I completed the update of all the past Best of Gameops.com awards.  It’s a fun walk down memory lane looking at what was hot, what flamed out, and how quickly the unique becomes the standard.

Here are all the Best of Awards since 2001.  Nominations are open for the Best of 2008, you can comment in the Best of Award Blogs or email us with your nominations.

• 2001
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007

The 2008 Best of Awards will be announced the first week of December.  Nominations close on November 15th.

–Cudo

The Best of 2002 Awards have now been added to Gameops.com.  We have 1 year left to post to complete our 7 year history of the Best of Gameops.com awards and those will be up shortly.

The Best of 2002 included awards for Rocky the Mountain Lion and Quick Change, and featured a new Parachute Drop.  I thought it was interesting that in 5 short years a promotion like the Parachute Drop when from revolutionary to ubiquitous.

–Cudo

The Best of 2003 Awards have now been added to Gameops.com.  We have 2 more years to post to complete our 7 year history of the Best of Gameops.com awards and those will be up in the next 7-10 days.

The Best of 2003 included awards for NBA mascots Squatch and Clutch, and the best game promotion award for the Altoona Curve for their now-famous Awful Night:

The Pirates Double A franchise Altoona Curve put on a real tour-de-force promotion on July 14th, called Awful Night. Their goal….be simply Awful. The only failure: In their drive to be the worst, they have landed on top, with our Gameops.com Best Game Promotion Award.

The team sought (and found) every possible way to be bad, including music, video, premiums, entertainment, and pyrotechnics. The lowlights included:

• Clips from the movie Toxic Avenger
• Music from William Shatner and Milli Vanilli
• A gate giveaway of a 12 inch square piece of bubble-wrap
• A special presentation to awful teams like the 76 Buccaneers, 1962 Mets, and the 1990’s Bengals
• Player batting averages were listed as “failed averages”….so a .300 hitter would have a .700 average of failing.
• Bad contests, like “Dunking for Onions” and “Bald Guy Races for a Toupee”
• An awful pre-game fireworks display
• In-contests, the winners get nothing.
• Pre-game autographs with non-celebrities

The event got national attention, including a mention on the “Best Damn Sports Show Period”. The evening was a classic example of a team reaching every conceivable method to connect with fans on a promotion. While it was simply awful…..it was simply extraordinary. Creative, complete, funny, media-friendly, well executed…..and a winner all around.

All nominations are open, so please feel free to share your nominations now.  You can comment on the blog or contact us with nominations.

–Cudo

Typically the Best of Gameops.com is announced in December, but I think it’s safe to say my Best of 2008 arrived early (Tuesday afternoon).

Please welcome Oscar George to the Gameops.com family.  Oscar and mom are doing great and it’s been a thrilling week here.

Thanks to everyone for their support, in particular our great staff at Gameops.com who have jumped in to handle things while I change diapers and hang out with the new bundle of joy.

–Cudo

Here is some good execution of a Kid’s day element in Detroit, as several kids imitiate Piston’s famous announcer “Mason”.

What I really like is that is not only plays off the kid-theme but it also sets up Mason as a star.  If you’ve been to a Piston’s game you certianly know his style and his calls…with this the team is raising the profile even further and promoting the idea that he’s something special in the organization.

–Cudo

Best Team Introductions:
Which team introduction is the best produced, executed, fresh and innovative. Consider creativity, value to fans, execution, quality of presentation, fan interaction and attention to detail. We level the playing field by considering budget constraints to minor league teams. The category will consider focus primarily on the standard introduction (opening night variations will be considered, but the focus is on the standard game production). Due to the category we will also rely heavily on video reviews (YouTube, etc.)

Teams noted for excellence in 2007:

* Portland Trailblazers Opening Night 2007
* Atlanta Hawks
* Ottawa Senators

I am really excited to add this new category this year, with the widespread use of on-line video we are now better positioned than ever to see introductions across the coutry at all sports levels and in all sports.

I have started to add a lot of Introductions to the YouTube page (under the “Introduction” tabs), currently I have about 140 videos of introductions indexed.

When you send nominations for this category, it is highly encouraged that you send on-line video (like a YouTube link) with it.  You can nominate yourself or any team in the comment box here or send an email to us here.

–Cudo