hours of Sabres programming each year that we know fans will love," said Black, via Sabres.com "It's an ambitious undertaking for our organization and that's why we put Kevin in charge of producing and hosting the show."
Sylvester will replace the nationally syndicated Colin Cowherd Show, "The Herd," beginning on June 18th, 2012. Sabres Hockey Hotline will be broadcast between the Howard Simon Show and the Jim Rome Show, airing 10am to 12pm.
The decision to replace The Herd was made in recognition of the amount of passion the Buffalo area has for hockey and the need for a show to represent that sentiment. Reid also quipped that the Cowherd Show is often referred to by the local programmers as the LeBron show, because of Cowherd's affinity for the NBA star.
Brian Duff, who joined the Sabres television broadcast on a part-time basis last season, will assume full-time pre-game and post-game responsibilities. Duff demonstrated a solid grasp of the game and he should be a fantastic addition in place of Sylvester.
The Sabres also announced that Rob Ray will increase his television duties as full-time color commentator for all 82-games in the 2012-2013 season.
Ray will continue his duties between the glass for home games, but will join the league's longest tenured play-by-play man and Sabres Hall-of-Fame announcer Rick Jeanneret in the booth on the road.
Jeanneret, who has recently inked a multi-year contract to continue his legendary career with the Sabres, will also be cranking up the amount of games he calls compared to the scaled back schedule he worked in 2011-2012.
Harry Neale and Danny Gare will continue to contribute to the Sabres broadcasts in different capacities, while Mike Robitaille will resume building upon his post-game show.
A large flat screen TV depicting an intensely focused Nathan Gerbe silhouette behind the Sabres logo and the title "New Media Summit," loomed behind President Black as he reeled off topics that were prepared ahead of time by the media department in accordance with requests from the bloggers.
"There will always be evolving changes," Black (above photo left with Greg Reid) said in reference to the first topic of First Niagara Center future building plans.
The current projects that the Sabres highlighted all involve the building's exterior and surrounding areas.
In addition to the canals being constructed at the site of the former Memorial Auditorium, there is a project to complete the painting of the roof, an already underway construction of a 90,000 sq. ft. plot of land beneath the skyway being landscaped for a park funded by Terry Pegula and the complete renovation of the Donovan Building which is going to be occupied by Phillips Lytle LLP a law firm and a Courtyard Marriott Hotel (see photo below to left).
After each topic, the forum of guests who formed a square around the center logo of the Sabres locker room were allowed to ask questions and expand upon the often insightful and direct ramblings of Black.
Predictably, the Sabres President dodged all questions on the collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire in September 2012. However, Black was more forthcoming regarding some of the roster issues the team will be facing in this year's draft, on June 22nd-23rd and free-agency nipping right on its heels beginning July 1st.
"We're thin at forward," he said "Cody Hodgson went a long way to helping that, but it depends on what's available equally with what you have to give up to get that player."
Although it isn't anything earth shattering, it is more than he divulged at the 2nd blogger summit back in January.
Other issues addressed throughout the evening included the hike in season ticket prices, and the various ideas bloggers had in enhancing the overall Sabres game experience.
According to Black, there was an 8.2 percent increase in overall ticket prices, which was not evenly distributed, rather evaluated through each seats location relevant to the ice surface across the arena.
Where the Sabres marketing team finds its biggest problems are with the 50-mile market radius that's set forth for each team. "About 45 percent of our market is in a foreign country or under water," said Black.
In order to continue to show growth and qualify for the league-wide revenue sharing, the Sabres are attempting to cultivate a passion in their young fan base which they hope will help them retain those people as life-long fans of the team.
In another attempt to liven up the arena on game day the Sabres are going to continue the Student Surge section which they felt brought a collegiate atmosphere to the arena last season.
In the closing moments of the summit Black was asked to address the possibility that Tyler Myers having reparative knee surgery after the season's conclusion. No answer was given, but the jokes about possible upper and lower body injuries lightened the mood.
With the New Media Summit the Sabres are on the cutting edge in reaching out to alternative media sources. The team's media strategy reaches beyond the boundaries of traditional print and broadcast journalism. By embracing the blogosphere, the team hopes to further engage its passionate fan base.
If I understand it correctly, the Bills have added two hours of programming to WGR as well (John Murphy in the evening). It's interesting to see both franchises make such similar moves.
Maybe GR approached both franchises?
That's likely. Interesting though that both franchises were able to get a guy to host that would seemingly be taking a step back career wise. Sylvester started at the station, while Murphy's been the top sports anchor for quite a while.
What do you smell, Shaggy? Think something's up? I'm sure Murphy has to be making as much, right? I didn't realize when I first read your comment that he left Ch4, I thought he was going to be doing this in addition. Sylvester's doing this in addition though, right, to everything he was doing before.
Sylvester is leaving the broadcasts in favor of Brian Duff, who split time last year with the NHL Network. Duff, imo, knows more about hockey than I know about my family. So, the two hour radio slot is the full time gig for Sylvester and Murphy.
I prefer Duff. I'm not a fan of Sylvester and would watch the opponent's broadcast if he ever replaces RJ. But Sylvester is still doing in-game stuff, no? Pre or post game?
It's strange that Ray is going to do color between the benches leaving RJ alone upstairs sometimes. I heard Neale was crushed they wanted to move him. He's a bit crazy and somehow knows the measurements of the ice for every shot, pass, or hit but he's still venerable. I'm glad they're keeping him around.
Harry Neal, hasn't been as sharp as he was during his CBC years. He's often forgetting or confusing players, stumbling through sentences, or just plain getting stuff wrong. I think adding Rob Ray as a color analyst is great. Rob may have not been the best player, but he knows the game. He also knows players, coaches, etc. from other teams. Brian Duff knows the game inside and out, but his TV personalty is kind of dull. Like he's just reading off a script. Robitaille I wish they would get rid of or replace with Danny Gare.
Each of the guys you mention have phrases they repeat often. Every penalty, Neal says ..."he'll serve two minutes or less...". Ray says during a losing stretch, or poor play, "..they're not doing the little things.." or the opposite when things are going well... "they're doing the little things".
You can watch a nationally televised baseball game, and the announcers can have entertaining banter. Hockey, not so much.
My only issue with the local broadcasts, is you never hear anything negative about any of the players. It would be better if the announcers weren't employed by the team, but I realize that's not going to happen.