L.A. Kings anthem singer Gloria Loring: "She was worth a goal"

Here's a fun story from Don Cherry's excellent new book, "Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff", about Gloria Loring, the anthem singer for the L.A Kings (late 1970's? early 1980's?).

We go into LA and in those days, everybody knew Gloria Loring. She was married to Alan Thicke.

She sang the anthems before the games, but she would not sing until the crowd went nuts. She’d stand there while they got all worked up. They loved her. She was worth a goal, she really was. I just happened to say to Frosty Forristal, one of our trainers, “Gee, she gets them all worked up. She’s worth a goal.”

He says, “Yeah.” I didn’t know what he was talkin’ about.

In those days, you had to have a cord for the microphone. They didn’t have the cordless ones like they do now.

So she gets to centre ice and the crowd is all worked up and she lifts the mike and starts to sing, and there’s silence!
Now the crowd dies down and one of the workers comes out. But he can’t fix it and she has to go over and sit in the penalty box and sing using the announcer’s mike.

It ruined her whole thing.

Frosty had crawled underneath the seats and cut the wire!

We won the game.

[Co-writer Al Strachan’s note]: A few years later, when the Edmonton Oilers were taking on the Kings in a playoff game in the same building, Don was working for Hockey Night in Canada and told this story to Oilers coach Glen Sather.

Oddly enough, before the game the next night, the cord got cut again. Sather denied any involvement.

Fun fact: Gloria Loring and Alan Thicke co-composed the theme song for tv's "The Facts of Life", and Gloria sang on the track.

Here's a video of Gloria singing at an L.A. Raiders game.

Sports Business Journal weighs in on game entertainment

Here's an article from the Sports Business Journal on the state of game entertainment. Some highlights:

• "...the NBA ranks as the most aggressive league in sports when it comes to entertainment. The league and its teams can hardly utter a sentence without mentioning “best practices,” a system of shared video snippets highlighting effective promotions, skits and segments employed by various franchises."

• "At [NBA] league headquarters, three account managers divide up the 30 teams and keep constant tabs on how well they entertain fans — and also collaborate on new ideas and initiatives. NBA teams have become particularly fond of taking more and more aspects of the nightly arena show in-house; that is, the teams are eager to stop paying outside agents and acts in favor of assembling their own drum lines, dance teams, dunk squads, deejays and so forth."
  
  
• "In Seattle, the Sonics have urged players to chat with fans and sign autographs after pregame shoot-arounds, and gone beyond making those personal touches standard fare by also persuading players to toss T-shirts into the crowd. Ray Allen and other familiar faces from the team film clips for trivia segments, encourage fans to dance in the aisles with attendant videotaped demonstrations and provide mundane public-service announcements."
  
  "The Knicks have enjoyed similar success with their players. A segment called “Who Wins the Oscar” features three players acting out the same famous movie scene, with fans deciding which hoopster stands as most likely to chat with James Lipton about the art of thespianism ... Being in the cultural capital allows the Knicks an entertainment advantage: playing up the fandom of celebrities who are fans of the team. Sandler and LL Cool J, among others, have filmed spots used on the video board prompting fans to support the team."
  
  
• "Martin McCreary, who handles game presentation for the Buffalo Sabres, says hockey fans tend to come to the sport by attending a game, not by watching on TV. That contradicts the path most NFL and NBA fans take — and creates different expectations. “NHL fans are a little more hard-core,” he said. “So they don’t want you to mess with it too much. It’s like surfing: You better know what wave you’re riding or you’re going to get hurt.”

• "Those differences ring true with Peter Sorckoff, who, as senior director of game operations with the Atlanta Spirit sports group, handles arena entertainment for both the NBA Hawks and NHL Thrashers. In a nutshell, he says, the philosophy for the teams starts with the basic difference between the two sports: Hockey stands as more of a team game while basketball tends to be marketed as a game of individual talents."

Read the entire article...

Originally seen on GameOps.com

Fun facts about Youppi!

Wikipedia on Youppi:

• Created by the same marketing team who designed the Phanatic
• Was the first mascot to be ejected from a game - August 23, 1989. "In the 11th inning, while atop the visitors' dugout, Youppi! took a running leap, landing hard and noisily on its roof, and then snuck into a front row seat. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda complained to the umpires and Youppi! was ejected, though he later returned, confined to the home team's dugout roof."
• Is one of only three mascots in the baseball hall of fame.
• Is the only pro mascot that we know of that's switched sports - from the Expos to the Canadiens.

From a TSN/Canadian Press report:

[Youppi] has been picked up by the NHL Montreal Canadiens after intense negotiations with 10 different interested groups and companies, including the CFL's Montreal Alouettes.

Terms of the deal between the Expos and the Canadiens were not disclosed but one report said negotiations involved six figures.

Claude Delorme, a former vice-president of the Expos, said discussions began about a week after the club's home season ended.

Youppi!'s last official event was an Expos' game on Sept. 29, 2004 when the team played its final home game at the Olympic Stadium.

The National League club then moved to Washington to become the Nationals.

''He was actually with the Expos for 25 years but was off for 10 months since last October,'' said Delorme.

Delorme admits there were a few stumbling blocks along the way.

''It wasn't really a question of hard negotiations.

''What complicated it was really all the legal issues and we really had to deal with the Expos' rights on the uniform and it took several months and several batteries of lawyers to get there.

''For us it's a natural decision for the Canadiens to adopt him and keep the continuity of Youppi! in Montreal and Quebec.

Tommy Lasorda: I hate the Phillie Phanatic

More from our research into mascots ... here's an article from Tommy Lasorda's blog called "I hate the Phillie Phanatic".

In fact, I am not very happy about mascots in general. I think they take away from the game on the field.

One of the worst incidents was perpetrated by the Phillie Phanatic. The Dodgers were in town to play the Phillies and somehow, it got ahold of one of my jerseys. It took the jersey, put it on a dummy and ran over the dummy again and again.

That type of a display should not be shown in ballparks, especially in front of children. It exhibits violence and disrespect. Read on...

More fun facts about the Phanatic from Wikipedia:

• The Phanatic debuted on April 25, 1978 at The Vet when the Phils played the Chicago Cubs.
• The Phanatic was originally portrayed by Dave Raymond, who was then working as an intern in the team's front office, for fifteen years, from 1978 to 1993.
• In his book Pouring Six Beers At A Time, [Former Phillies VP Bill Giles] wrote of the worst decision of his life when it came to the creation of the Phanatic. The design would cost $5,200 for both the costume and the copyright ownership, or $3,900 just for the costume with Harrison/Erickson retaining the copyright. Giles chose to just buy the costume. Five years later, when Giles and his group of investors bought the team from Ruly Carpenter, the franchise paid $250,000 to Harrison/Erickson for the copyright.
• One week before the Phillies had their 2006 opener, the Phanatic was "dyed" red as part of the team's week-long promotion to "Paint the Town Red".
• He appeared in the closing credits of the film Rocky Balboa (2006).
• The Phanatic also has the dubious distinction of being the most sued mascot in sports. Most notably, the Phillies had to pay a judgment of $2.5 million to a man at a paint store event when the Phanatic jumped the patron with a rough-house bear hug, from which the man sustained serious back injuries.

VIDEO: A treasure trove of Famous Chicken videos

Just found this collection of Famous Chicken videos on YouTube while prepping for a class on mascots and performers. The Famous Chicken - aka The San Diego Chicken - is our favourite mascot of all time. Trivia: He is one of the few pro-sports mascots who talks.

VIDEO: Frank Pellico, Blackhawks organist

Frank Pellico is the organist for the Chicago Blackhawks, and may well be the best organist in hockey. This video does a great job at capturing the awesome sounds (and sights) of the organ and its player.

Pellico's been playing for 19 seasons, and started at the old Chicago Stadium on the legendary Barton organ.

Celtics & Welch: Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Here's a fun video we saw on Brian Gainor's blog, from the Boston Celtics. It's a scoreboard video featuring some dance moves by Welchy, Welch's Peanut Butter Jelly mascot. It's a good example fo ad agencies looking for the right way to promote your product at a game. Instead of running a 30-second tv spot -- it's better to customize it to your arena audience.

Behind the Scenes: Nashville Predators Megatron production

Here's a fun article from the Tennessean, taking us behind the scenes into the Megatron production room at the Nashville Predators. (via Kukla's Korner)

When the animated heart flashes on the big screen at Predators games, some couples snuggle up, watching with anticipation. Others grip their beers and slink into their seats. But regardless of whether they're ready to smooch in front of roughly 15,000 fans, it's time to pucker up, people. Everyone's fair game.

Deep in the belly of Sommet Center in a dark room packed with knobs and screens, it looks more intense than an airplane cockpit. But despite the equipment and fast-paced job at hand, the people in the room seem to be having as good a time as the fans, giggling at the couples on the screen.

...

While it might seem simple — cameraman finds a couple; they kiss; move on — the mechanics behind the kiss cam and other scoreboard antics involve a team of 15 people and 28 screens of stats, scores and fan shots. For any given kiss, the people in the control room have four couples to choose from, on four screens, from four cameramen out near the ice.

... In 2007, the scoreboard at Sommet was replaced, and its four high-resolution video screens earned it a new title: megatron.

" 'Jumbo' didn't seem good enough," he said.
...

While the kiss cam gets attention for sure, the megatron moment [Blake Grant, director of technical operations] most remembers still gives him chills.

During the Predators' first year in the playoffs, the home team finished killing a penalty against Detroit just before going into a TV timeout. The fans — all 18,000 or so of them — erupted into a spontaneous standing ovation and kept it up through the break until the puck dropped again.

"It wasn't a funny moment, but it was dramatic," he said.

Grant says the crew works to keep a balance between the game and the entertainment. When the game is good, it obviously gets the attention. But even in the most heated matches, the timeouts and TV breaks give them time to get fans dancing, singing and, of course, kissing.

"I think the scoreboard has its own personality here," he said.

Rats on the comeback in Florida

On Frozen Pond has a wonderfully titled post today: "Don't Call it a Comeback, They've Been Thrown for Years", all about the resurgence of the rat-throwing tradition at Florida Panthers games:

We haven't seen rubber rats in large numbers on Florida ice in quite some time, although the rubber rodents are definitely making a comeback.

Sure, the NHL came up with a rule to block the practice of throwing objects onto the ice during a game soon after the Panthers' 1996 run to the Finals were over. That doesn't mean people haven't been doing it in smaller numbers since.

We've seen a rat or two fly onto the ice after goals in the past decade, but most know it's a practice that could cost the home team. Yes, the refs could call the Panthers for a two minute delay of game if it were to get out of hand.

But there is no delay after a game is complete. Lately, more and more rubber rats have found their way to the ice following Florida victories. Saturday after the Boston game, more than two dozen hit the ice. Some were small, some were big.

More here from the Miami Herald.

Top 100 arena and stadium songs

Thanks to Alex for sending us this link from the makers of Sound Director, an audio software tool. They've come up with a list of the top 100 arena and stadium songs:

"We polled industry professionals from the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and major colleges all across North America to get their top 100 songs. Well, they wouldn't allow us to stick with just 100 so there are a few extras. Here's what they came up with for the most widely played arena and stadium songs in alpabetical order by title."