Author: sunilagni

Fake fans

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Wall Street Journal has a story about an Italian soccer team using printed sheets of vinyl to fill up their stadium. Since fans weren’t showing up to their games, management decided to employ fake fans.

The club itself makes a majority of its revenue from television contracts, which makes one wonder if ‘real’ fans are even needed.

A few things come out from this story.

First is the actual images on the vinyl and how the fans are depicted. The image really reflects how owners and management see their fans or at least what behaviour they expect from their fans. Every ‘fan’ is out of their seats and doing something. Not very authentic, but makes the team look good on TV.

Second, this brings to light what fan behaviour is at the physical stadium, with thousands of other fans, versus what fan behaviour is like at home, alone. What exactly do fans like about being at the actual game? What do they hate? Could attending an actual game be a thing of the past?

This also ties back to my posting about goal horns and how they’re and example of inauthentic fan expression.

Image from Wall Street Journal.

Green Men of Vancouver

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Two guys inspired by the show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” have taken it upon themselves to torment whoever has to serve a penalty. Highly creative fans with arsenal that depends on the opponent. Neither are employees of the Canucks and get a lot of attention for their work.

The Canucks always ensure they show up on the big screen to get a laugh. Just have to love the creativity these guys come up with.

A sampling of their work:

The Canucks ran an interview with them and so did the blog Nucks Misconduct.

Video and Fan Experience

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HBO’s four-part series “24/7 Penguins/Capitals” kicked off last night. Cameras went behind the scenes during current regular season games to gives viewers an inside look into the two teams that will play in the Winter Classic this year.

Viewers got to see stuff that never gets captured by game productions. Show highlights include coaches talking to their teams, players spending time with their families and just raw emotion coming out of player to player interaction.

Best scene for me was the fight between a couple players. After the crowd cheering and commentary commending both fighters, it cuts to a quiet medical room where the Penguins players is getting stitched up (in HD, mind you) and getting checked by the doctors. You know guys get stitched, but to actually see it done and the doctors presence in the room captured more than a game production.

I think these types of shows do a great job showing more than what we’re used to. We know, or have a general idea of what stuff happens behind the scenes but to actually see it through video enhances the fan experience. From watching the game, talking about it afterwards, engaging online with fans, we can piece together the stuff. We can assume coaches rip into their players. We know players get injured all the time. But to actually confirm what we assume really makes the show worth watching.

More responses from around web:

Yahoo!
Fanhouse
National Post

Nordiques Fans to Demonstrate

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Fans of the defunct Quebec Nordiques will be making a trip down to Long Island to attend a game between the Atlanta Thrashers and the New York Islanders. A group of 1,100 Nordiques fans will be there to show support for a team to relocate back to Quebec City.

The city lost its franchise back in 1995 as the team moved to Colorado. Ever since, fans have wanted a team back. Recently, the Government of Canada and the Province of Quebec has talked about supporting the development of a new arena to possibly bring a team back.

The plan for the 1,100 demonstrators is to cheer at the 15 minute mark of each period, marking the 15 years they’ve gone without a club in Quebec City. Both the Islanders and Thrashers have been struggling at the gates, drawing fans well below the league average.

The interesting thing here is how adamant cities like Winnipeg and Quebec City have been on getting the next NHL team that happens to relocate. They really do have a tonne of fan support, but professional sports is a business. Without stable sponsorship and support from the business community in those cities, a professional hockey team can’t fly.

Derek Zona took a look at a number of markets that don’t have an NHL team and the various factors needed to support one. Arguments can go either way, but looking at these numbers, it’s hard to justify relocating a team to Winnipeg and Quebec City.

The whole debate, all of the actions and the findings has been left to fans. Not the league, not a research company and not a University of College. The actions, as planned by the 1,100 Nordiques supporters, is fan driven. That’s what makes this whole story and debate so interesting.

It remains to be seen what the final results will be. But what is clear is how hockey fans are the ones taking action here. Both online through blogs and social media, and the real world by driving eight hours to Long Island to show support for a defunct team.

*Update*

Here’s the third period demonstration by Nordiques nation. Beauty. Montreal Gazette story here.

Goal horns in professional hockey

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Since fans as a collective group has been a major focus of this project, I’ve been dissecting their experiences in relation to the game. One experience that I’ve begun to question and loathe is the goal horn in every professional hockey arena.

These tend to go off after every goal the home team scores and also after a win. But these annoying sounds didn’t always exist. There used to be a time when it was the fans in attendance that would rock the building.

I personally don’t understand the purpose. My guess it’s a way for a team to make up for the lack of noise in their buildings (ahem, Phoenix, Florida, Long Island) and make the arena seem like a wild place to be to attract new fans.

To me, these goals horns are a way for professional hockey teams to control their fans. Cheering/supporting/heckling are a few of the ways for group of fans to interact with the game. A goal horn just replaces the fans with a cheering squad hired by the team.

This really limits what a fan community can do. We’ve seen from Premier League soccer chants, goalie taunts and blogs the kind of stuff fans can come up with. When fans as a group are unrestricted, the possibilities are endless. The goal horn is just a phoney representation of what professional leagues want their fans to be. It’s an attempt to enhance an image and takes away from the genuine expression of fans.

Here’s a great goal celebration from a high school game:

Knowledge Management

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Knowledge Management & Communication Technology
September 2010 – December 2010

Communities of practice

According to Wenger (2002):

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge: Knowledge possessed by an individual that is difficult to transfer. Typically the ‘know-how’ a person has. It’s the knowledge we don’t recognize we have.

Explicit knowledge: Knowledge that can codified and easily shared.

“Continual dialogie between explicit and tacit knowledge…drives the creation of new ideas and concepts.” (Nonaka, 1994).

According to Nonaka (1994), there are four modes of knowledge conversions. Blogs play an important role in each of these steps.

Socialization (Tacit to Tacit)
Fans have the ability to communicate using blogs. Comment sections that are open to public postings allow for an exchange of the tacit knowledge held by fans.

Externalization (Tacit to Explicit)
Blogs allow fans to answer the questions of one another. Recording an individual’s tacit knowledge on a blog converts that knowledge to explicit. This can then be referenced later on when needed. Fans have also begun making their knowledge easier to find using tags and data mining software.

Internalization (Explicit to Tacit)
Since blogs are on the internet, explicit knowledge is readily available for conversion to tacit knowledge. Fans can read the knowledge available on blogs and internalize what they find. It is when fans utilize this knowledge, however, that they truly convert it to explicit knowledge. For example, a fan can take explicit knowledge and use it to gamble on hockey games.

Combination (Explicit to Explicit)
Various sites have begun making their data sharable with others. For example, fans grade player performance each game, use Microsoft excel to sort it and make it available for other fans to obtain and manipulate.

Nonaka, I. (1994). A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science, 5(1), p. 5 – 37.

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and learning systems. Organization, 7(2), p. 225-246.

The battle goes on…and on: Bloggers and MSM

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Great story about bloggers came out recently. Tyler Dellow of mc79hockey.com did some excellent research into some old emails between NHL Senior VP and Director of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell and NHL Director of Officiating Stephen Walkom. These emails became public because of a wrongful dismissal case involving former NHL referee Dean Warren and the league. Within the emails, Dellow was able to uncover some of Campbell’s attitudes towards specific players, as well as his concern with calls made against his son, who plays in the league.

Dellow’s article can be found here.

Here’s TSN’s take on Dellow’s findings.

Dellow’s interview on The Score: http://video.thescore.com/watch/glenn-schiiler-one-on-one-with-tyler-dellow

Needless to say, Dellow got a tonne of attention for the great work he did. Whether or not you care about the findings of his research, the fact is he took the time without any monetary motivation and on his own time, to decipher through documents. He raised some really interesting questions about the league and how it handles its referees. All of this is public information. He just took the time to work with it.

Aside from questioning whether or not Campbell should keep his job, a lot is being discussed about the relationship between bloggers and MSM. Talk of how one is better than the other or how bloggers will take over the jobs of MSM, to me, is a big stretch. Questions have been raised about why it took a blogger to dig out this stuff and what role sports journalists have.

How social media destroyed the NHL All Star Game.

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The NHL is in the midst of reviewing the state of the game. Managers have lots to discuss but the two topics that are interesting are the All Star Game festivities and the leagues development of a social media policy. TSN’s Darren Dreger is covering it here.

Over the course of a weekend, the All Star Game, including the skills competition, is a great way to promote the game and showcase the best talent in the league. But the whole event has gone stale. The game itself is pretty meaningless as the players don’t really compete during the game to avoid injury. The games format (East vs West, North America vs The World) has changed in the past but really there is no significance to it. Fans do get to vote on the starting lineup, but besides that, there isn’t a way for fans (or potential fans) to get involved

Social media and evolving technologies has really changed the attitude towards the NHL’s showcase event. Hockey fans have found other ways to interact with the game and learn more about it.

In the past, seeing a player that plays for a different team was rare. So when they did show up, it was a big deal. But now, every game is available anytime, anywhere. Both TV and mobile technology ensures fans don’t miss a second of marquee games. It’s not as big of a deal now when these superstars come into town.

Game highlights and stats are readily available on the web soon after, which can be shared, analyzed and commented on. Fans can then head to message boards and blogs to interact with others. All this promotes the game and keeps people engaged.

Fantasy league hockey lets fans create their own list of all stars to compete with friends and other poolies. Prizes and bragging right at the end make it even more interesting. This generates a lot more interest in less important games.

Video game such as the EA Sports NHL series gives fans the opportunity to experience players and see the matchups they envision. Gaming is a great way to get involved and learn more about hockey. Why watch a meaningless game when you can experience the game with the all stars.

Fans don’t just consume the information and entertainment. Instead they take it and do something else with it. This is something the all star game does not allow. Fans in the mean time, have found other ways to learn about the game and get more from it.

Lets hope the NHL gets a social media policy in place so some of the more interesting characters of the league can get more exposure and give fans what they really want.

Cleveland’s response to Lebron James

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After announcing his decision to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat, Lebron James faced a considerable amount of backlash. By announcing his decision in a one hour TV special, sitting down for a one-on-one interview, James irked not only Cleveland fans, but sports fans around the world.

Traditionally, when a player decides on where he/she wants to play, it’s a press conference setting, hosted by the team acquiring the player. The player and managers face the cameras and speak directly to the audience via television, radio or webstream. James went a whole other route and admitted afterwards he would have done things a lot differently if he had to do it again.

Here’s the latest ad by Nike featuring James.

So now James speaks directly to the camera, eye to eye, and asks ‘What should I do?”. He goes on to talk about his decision and what ramifications it could have. He spins the backlash from his decision into a motivator to persevere as a professional athlete. Typical sports ads deliver their message through actions. For example, an athlete would dunk a basketball or a hit a home run. A dialogue with the audience such as this ad is rarely used.
Grant McCraken’s comments about the ad and the individualism expressed by James and Nike are worth a read.

Cleveland filmmaker Dan Wantz recently released this response to the Nike ad featuring James, attached below. The video takes the Nike ad and splices in fan responses to what James should do.

Telling NewsChannel5, Wantz commented:

“I felt like Cleveland didn’t really have a voice in the matter. I saw a need for Cleveland to have a voice. I feel like this video was a good representation of how Cleveland feels.”

This comment is interesting because fans do have a voice. Message boards, blogs, Twitter and Facebook are all methods to give fans a voice and were used to support/jeer James’ decision. But it’s this video which matched the professional, polished look of the original Nike ad that really drew viewers on Youtube. It used footage from the original ad, clips from the decision and other highlights to really express a communities feelings. By wrapping all the feelings of Cleveland fans in a short clip, a summary is provided to fire right back at Nike and James. I found this to be much more powerful method to express feelings than social media tools.

***UPDATE***

Had to add this one. Just came out. MJ claims to have nothing to do with it though.