Last night Stephen Colbert featured a story on the 2006 Gameops.com Best of Awards Honorable Mention winner Steagle Cobeagle th Eagle.

To see The Colbert Report story click this link to the Comedy Central website.

In case you missed it, Colbert calls Gameops.com “big time” (so we have finally arrived!), calls the Toronto Raptor an *sshole, and congratulates Steagle Cobeagle on the award.

As a big fan of the show and a daily viewer, this was about the coolest thing I have ever seen….check it out.

-Cudo

BirdZerk! and the ZOOperstars! are two of the most popular baseball touring acts in the country.  Their scheudule fills up quickly as most baseball teams know.

They are currently looking to fill out their 2007 season with just a couple openings.

BirdZerk!

• 6/1 (Looking to fill with a team out west!)
• 7/2 (Looking to fill date with team in Midwest area!)

ZOOperstars!

• 3/22 - 3/25 (Looking to fill with Mex. Lg. Teams!)
• 7/20 (Looking to fill date out West!)
• 7/22 (Need to fill with a team around NC/SC)
• 8/22 (Need to fill with a team in the Northeast)

For more info on these dates or to find out more about BirdZerk! and the ZOOperstars you can contact them at:

email: dom@zooperstars.com
phone: 800-219-0899
web: http://www.zooperstars.com or http://www.birdzerk.com

We also list over 100 touring acts on the Gameops.com Act Listings.

-Cudo

Saginaw ABC Channel 12 has a report on the Honorable Mention award given by Gameops.com last December.

It’s an entertaining piece used in the local news to promote the mascot and the team’s playoff run.  Video of the story is on the ABC12.com website (click here to see the video).

Stumbling is one of Steagle’s trademarks. After all, he is fledgling. However, that opening night trip was actually real, but his less-than-stellar skating has played well with fans, especially the young ones.

This is the Spirit’s fifth season in Saginaw, and now with a top-ranked mascot and a fake talk-show host as one of its biggest fans, there’s not much more the team’s management can ask for — except winning the Memorial Cup. (abc12.com)

-Cudo

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (CP) - An American Hockey League team is offering pop star Britney Spears a break from the party scene and paparazzi madness in Hollywood - an all-expenses paid trip to snowy Syracuse.

And fans of the Syracuse Crunch are also getting a Britney offer: women who shave their head will get into Saturday’s game against the visiting Manitoba Moose for free. Howard Dolgon, owner and president of the Crunch, said Tuesday he would be happy to fly Spears in, cover her hotel and meals and give her the best seats in the house at Crunch games.

The team said the invitation is an effort to “provide tranquillity” for the pop star’s “turbulent lifestyle.”  (full story)

Now that’s a fun promotion.  For those who have followed our Best of Gameops.com Awards for the last 6 years you know we consider creativity, entertainment value, media exposure, drawing power, and execution of the operations.  This promoiton is off to a great start with creativity, media exposure and (so far) great execution.  So far it’s a promotion that has cost nothing and generated a lot of buzz. 

Britney and ex-husband Kevin Federline seem to be favorite targets of not only the paparazzi, but of sport marketers.  There have been numberous promotions featuring (or mocking) the pair (Tattoo Spotlight featuring K-Fed), a trend I doubt will end soon….since they are ripe for mockery.

As for Britney, I might think about the offfer.  A snowy night in Syracuse sounds better than a month in treatment.

-Cudo

Note:  This promotion has been nominated for the 2007 Best of Gameops.com Awards.  If you have a nomination you can always send it to info@gameops.com or post a note in the Best of Section of the Editor’s Blog.

Thanks to Glen Gower for the link.

ESPN Sports Nation Reports on Love and Marriage

I thought this was a fun look at how various people have used sports to find love and connect their marriage proposals and weddings to sports.

Most teams now have something on their websites about proposals, many even have rules about how they will do it and charge a fee (which is often donated to the team charity).  There are a lot of fans who are interested in this and it can be an entertaining element to include in your game presentation.

Three personal anecdotes:

1. I think if I would have proposed at a sports event on the jumbotron not only would my wife had said no….but she might have killed me.
2. In my days as a mascot I have been a part of over 20 proposals over the years, which means I have been (literally) right in the middle of two people’s most intimate moment.  It’s something that always gets me emotionally.  It’s really an honor, yet totally bizzare. 
3. I also have been the “best man” in costume for a couple I never met nor have never heard from again.  Again…and honor, and totally bizzare.

Do you have information ready for people ready to take the plunge and do it in front or your crowd?

–Cudo

Will Russell Crowe start a trend?

SYDNEY, Australia - Russell Crowe says his rugby league club’s cheerleading squad is being cut because skimpily clad cheerleaders detract from the game and make spectators uncomfortable.

The Oscar-winning actor, who is part-owner in the South Sydney Rabbitohs club, said the club had become concerned that the cheerleaders — whose uniform includes fishnet stockings and tasseled miniskirts in the white, green and red team colors — were inappropriate entertainment.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17067020/

It was also noted in the story that:  “A team of percussionists will replace the cheerleaders, the club announced this week. The club’s Web site invited drummers to audition.” 

I am hoping that they don’t try to reach a compromise of the two with drumming cheerleaders or drummers in tassled miniskits.  Here is a early photo from what those auditions might look like:

I will be sure to keep you posted if the trend of dumping cheerleaders for drummers gains any traction.

–Cudo