How to Run a Business, Pt.1

This lesson is from David Thomson, one of the proud new owners of the yet-to-be-named NHL team in Winnipeg.

"One decision in which it appears Thomson had a very direct hand was the choice to scale the arena at 15,000 seats – to some minds, too small to house a contemporary NHL franchise – again, he says, drawing on his time with HBC.

“Do you build it at eighteen and a half thousand or fifteen? For those who hadn’t been in retail, you build eighteen and a half. For those who hadn’t spent time with Steve Stavro [who made his fortune in the big box grocery business], you build eighteen and a half. But the important thing is the customer experience. Yes, we have a smaller rink and I still tell people it’s too big in my opinion. More seats would have cost more money and you have to fill them. It’s not the Bell Centre. It’s not the ACC. But for Winnipeg, I think it’s the right size.”

The rest of the article is here

Hockey Rock: Winnipeg Style!

If you're like me and remember listening to Jets-style parodies in your parent's car back in the early spring of 1996, well, you'll probably be glad to hear these tunes again.

Colin James, Streetheart, and local blues man Big Dave McLean are some of the artists on this album. It was recorded and released at the start of the playoffs in '96. Here 'tis (with youtube links to some of my favorites):

I met up with the Russian, he took the puck away:

On Teppo we depend. He's all we ever need on 'D'!:

You can download the entire album here (its a good and fast download, just have to wait 30 or 40 seconds til it'll let you download... you'll see).

Track List:

1) That's One Hot Russian Jet (You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet)-R. Bachman
2) Numminen (Innocence)-Harlequin
3) Give Me A Ring King-Jennifer Hanson
4) One More Save (One More Time)-Streetheart
5) Along For The Ride (Just Came Back)-Colin James
6) The N.H.L. Hockey Blues-Big Dave MacLean
7) I Just Want To Play Hockey-Joe Gregorash
8) Jets Fight/Wear White-Big Dave MacLean and Friends
9) Regrets To The Jets-Big Dave MacLean & The Muddy-Tones

Jets Season Tickets

Looks like quality season tickets may be had for less than the $100/ticket I've been going with.

Here's what you're looking at in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa. Prices below are per ticket, per game (assuming you buy a season ticket):

Edmonton: pretty good seat $73, really good seat $100 Edmonton seat map

Calgary: pretty good seat $60, really good seat $95 Calgary seat map

Ottawa: pretty good seat $54, really good seat $100 Ottawa seat map


SUMMARY: We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

* * * * *

Other notes: NHL Seating capacities: Seating capacity of Calgary and Ottawa is 19,000+, Edmonton is 16,839 while MTS Center seats 15,015... guess which price scheme will be closest to ours... i've seen games in Ottawa and Calgary and there are some garbage seats there, only quality here at least... prices MUCH higher at the door... cheapest ticket to a Jets game will be in neighborhood of $35 for standing room only, in my opinion.

Portage & Main May 19, 2011

These videos show what last night was like a little better than what you saw on the major news channels.

More footage. Note that at 0:39 of this clip the crowd is chanting "Burrows, Burrows..." This was the name of the #16(?) bus and also happens to be the name of a Vancouver Canucks player. People usually chanted the name of a bus when it passed (WATT! WATT! WATT! WATT! ...)

Probably my favorite moment. Somehow the whole crowd decided that this guy, who I later heard is named Andy, should give a speech. Everyone hushed down and listened. This is what he had to say:

Gotta sing O Canada! Glorious and BLUE

And I didn't know this but it was my old friend Brad who led the rush out to take the streets.

Pretty good night. Thanks Stephen Brunt. You're always welcome in Winnipeg! Even though you're a Ti-Cats fan.

Humor is the Glue of Online Communities?

That's what this article from the guardian claims. Interesting.

There's obviously something pretty powerful about humor and this might explain some of it.

Here's a quote:

"It's not surprising that so much of online content is comedy; the library of psychological and anthropological research describes humour as the glue that helps to define communities and keep them together. Psychologist Dr Rod Martin, who has published extensively on the role of humour in mental and physical health, describes it as a coping mechanism: we seek to clarify a unified reality through our interpersonal communications, but when that unified reality isn't forthcoming – because we inevitably look at the world through different frames of reference and have different interpretations of what's happening around us – we poke fun at our inconsistencies, which allows us to smooth them over because we are able to embrace the contradictions."

So maybe we should begin recruiting comedians for our diplomatic posts, sending our funniest to Middle East peace negotiations. Worth a shot? Why not.

Just came across this. It's exactly the sort of thing I was talking about in an earlier post. This type of presentation style is going to help spread a lot of ideas.

Watch it - its pretty cool. A short video presentation on a cloud-based way to help media sources and freelance journalists do business together.

The Genius of Rebecca Black

Why?

The demographic of middle-class 7- to-10-year-olds is under-exploited from a marketing standpoint. My tongue is only partially in my cheek on that one (as in it sucks but its true).

Obviously this market segment has been targeted in the past. Its just the cartoons that worked in the past do not cut it anymore. The writing is on the wall. Kids are increasingly connected to pop culture. Way more than I am. The only thing slowing them in their embrace of technology is their parents who still park them in front of the TV.

Kids seem to be doing everything at younger and younger ages. From dating to joining gangs*. Young kids always want to be like the older kids and now there are people providing their own pop stars, singing and rapping at a first grade level.

The video is here. What market do you think is being targeted?

*I have personal experience with the latter through working with inner-city youth. Not only are existing gangs recruiting at younger ages than they have in the past, but it is becoming common for youth who are still too young to form their own gangs. In my experience this has been at the ages of 11 and 12 or so. Obviously this really sucks....