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Hartley Miller's Slap Shots - September 23rd Edition

By Hartley Miller

There's a bad smell coming from the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), and the decision makers in the league better attend to the aroma quickly. The Fan Zone is up and running on the league's website, but unlike last season in the playoffs, the BCHL has decided, in its own wisdom, to have a user pay system. That’s right; fans now have the distinct privilege of shelling out bucks, just to get updated league information. 

The BCHL Fan Zone offers access to game previews, recaps (including head-to-head comparisons) and league write-ups. Hockey fans are also able to listen live to games, and follow the scores with so called up-to-the-minute information. In other words, the Fan Zone, at a regular season fee of 17 dollars, has special content fans can't get on the regular BCHL web site. 

Presently, BCHL fans can get a PG Spruce Kings final score on game night on the regular website, but they can't hear the game, unless they subscribe. However, these fans likely won't get a scoring summary until the next day. 

The Fan Zone is a great idea, but why have a fee? Personally, I don’t care if the fee is 17 cents or 17 dollars; it’s the principle of the matter. 

League Commissioner, John Grisdale, suggests this user fee was instituted until the league gets a major corporate sponsor. Well, Grisdale and his boys should have worked harder in trying to attract a sponsor, and not ram this expense down the fans’ throats. In a nutshell, the league claims it needs to implement the charge to cover costs. 

The BCHL, already in damage control, regarding the decision, has made a futile attempt to address this issue (on its free portion of the regular website) by bombarding the fans with a lot of rhetoric and nonsense. 

The BCHL has been trying to overcome an image problem. When a league is clearly second fiddle to the WHL, they need to do whatever it takes to hold on to its fan base, and try to attract new spectators. This means a good solid public relations campaign with INFORMATION, INFORMATION AND MORE INFORMATION!! In other words: PR, PR, and PR. What this doesn’t mean is CHARGE, CHARGE, and CHARGE! Do you know of any other league that does this? 

Its call the Fan Zone, but from my point of view, it's the BCHL way of having the SH#@#$$#   
HIT THE FAN.

? If you would like a job that pays roughly 161 thousand dollars per minute, you may want to try your hand (no pun intended) at becoming a long-snapper in the NFL. Their average salary last season, according to the NFL Players Association was $645,928 US. Brian Jennings, the San Francisco 49'ers long snapper, told the San Francisco Chronicle: "I work about four minutes a year. The rest of the time I'm trying to have as good a time as possible." …

? From Syndicated Columnist Tom Fitzgerald: “Actress Alyssa Milano has dated Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano, A's pitcher Barry Zito and now is dating Dodgers ace Brad Penny. Clearly this is a woman in need of a closer”.

? Yogi Berra would be proud of Race-car driver Danica Patrick, after she was asked by the Chicago Sun-Times to name the best female driver that no one has heard of: "I don't know. I never heard of her."

And, how is your week?

--Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio stations 94X and the Wolf@97FM. He also writes for the PG Free Press, and is author of You Don't Say (Andrews-Mcmeel, 2005).

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