Mods feel free to move this if necessary - As we all know the Revs are making some moves this year so it would be great if some people outside these boards and a few niche areas started to talk about the team. Since the Krafts don't know an opportunity to talk soccer if it hit them in the face and the Revs organization's marketing could use, shall we say, a little help I had an idea where we could improve the team's exposure ourselves. Hear me out. I have been trying to get 98.5 The Sports Hub to talk more Revs but am a 1 man campaign and need your help. They are (supposedly) the Revs' partner / official station yet they rarely if ever mention the team (and I listen quite often). Damon Amendolara who is on nights from 7-11 (sandwiched around Bruins games) has talked Revs in the past and is our most likely ally at the station. Tell every and any Revs (or indeed, soccer) fan you know to listen to Damon Amendolara's show at night. The Supporters Clubs may want to send out a message to their membership with a few of these ideas. If you don't live in the greater Boston area, listen online at 98.5 the Sports Hub. Small steps, ANY time there is an "open forum" or an opportunity to talk other sports besides sox/pats/b's/c's take advantage of it. Either text Revs questions to: 69985 or call them at the station (check link for number). If enough people do this regularly, they may pay a little more attention to their "official partner." For the twitter people, send questions to DA via @thedashow on twitter. Facebook: I'm sure there's a DA group as well. Post / ask Revs questions anywhere and everywhere Boston sports fans gather. Get people talking about Dube, Dabo and Domi (it's fun to say). Ask who people think the forward might be to replace Twellman. Continue to be the great ambassador for the club at work, school, etc you already are. Get them interested enough to at least read Revs headlines during the 20 minute segment updates, which they currently do not (rare exceptions). The goal of this radio awareness campaign should be the following: a mention of the Revs by DA a segment on the Revs by DA 20 minute news updates on Revs news then eventually... a positive segment (or more) about the Revs by one or more of the other personalities. (Felger is a NNN just watch haha) To keep track of progress, please post in this thread anytime you hear someone on 98.5 mention the Revs (in a positive or negative light). Which show, what the comment was (roughly) and any thoughts on it. The more sets of ears the better. The campaign will last the whole 2011 Revs season. Enough of the status quo "nobody knows the Revs in Boston." Revs marketing focuses too heavily on twitter and facebook and not enough on places where the team may actually get some real exposure. Since the team won't change their marketing approach, it's time we the fans took action. Or...we can all help the media (including supposed media partners) continue treat the team like a minor league club. You have the power to give the Revs a seat at the table (or at least move the needle in the right direction), let's make it happen. Go Revs. Disclaimer: I am in no way working for or affiliated with 98.5. Just a fan who is frustrated by the ignorance of this club by "media partners," namely 98.5 / CSNNE. If we as a group care about the Revs and want to grow attendance beyond 12k of our closest friends, let's talk about the team in public places and get our club out there in the spotlight. It's a small step towards increasing relevance in this sports-mad town.
It's great that you've targetted D.A. He does the sideline reports for Revs' games on Comcast SportsNet. But if you really want to get the ball rolling on this, start at the top - Jonathan Kraft. He is supposed to be at the Season Ticket Holder meeting at Gillette on March 28th. Jonathan needs to be called out and/or challenged (in a diplomatic manner) as to why he refuses to push the product every time he is on the air for the purposes of discussing the Revs. More often than not, the radio hosts steer the conversation away from the Revs - the Pats, Patriot Place, the Wolrd Cup - but never a full length discussion of the Revs. No mention of upcoming games, no effort to promote the team. This needs to start at the top and trickle down. Jonathan Kraft has a big enough Q rating in this market to command attention to what he is saying. If the Revs staff or their marketing partners see that the owner of the organization won't help, what motivation do they have?
I actually agree with this (as well as Weber King's posts). I think we should pick a day (maybe starting the 14th of March) and start up this campaign the week of the season opener. I'm sure the Revs will be doing their PR work either that week, or more definitely the week of the home opener, but it doesn't hurt for us to do so either. I'm not sure if calling starting now would help, but then again ...
Great idea. Must spread rep... I agree that JK needs to do more, especially when he gets on the radio. But what can we do to change that? This idea is something we can actually do to help. It may not accomplish much, but it is action. I think this situation with Shalrie and Alston is a perfect starting point. Nothing like a little juicy gossip to get people's attention. Even if you don't follow the Pats, if you were listening to sports radio and heard Brady and Mankins (for example) were disciplined, your curiosity would be piqued.
You can call him out on it (nicely). He may be completely clueless that the fanbase takes great umbrage with the fact that time and time again he fails to keep radio interviews on the topic, fails to market the team at all and fails to capitalize on the opportunities that are afforded to him by way of these interviews. It needs to be explained to him that it comes accross as embarassing in the fact that if the owner/operator of the team can't/won't market the team, it's no wonder that overall marketing efforts are subpar at best. Furthermore, with the clout that he has (and believe you and me he has tremendous bargaining power), it appears to us that he is not using it to his advantage to have the team's media partners give some thought to the Revs despite the crowded market in which they operate.
I can't believe you want him (while he's on the radio talking about soccer) to mention that his team has a home game that same night. Outrageous!
Honestly this is pretty close to being fine right now. Take what you just said, change a word here and there and pose this to him at the STH event. Usually all it takes is one individual to stand up and say something like this to lead the way for others to ask similar questions or voice other issues that might be bothering them. I would applaud you or anyone else for stating your feelings on this to Kraft. I went to one of these and pretty much every questioned asked was cookie cutter whats your favorite color type questions when weeks before people were all big chested with questions for FO they were going to ask. This year I am not going with season ticket rather opting for a smaller 4 or 6 game pack otherwise I would probably be going to this meeting to ask a few questions of my own
Once again, unpaid supporter minions doing the work that a professional sports organization should be orchestrating as their baseline job responsibility. Sad.
Now could be a good time to start. I listen to Toucher and Rich everyday. The don't like basketball. One of them loves Hockey, another might love baseball it just isn't that season yet. And both of them adore football. So I wouldn't look for much coverage during playoffs for basketball and hockey. But when it's just baseball they will be looking for more material. And if you make it known they have another sport they can talk about, then they will. Trust me, these guys will be happy to have another sport to talk about when football, basketball, and hockey go away.
Hey, no reason we can't do both. If I were going to the STH event, I'd pose the questions to Jonathan myself. I'm not, so hope someone is willing to do it eloquently and politely, while advocating a bottom up approach to take more immediate action (how often does Jonathan actually talk about the Revs? we can't wait til August). This ownership needs to know why so many people are aggravated with the way the Krafts handle publicity of this club. If you already listen to DA, great just listen for the Revs. If not, he's got a great show. Looking forward to the fans moving in a coordinated direction to benefit the Revs. Thank you in advance to you guys who responded and anyone else willing to participate. It's time, damn it.
If Toucher could get Taylor Twellman's name right every time they call him about Marc Savard it would be a start. I know he has some kind of learning disability but seriously, they've had the guy on a half dozen times. How hard is it to read the name on the piece of paper in front of you? This is a great idea though, I'll help out if I can.
Just a though and maybe i'm goign to get labled a dirty liberal for this but how about NPR? they do have a weekly sports show and always at leat mention the previous night's score from the local teams in the news. Might appeal to the "educated" soccer fan and people who may be into the sport but don't know much about the Revs and don't listen to the Joe Sports stations. "It's Only A Game" does occasionally have soccer related news on it, the show is national but the host is local and talks about boston sports on some of the local NPR shows.
Because we want the terrorists to win.... DUH! Bill Littlefield is a good guy, and definitely soccer friendly. Back in the day he used to read PoCM.