Dave Klonke

More proof that hockey goalies are a strange breed.

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:00:41 -0400

More proof that hockey goalies are a strange breed.

Lots of Leafs fans. Drop the puck.

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:53:23 -0400

Lots of Leafs fans. Drop the puck.

"Bain Capital was laughed at when it was reported that they offered $4 billion to buy the entire NHL..."

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:22:11 -0400

“Bain Capital was laughed at when it was reported that they offered $4 billion to buy the entire NHL in 2005, as the sport endured a full season of sitting out from the lockout. That deal would have put the average franchise at $133 million. Almost four years later, that number looks pretty good.”

- Darren Rovell, from CNBC.

I agree that the NHL is going to be impacted the most by this economy. Even before this crisis situation the NHL has had teams file for bankrupcy right and left. There are teams that just shouldn’t exist. I’m looking forward to returning to the days of a 21-team league. Even fewer would be better. The question is, are we going to see teams actually moving to Canada now?

Slammed in the media

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:15:28 -0400

My fantasy hockey team is taking a beating…thanks Kent.

Koosh: Dave will need to conjure the old spirits in Nic Corsetti’s basement. Those same spirits that watched over his squad as we completed the very first MRHL draft on Nic’s Ping Pong table. Oh how he misses the days of Bret Hull and his 70 goals, or the dominance of Al Macinnis and Tom Barasso. Dave even tried to move those spirits by keeping 80 year old Mats Sundin on his protected list. Gonchar will be missed severely, but the starting defense is pretty good considering. It will be tough without Sundin to match the top MRHL teams forward depth. How soon we forget that they won in 2002. Team grade: D+

This reminds me of some of the cliffs I saw as I flew over...

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:44:28 -0400

This reminds me of some of the cliffs I saw as I flew over Guatemala.

applearts:

Interior design room: living on the edge; ronda

Would you pay $12 for a round-trip bus ride from Royal Oak to Detroit? I didn't think so.

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:42:00 -0400

Would you pay $12 for a round-trip bus ride from Royal Oak to Detroit? I didn't think so.

MLB playoff thoughts...

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:10:09 -0400

Love seeing the Rays beat up on the Chisox. Hate seeing the Cubs do what they always do. Thinking the Dodgers and Red Sox in the World Series would be great for Manny reasons.

Speaking of Monopoly, this is nice.

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:34:50 -0400

Speaking of Monopoly, this is nice.

It starts in school

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:28:09 -0400

So the House passed the $700 billion “bailout” bill today. It should be called the “Lesson Learned” bill. Unfortunately, will everyone learn the lesson?

I’ve long been amazed that schools, especially high schools, don’t focus more on personal finance. You can do a hell of a lot more damage to yourself by not understanding the idea behind a credit card than you can by not learning the biology of a frog or how to diagram a sentence (this one by the way is getting harder and harder to diagram as I go).

The $700 billion mess is not just about greedy CEOs like the media—who probably coined the term “bailout” in the first place—would like you to believe. It’s also about those of us who were sucked in and felt we really should have the McMansion and the cars and the toys and the whatever else we felt we deserved on whatever household income that couldn’t afford it.

So who’s fault is that? Well, our’s. Ignorance isn’t an excuse. But at the same time, we have schools for a reason. They’re there to teach us how to function in society when we finally are old enough to leave our parent’s house. So why aren’t they there to teach kids fiscal responsibility?

(NOTE: It’s been a while since I was in school and my kids are quite there yet, so maybe they’ve changed. It would be hard to believe considering what’s going on here.)

The biggest problem is that it’s not rocket science on its simplest level—don’t spend what you don’t have. As a kid I hated to have to flip over that card in Monopoly and leverage my property in order to pay the bills or buy more property. I’d be willing to bet there’s a lot more card flipping in today’s games of Monopoly. Fortunately, I learned to be responsible with money from my parents. But considering the average person has almost $10,000 in credit card debt, mommy and daddy can’t be trusted with the lesson plan.

It ultimately becomes more complicated after the debt has compounded and the hole is dug. The problem is when people finally realize they have a problem and they start scratching and clawing their way out of the hole, they quickly realize that as they lose their grip the hole is also getting deeper.

That has to be a sickening feeling.

So forget study hall and all these nonsense classes and let’s start teaching kids how this whole economic system works and more importantly how it works and fails for them.

onemoretimewithfeeling: Not really a Star Wars fan, but this was...

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:00:23 -0400

onemoretimewithfeeling:

Not really a Star Wars fan, but this was kind of funny.

I think these would look great in the SOZO | Pivotal conference room. Where can I buy them?

How much is a positive brand worth?

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:26:55 -0400

How much is a positive brand worth?: Can you put a price on a strong brand? What is it worth? It’s a good question.

Since the beginning of advertising, the business side of the media has tried to place a value on advertising in their…

Congrats to Jesse Berger...Crain's 40 Under 40

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:22:06 -0400

Congrats to Jesse Berger...Crain's 40 Under 40: At SOZO | Pivotal we have some of the greatest clients in the world. They’re passionate about their businesses and they value the need for solid branding and marketing strategies.

Jesse Berger, of…

A new brand of football?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:03:40 -0400

Since 2001, the Detroit Lions have established a very solid, unfavorable brand—horrible football. They’ve been joked about on all the late night talk shows and people who don’t even follow sports know that the Lions are the definition of a poorly run franchise.

With today’s dismissal of CEO Matt Millen, could the Lions be headed in the right direction? Maybe. But the big question was, why now? Why fire the GM/CEO in the middle of the season when his primary duties of football operations are conducted during the off-season and specifically prior to the college draft in April.

The answer is simple—to save some sort of connection with the fans. The tone around town is that “anything can be better than the way it was.” The Lions are still going to be horrible now and unfortunately for the next couple of years, at least. But fans, especially fans in Detroit, have short memories and tend to jump on bandwagons. Examples? Detroit wasn’t Hockeytown until the Red Wings became successful in the mid 90s. And nobody filled the seats at Tiger Stadium or Comerica Park between 1990 and 2006.

This is why I’ve said before that sports branding isn’t really all that necessary when it comes to the fan. They want a winner, plain and simple. Only the Chicago Cubs have been able to effectively fool their fans and get away with a history of mediocrity.

While fans want the Lions to win, the consumer is smart enough to know that a lot of things need to happen before “above .500” comes up in any conversations about Detroit football. The start is the firing of Millen. The next step, which should be done today, is to march William Clay Ford Sr. out in front of the press and help everyone understand why this wasn’t done a long time ago.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. The Lions are only going to release a statement. Who are the PR people suggesting that? What a horrible manuever. Of course all that doesn’t matter if the Lions start playing some better football.

Anyway, today marks the first step.

This Viper look-a-like is no Challenger, or challenger to GM

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:43:00 -0400

So Chrysler today announced they’re going to produce an electric car in 2010. It’s going to look like the picture above, which looks like a Viper, which no longer looks cool at all. Did somebody at Chrysler just wake up to all the attention GM is getting from the Volt? Very unimpressive.

Lions' 75th Anniversary

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:30:00 -0400

While there’s not much more to say about this 0-3 start, maybe you’ll feel better reading about the past. My dad’s been writing a feature each week on the best Lions players by position for detroitlions.com.

"It was an embarrassment, the fans deserve better, and if I had the authority, I would have fired the..."

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:54:35 -0400

““It was an embarrassment, the fans deserve better, and if I had the authority, I would have fired the general manager.””

- William Clay Ford…………..Jr.

"Matt Millen was speechless when a reporter approached him at halftime. He never sounded more..."

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:46:28 -0400

“Matt Millen was speechless when a reporter approached him at halftime. He never sounded more intelligent.”

- The lede from Drew Sharp’s post-game column in the Detroit Free Press. Great stuff.

Charging the mound...from first?

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:49:00 -0400

There are two things in baseball I absolutely can’t stand. The first being players arguing with the official scorer on whether a play was a hit or an error. (I’ll post more about this later—great topic!) And the second happened last night—hitters who stand over the plate like its a urinal, who get hit by a pitch and then charge the mound.

Don’t get me wrong, if you get beaned on purpose and the pitch is above your shoulders head straight to the mound. It’s the standing over the plate thing that bothers me. Give the pitcher room to work or, literally, take what comes at you.

Last night’s mini-brawl between Gary Sheffield and Fausto Carmona was ridiculous for a number of reasons:

the HBP was two batters after a homerun
Sheffield crowds the plate
Sheffield didn’t charge the mound until he was on first and after a Carmona pick off attempt.

Now the real question is, shouldn’t Sheffield have been out? I didn’t see it happen so I don’t know, but I assume Carmona had the ball in his glove as Sheffield stormed over from first. If he tagged him as he was getting tackled shouldn’t he be out? Didn’t Sheffield essentially take a big lead-off in the direction of the mound? I’m assuming he didn’t ask the first base umpire for timeout so he could go ape crazy towards the pitcher.

That’s the thing I really love about baseball…you can watch a million games, but on game one million and one you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.

I can't wait...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:07:04 -0400

…to talk launch this new product/service that SOZO | Pivotal has developed. It’s all part of the branding world, but it focuses on a specific business niche. Today we came up with a really cool name that is sort of out there, but works perfectly. Stay tuned here and at the www.doesyourbusiness.com blog for more news.

Microsoft commercials about nothing apparently gone

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:29:36 -0400

Microsoft commercials about nothing apparently gone: Rumor around the web is that Microsoft has dumped the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates spots. Microsoft PR is denying it, of course, saying it’s only a move into the next phase and Seinfeld was never…