Five Magical Seasons Cont'

It didn't take me but two or three weeks after my first day to realize that I was exactly where I belonged. I was in a place where amazing things were going to happen and I felt perfectly at home, even if I didn't know the first thing about hockey.  It is a little strange right?

You see there is something very unique about the Monsters and the people that work for our team. There is a undeniable bond that permanently ties us all together.  It creates an environment with energy permeating from the walls, and passion pouring out of the people that work within them.  Our culture is one that manifests itself in the successes that we have accomplished together. We're a team, from top to bottom, which is the only way we know how to be.  We achieve success individually only through the achievements of our team as a whole.  We love each other, plain and simple.  That doesn't mean we're all best friends, but we have a profound respect for what we all have to go through every day to have success. That is how I knew so quickly I was in the right place.  And even though we had crazy challenges in front of us, we were going to make magical things happen inside Quicken Loans Arena and in the Cleveland community.

How does it happen?  Could it be great leadership?  You better believe it. Since the day we started we've had leaders running this business that cared just as much about the success of our team, as they did of themselves in their personal careers.  But that isn't everything.  Could it also be talented team members?  there is no question about it. None of our accomplishments would have even been remotely possible if we didn't have some of the best in the business working for us. But again, there is just more to it.  There is something else that has driven this franchise to successes that most in Cleveland thought were impossible, just a pipe dream of a rich owner with money to spend.  It is a really difficult theory to articulate, but I'll do my best..... 

You'd think in a town full of such passionate people that a new team, albeit hockey, could attract some of that undying love from the people for their sports teams.  But we're "minor league".  We're not the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Cleveland Browns or the Cleveland Indians.  We never will be.  Those teams have been here for decades and have an unbelievably loyal following in this region.  A group that is unwavering in their support of the home town teams. It's one of the things I love about this city.  Thick and thin, win or lose, we are all connected through the support we show our teams. The Monsters could never possible crack into that category, right? We're minor league, in a major league town, and we're a hockey team.  Undoubtedly the least popular sport of the four majors.  (Aside from all you die hards! You know who you are.  I know how much you guys love this sport!)

Let's talk about a couple more things working against us. The Monsters resided in a building where the mother ship was and always will be the Cleveland Cavaliers.  At that time there was not a more popular team in town.  Sorry Browns fans, it is true.  Lebron James and the Cavs packed the house with 20,562 fans night in and night out.  Our staff and front office were focused on capitalizing on every single ounce of energy that followed this team during the Lebron era, and trying to make our business the best it could be.  Along with, of course, trying to win a championship.  So how the hell were the Monsters going to get any attention in a town where there are three beloved sports teams, and one with an otherworldly superstar who dominated the headlines every single day?  Well the answer was simple, we didn't.  Not even really in our own building, and not even from some of our own team members that weren't working directly on the Monsters team. (No names, please).  At least not at first.

So guess what?  It just might be that we all quickly developed a, "small", chip on our shoulders about doing everything in our power to grow this franchise. You could even probably call it a complex.  Maybe we feel like we are on a mission to prove every single doubter wrong about how successful a minor league hockey team could be in Cleveland.  Maybe since our opening night on Saturday, October, 2007, we've expended every last ounce of energy we had in our bodies to build this team into what it is today?

None of those things are a maybe......

Every single time from the day we started this thing that someone has doubted us, we have used that as fuel.  Honestly we didn't give a damn whether or not people thought we could make this work.  We've heard it all before.  In fact, just to give you an idea, here are some of my favorites that we heard repeatedly:

"Hockey has no chance to succeed in Cleveland"

"You're minor league, I'm not interested in minor league sports"

"Call when we get the NHL"

"Who are the Lake Erie Monsters"

"I have no interest in hockey"

"I went to a hockey game in Cleveland in 2005, there were 500 people in the stands, no thanks"

"This is a three horse town, and we don't have a racetrack so their is no room for a fourth" (actually I just made this one up but I wish someone would have said it!)

Well....Five years later and it is difficult for me to sum up what we've been able to accomplish, but these statistics should give you an idea.

Year One - We finished 11th in attendance.  Our first year.  Expansion franchise. 
Year Two - We finished 9th in attendance.  Already a sign of growth after only one year
Year Three - We finished 6th in attendance.  Still doubting us?  Good.  Keep it coming.

Year Four - We finished 6th again. Leveling off?  I don't think so. We fought through a year where our entire leadership team changed, and our business still grew.

Year Five - WE FINISHED 3RD IN ATTENDANCE.  That's right. 3rd.  Guess what our goal is?

Just for a little perspective, there are 30 teams in the American Hockey League. Some having been in operation for 60 or 70 years. We routinely have crowds of 10 to 12 thousand.  Sometimes I look at those numbers and I don't even believe them myself.  How did we possible make this happen? 

Belief.  We never for one second had doubts on whether or not we were going to make it happen.  Man did we go through stretches where it was tough.  I can remember distinctly walking out into the bowl in our first year and there were probably 1,500 bodies in the building.  I said to myself, what is going on? What are people going to think?  But we just kept driving.  Along the way we fought each other, sent nasty emails, yelled at each other in conference rooms, but all the while we maintained our focus on the goal.  To be the best AHL franchise in the league, and have one of the best organizations anywhere in sports.  At any level.  That belief is what carried us through all the adversity we have faced.

It is what has allowed us to become an integral part of the community. We donate thousands of tickets back every year so that the less fortunate can come out to a game and take their mind off every day life. Our players and front office make hundreds of visits out in Northeast Ohio every year to try and give back to the community that gives so much to us. It's not just about selling tickets for us. It is about building something special in Cleveland that we can all be proud of, and something we can all have pride in. A place where you can create memories with the people that mean the most to you, and not have to break the bank to do it. An environment that you can come to just sit back and have fun. Novel concept right? A sports team that allows people to simply enjoy life spending time with their friends, family or coworkers.

I could write for days, and pages upon pages about everything that has happened over the last five years. But I'll spare you the painful details, and I can assure you, they were painful....
A short (I promise) conclusion coming tomorrow......

jab

Five Magical Seasons....

Buckle up, this is going to be a long one....It is going to be a little bit of a story about me, and a little bit of a story about the Monsters...

A little more than five years ago I walked into Quicken Loans Arena looking for an opportunity.  I guess in reality, I was really looking to pursue my dream of working for the Cleveland Cavaliers.  I don't know exactly how it happened, or what made me walk in that day, but I did.

It was in late January or early February and I was downtown Cleveland on another appointment for the company I was currently working for, Sunset Golf.  Coincidentally, there was a job fair going on that day inside The Q.  The job fair that I have now participated in on the other side every year since.  It is an annual event where we look for the best and brightest out there looking to start a career in sports.  That particular day I walked in to The Q purely on the basis of curiosity.  I didn't exactly know what was going on until I walked in the doors.  Ten minutes after I

stepped through the Northeast entrance I found myself walking inside the building where dozens of sports teams from all over, and other local businesses, lined the concourse looking for future employees.

There was only one team I was really interested in, and that was the Cleveland Cavaliers. So I found their table and got in line to speak to a representative about any potential job opportunities.  At this point I still didn't even really know what I was doing there or what I was going to be asked about.  I just knew that working for the Cavs had always been in my heart.  That dream, however, seemed to be short lived.  My brief conversation with the rep standing at their table did not go well, and I knew it immediately.  I saw people being taken behind the table after that initial five minute conversation, and I was not one of those people they asked to come back.  The guy seemed to have little to no interest in what I had to say. That person will remain nameless.

The next part is all a bit of a blur. A few minutes later I had wandered over to the table next to the Cavs, which had a sign reading, "Lake Erie Monsters".  At that point all I could think was, well the name sounds cool, because other than that I didn't have a clue as to what or who the Lake Erie Monsters were. Which by the way, was the exact same sentiment and thought that many of my future customers would have when I first started making calls!  Anyway, I thought to myself I'm already here, so what could it hurt. 

Long story short, it turned out to be a brand new American Hockey League team that Dan Gilbert had purchased a few months earlier.  They would begin their inaugural season in October of 2007.  I got to the front of the line and spoke to a woman whom I had a completely different experience with than the gentleman on the Cavs side.  Before I knew it she had me talking to her boss, John Fisher, who at that time was overseeing the ticket sales team for the Monsters.  Before I knew what had even happened two weeks had passed, and I was hired as a Sales Consultant to begin on April 1st of 2007.  Once again, at this point, I still didn't really have a clue as to what I was getting myself into.

So I walked into Quicken Loans Arena on April 1st, 2007 as a full time sales rep for the Lake Erie Monsters.  A professional hockey team.  A hockey team.  A freaking hockey team.  How did this happen? I played college basketball.  High school tennis.  I was a baseball player.  I ran cross country.  Racquetball, kickball, track, croquet, volleyball and just about any other sport you can think of I had played at some point in my 24 years.  But never in my life had I ever set foot in an ice rink, nor had I ever seen one single second of a professional hockey game in person.  In fact I had never watched a hockey game at any level in person.  The only exposure I had to professional hockey was the 47 total seconds of NHL hockey that I had watched on TV somewhere along the line.  I blame that all on my dad.

What is the moral of this story?  The decision to walk into the arena that day was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life.  I have been fortunate enough to be a part of an amazing, memorable, almost surreal journey the last five years with the Monsters.  I've been a member of a team that has built a professional hockey team, in Cleveland, from the ground up. I think we may have even started below ground.  Buried.  At the Earth's core.  Because for the most part, that summarizes the feelings people in Cleveland had about professional hockey, at least at that particular time.

It hasn't been easy. My first week of phone calls I can't tell you how many times I heard, "hockey will never work in Cleveland,"  or even more encouraging, "The Lake Erie who? Are you the minor league baseball team?"  We all dealt with it. Every day. From Public Relations to Community Relations, Sales and Marketing, Game Ops..All of us.  We knew from day one it was going to be a battle.

So anyway, NO, we're not the minor league baseball team. I'll tell you who we are, and now I can even tell who we have become........

To be continued...

jab

Biden, the Bard and the Buckeye State

Last week our Poet Laureate ditched his usual combat fatigues and steel-toed boots and tucked a blue shirt into a crisp pair of newly ironed khakis.  Not just anything could persuade our #1 scribe to shower, shave and comb his hair in the same week, but then again it's not every day that Vice President Joe Biden drops by your remote compound in western Ohio to spend an afternoon.

Though the nature of the relationship between the lifelong Democrat and the militaristic poet/recluse/libertarian remains murky, it is believed that, in exchange for delivering a crucial swing state in November, the Bard had ready a list of demands for the next four years that he presented at a private conference in sub-level 14:

• Individual mandate to purchase assault rifle
• Phrase 'It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve' worked into pledge of allegiance
  
• No abortions for anyone ever
• No dog abortions
• Apologize to South for Emancipation Proclamation's overreach
• Abolish the Fed, the Treasury, the IRS, fiat currency and all spending except military
• Pizza Hut for lunch

Here's the VP surrounded by Foliglio, various security personnel, several of the poet's wives and a handful of his 30 children:

"OK kids, lunch is on Uncle Joe!"

"No, no, no...THIN crust.  Uh-huh, right."

"Whaddya mean you're out of breadsticks?"

After wolfing some 'za, Foliglio commemorated the occasion by reading a piece from his seminal collection, 1982's Diz-aster Book of Poems, marking the first time the poet has read from his own work since the second wedding of Lyndon LaRouche.

The itch a call it

     Srach, srach, srach,
Srach srach and srach
were bing atacked by the
itch a call it (srach)  He makes
you itch like (srach) crazy
and you will srach, srach,
srach, srach, srach, srach
srach, srach and srach

nwb

Still More McBone Family Values

We awoke this morning to a driving rain, but by early afternoon rainclouds had dissolved into bright beautiful exploding spring.  Color was splashed all across town.  A clean breeze stirred the trees.  Neighbors roamed the streets in a mirthful embrace of the season.

The timing seemed right for one of those milestone lessons for the McBonerito.

I know some of you are horrified, but don't worry.  American Spirit is additive-free.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em, McBoners, and happy Sunday!

nwb

On Trayvon Martin

Those close to me often hear me use the term "memories."  It has actually almost become a mantra for a few of my close friends and the way we live our lives.  We talk about making the most out of the time we have, and if we aren't living to make memories then we probably aren't living at all. 

As I listen and follow Tray's story it becomes increasingly difficult for me to internalize it.  This kid never even had a chance.  At only 17 years old his life was just getting started.  No 18th birthday, no senior prom, no graduations, no 21st birthday, no college, no kids, and now nothing left but his spirit.  No longer will he have the chance to make memories, but memories, in fact, are now all that his family and friends have to remember him by. 

Why? Because human beings for some unconscionable reason cannot find a way to live without hating one another.  Specifically hate for anyone who looks, sounds, smells, or talks differently than they do.  That is what it boils down to and that is why, among many reasons, this story makes me so angry.   

We held a student education day this year at a Lake Erie Monsters game.  The central focus of the entire event was to teach our kids about respect.  To make sure the youth of our community understand the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated.  We're all different and unique.  Not everyone is going to be in your group of friends or believe in what you believe in.  The human race has never and will never allow for all people to be the same.  We should be thankful for that every single day, but instead we choose to let it fill us with hate.  I guess my point is, how the hell can we teach our kids about respect when things like this happen?  Hate is such an enormously powerful and scary emotion.  It can drive a human being to pull out a gun and shoot a 17-year-old teenager in the chest.  And because he looks different?  In my opinion, there is not a more cowardly act that can be committed. 

Guns coupled with hate are a disastrous and lethal combination.  And now unnecessarily we've lost another young black man.  It is ever going to stop?  Probably not.  That doesn't mean we can't fight.  Social media can be a very dangerous tool, but in this case it has brought this story to homes across the entire country.  I hope that it can be an opportunity for us all to hold our society accountable for the intolerance that still exists. Change is driven by energy, commitment and passion.  It won't happen on its own.  Live your life to love, not to hate.

jab

I thought it unlikely that I'd see a black president in my lifetime.  Shows what I know.  Now I'm wondering if I'll live to see the day when a young black man walking down the street is not, as a matter of course, suspicious.  Turns out that's the taller order.  Critics who said the 'stand your ground' law would be a license to murder can now call checkmate on that argument.  Trayvon Martin, armed with a bag of Skittles, got shot for having the gall to pass through a neighborhood clad in dark skin.  Yeah, and he was also wearing a hoodie.  I own a hoodie.  I have two of them.  They're comfortable.  They keep me warm.  I wear them often.  I wear them in public.  No one has ever looked twice, let alone stalked me, pulled a semiautomatic pistol, opened fire and blown a hole in my chest.

If I could have switched my skin for Trayvon's, I gladly would have.  If he could have shed his black and slipped into my white for the duration of that walk, I'm sure he would have survived the night.  I'm sure he would have gone unnoticed--hoodie or not--by the murdering cowboy wannabe of a neighborhood watchman.  But why should I even be thinking that way?  Trayvon wasn't.  He was walking.  And talking on his phone.  And wearing a hoodie.  And minding his own business.  All of it legal.  None of it suspicious.  George Zimmerman had only to let him walk away, as he was instructed by the police to do.

In the aftermath, local authorities seemed satisfied with Zimmerman's tale of self-defense.  I have to believe he will eventually go to prison.

Or else it's open season in Florida, and black men are big game.

nwb

Meet Us in St Louis!

St. Louis!  There's a town for you.  The Ohio U men's basketball team was there for its once-in-a-generation Sweet 16 matchup with UNC, so naturally as loyal Bobcats we spent the duration hanging around the Conference for College Composition and Communication, better known as CCCC.  Now, for my money, there's no better time to see a city than when it's teeming with rhetoricians.  Sadly, as a literature major, I was excluded from the bulk of the proceedings.  No matter!  While my sometimes-popular wife was flitting from panel to caucus to workshop, the McBonerito and I got to spend the better part of three days exploring the banks of the Mississippi.  Boy, did we make the most of it.

These are just a few of the literally billions of highlights.

Our hotel was five stars all the way, and super well-ventilated.

Can you believe this view???

Shopping is a must when in St. Louis.

 Oh, there's plenty for the kids to do, too.

We took a leisurely stroll through the botanical gardens one afternoon.

I'm something of a foodie.  Of course we made a point of sampling the regional fare.

It seems every corner features some quirky little independent coffee house.  

You could tell architecture was a big deal for city planners.

Check out this stunning pair of neoclassical columns designed by an architect of great renown. 

Greek

Roman

Speaking of architecture, it wouldn't be a trip to St. Louis without visiting the world famous arch.

As you can imagine, we were pretty gassed after three days of that.  Here we are recharging the batteries for the night ahead.

I'd let you in on what happened once the sun went down, but I value my marriage too much, and I think you all know what they say about What happens in St. Louis... 

Well, that's it.  I hope the photos do the trip justice.  Anytime you want to meet us in St. Louis, and there happens to be a swarm of academics in town, just say the word!  We'll be there faster than you can say Cicero.

nwb

Everyone Wants a Piece of Lincoln; Parks and Rec Edition

Exhibit #54.  The City of West Lafayette, Indiana Department of Parks and Recreation wants a piece of Lincoln.

nwb

LIFE

The beauty of this blog is that we don't care.  We don't care if one other human being on the planet reads a single word.  This is a place for us to go write what we feel like saying.  Put down in words what we are feeling about any topic imaginable.  Sometimes it is mayonnaise.  Sometimes it is politics.  For me sometimes it is just about life.  Sometimes our thoughts make sense, sometimes you wonder what the hell we're talking about.  This post may lean towards the latter. 

I got smacked in the mouth today with another reminder of why I live the way I do.  Why when I wake up in the morning I make the decision to be the way I am, and to leave it all on the table every single day.  You think tomorrow is going to look like today?  NO CHANCE.  You have no idea.  How can we all not live everyday to create memories, and how can we not be driven by the memories we've already made?  I've got Aram tattooed on my arm.  I've got Cleveland tattooed on my rib cage.  I don't make decisions based on what other people think is right, I make decisions based on having nothing left to give on the day I take my last breath.

Nate, Krystl - how do we not see each other more?  I mean, seriously...What the hell.  Just make sure your beautiful children get a chance to spend as much time as possible with mom and dad.  What would you do just to get a couple more days with gram and grampa?

My family and my friends formed who I am. You guys are the reason I'm motivated to destroy everything, anything and anyone in my path. Never forget where you came from and never forget how fragile our lives are.  Live.One.Day.At.A.Time.  All out.  All the time.  No regrets.  Life is amazing, so need to constantly work to keep it that way.

jab