Good evening and welcome to tonight’s game against the Milton Keynes Lightning. We played Milton Keynes on Wednesday at their place (before the time of writing this) so we’ll be well acquainted with the Lightning for tonight’s match up.
Hopefully Wednesday will have snapped the streak the Jets are currently in. Lewis and I were at the rink Tuesday taking the team photo and the energy and intensity at practice is there, the game chances are there and it’s only a matter of time before the results will return. The first win after a streak is always a big hurdle but winning is a habit and it’s a habit this team is capable of maintaining.
Last week something strange happened which generated a lot of negative exposure for the sport. A journalist from a local paper covering another team’s area contacted Milton Keynes requesting a press pass. As they are entitled to do they refused the request, prompting what appeared to me a petty rant on the website of the publication he works for. Each team is entitled to their own press and media relations policy, the majority of journalists will respect this but the irony of the situation is that the reporter claimed that he was trying to promote ice hockey and yet all he managed was to tarnish the reputation.
Ice Hockey is a minority sport. Even majority sports like cricket and rugby pale into insignificance in their media coverage compared to football but for a minority sport media coverage is often difficult to come by. We are lucky in Slough in that our local media support us well in coverage but as a sport and a league collectively it’s vital that we fight for every positive bit of coverage that we can and sadly in a situation where this journalist should have accepted the decision given to him and decided whether to either go and buy a ticket or just not go he took a third option to create negative coverage.
We’re all in tough times still. Individuals continue to feel the pinch and so do businesses so it’s vital that we all club together to help promote our team in our local region and the sport too. Each one of you here tonight must have been introduced to the sport by a friend, an advert, some promotion or tv coverage etc and it would be nice if we could all go that extra mile to introduce a new person or two. The best advertising is always word of mouth recommendations so lets use our collective voices to generate some positive recommendations.
Enjoy tonight’s game
My team, your team, OUR TEAM
Mark
