Dallas Loss

["Donald Mamula" <mamula@oz.net>]

On 18 Mar 98 at 10:06, Richard Davies wrote about Dallas Loss:

> PS: I saw an awful lot of gimmicks tonight: silly little contests,
> scantily-clad dancers, stupid mascot tricks, etc. It really smacked
> of small-market, minor-league attempts to keep the crowd s
> attention, and to keep them coming back (I ve seen enough of this
> stuff being in the advertising industry in tiny-market Oklahoma
> City.) Is there that much of this stuff at the FleetCenter?

Can't speak for Fleet (having yet to make a game there), but it is a
CONSTANT at Key Arena for Sonic games.  The Sasquatch mascot does
the usual trampoline stuff, there is a blimp that flies inside the
arena dropping stuff, the squatch uses a giant slingshot to shoot
rolled up t-shirts into the crowd, and of course, the dance routines 
during time outs and half time.

Put in the ads on the scoreboards, the movable ads on the tables, the 
sponsored highlights and trivia questions - it becomes one big 
marketing circus.  At least no company was sponsoring the national 
anthem.

Of course, the whole mess should come as no surprise, since Barry 
Ackerley, the Sonic's owner, made his money in the billboard 
business.

And to think that I thought the Panasonic signs in the Garden 
were a major corruption of the old place.

Don

*******************
Donald Mamula
Kirkland WA USA
mamula@oz.net
*******************