Tonight the fans will help the Revolution strive for a win for the first time in six days, with a variety of superstitious happenings.

The last time the Revolution won last Sunday, 5-4 over Lancaster, it was raining on and off throughout the day and the tarp was pulled multiple times over the infield at Sovereign Bank Stadium.  According to Brandon Putman, Revolution Head Groundskeeper, the weather forecast for this evening’s game is “brilliantly sunny” with no chance of rain.  To increase the chances of a W, during pre-game tonight the Revolution front office staff will once again pull tarp to exercise the losing streak demons, despite the fair weather.

Sovereign Bank Stadium has also been deemed a “Rally Cap Only” area for the night of May 24.  Everyone wearing a cap will be asked to turn it inside out the entire game, to help will the Revolution on to victory.  The rally cap first originated in 1942 in Detroit, to help the city’s struggling Tigers.

Throughout the game fans are encouraged to knock on wood.  With numerous plywood boards to be stationed throughout the stadium, fans will get their chance to show support and “knock on wood” for the Revolution.
“It’s not just our players and coaches that are dissatisfied with the way we’re playing,” said Revolution General Manager Matt O’Brien.  “As a staff, we need to step up and do our part as well.  We’re a winning organization, and we won’t accept losing streaks like this.  We’ll do whatever it takes, for however long it takes us.”

“We’re asking our loyal fans to lend a hand tonight,” continued O’Brien.”  Baseball is a very superstitious game, and numerous times these rituals have proved to be more than just chance.  If we get enough rally caps, knocking on wood, and good luck tarp pulls, I like our chances against Camden”

Thanks to Tim B with the Revolution for sharing their promotion.  This is a good example of turning a negative into a positive, noting that fan support matters and perhaps gaining an upper hand on the storyline for the game.

The team ended up collecting an additional $80 for charity through the wishing wells.  While the promotion “worked”, it didn’t work to end the streak.  The Revolution lost the game.

–Cudo

The Spinners hold Political Correctness Night on July 23rd and the reach out to offend everyone on July 24th with Politically Incorrect night.

Here are the highlights….and low-lights.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 – Political Correctness Night at LeLacheur Park

Returning for a second season, the Spinners will take measures to make sure nobody—including the players—leaves the ballpark offended. Players committing an error will not be identified for fear of hurting their feelings, and gender-neutral terms will be used to refer to the players, for example first baseperson instead of first baseman. Along the same lines, there will be no bat boy, but instead a bat person. Additionally the Spinners will make every effort to not demean anyone, referring to the shortstop as the “vertically-challenged stop.”

In addition, bases will not be identified as first, second, or third, and will be treated equally without numerical ranking, the foul lines will be identified as fair lines and instead of having one fan of the game, every fan will be recognized as Fan of the Game. Finally, trophies will be handed out to each participant in between-innings promotions, which will be evenly matched for Title IX purposes, because there are no losers and everyone is a winner, where the contests will be evenly matched among genders for Title IX purposes.

Lastly, the Spinners will be paying added attention to “Going Green” on Political Correctness night, encouraging fans to recycle and promoting carpooling and public transportation to the game, as well as a salute to Hybrids.

For the July 23 game the first 250 fans, male or female, in attendance will receive Lowell Spinners potholders. Conversely, the following evening, only the first 250 females will receive the potholders.

THURSDAY, JULY 24 – Political Incorrectness Night at LeLacheur Park.

One night after paying homage to the overly sensitive nature of being politically correct, the Spinners will go incorrect for the night.

In addition to publicly identifying those players who commit errors, the Spinners will for one night create “Men Only” entrances to the ballpark and allowing only men to participate in the between-innings promotions.

Furthermore, the first 250 women in attendance will receive pink Lowell Spinners potholders to use in kitchen while preparing dinner for their husbands. As a result, only females will take orders at the two main concession stands.

The Spinners are also happy to provide napping areas for any senior citizens who feel the need to “rest their eyes” during the game. Cot stations will be set up on the concourse, available to any fans over the age of 60.

The Spinners will continue their salute to the incorrect, offering complimentary gas cards to fans to encourage them to use as much gas as possible, including encouraging families to drive to the game separately. A tribute to gas guzzlers will include needlessly driving vehicles during each between-inning break. (Team PR)

And if that wasn’t enought to get the whole family out in seperate cars, Wrestling Legend Brutus the Barber Beefcake signs autographs.

Great work in Lowell, not only in developing both of these promotions, but having so much information available to fans on their site.

–Cudo

As I have noted here a couple times, we are in the midst of some rather large changes at Gameops.com. Aug 6th is our 10 year Anniversary on the web and to celebrate we have spent much of the last 6 months in a total rebuild of the website. Some parts are done, some are close, and others are still a few weeks away. The glorious vision of launching this new updated site on the day of the 10 year anniversary is slipping away, but we are very close so that slightly less glorious relaunch day is coming soon. With that bit of background I have a couple announcements/thoughts:

1. Starting today (Monday July 28th) I will be blogging daily (Monday thru Friday) until the new site launches. I do this to keep fresh content on the site and it’s also an August Anniversary Tradition. I start slightly early this year since this will be a temporary replacement for the monthly site content. The old site (which we are moving away from) is time-consuming to update….so I don’t want to spend time updating something that will be discontinued in less than a month. The blog is a more efficient way to add content and focus our efforts on completing the upgrade.
2. I wanted to give a shout out to two people for their tireless efforts on this overhaul. First is web-guru Scott from Memorize Media. Scott has been building a new site for us for months, customizing everything from logos to forms (or soup to nuts). Between our host throwing him curve balls and my whiny emails, he has managed to keep his wits and has built a great site. Second, Jenny Oblock (our “Summer Coordinator”) who has been the Queen of Cut and Paste as she has diligently transfered hundreds of pages from our old site to our new platform. She has been a tremendous addition both with our web project as well as our marketing efforts.
3. Our monthly email blast will be sent out later in August. It will note all the updated content as well as the discounts in The Store. (if you want to save $ in our store and get the update you can click here.)
4. Our monthly interivew will be with Dan Migala from the Migala Report. I spent an hour with Dan on the phone and the interview is probably the best we have done in 10 years on Gameops.com. The full interview will launch with the new site, but parts of this conversation will be included in blog entries in August.

That’s it for now. Thanks for your patience. I look forward to the relaunch and hope you enjoy the Blogapalooza in the mean time.

–Cudo

We have a new feature on The Store, with select pages of information on products.  You can find these pages via links in the store and the more common ones will be listed in the store navigation menu on the left side of every page in The Store.

These article pages feature some products that we do no offer directly from Gameops.com, but we provide helpful insight as well as links to the products by vendors like Amazon.com or CafePress.

The first page created is for Mascot Stilts.  Many mascots use dry wall stilts to elevate their shows to a new level (sorry).  Our mascot stilt page shares some insight on how it’s done, recommends a brand name and also links to about 10 options to purchase these drywall stilts.

You can see the new Mascot Stilt Page in the Gameops.com Store.

Feedback on these new pages is always welcome.

–Cudo

The Augusta GreenJackets, the Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, play 1,079 miles from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And yet, they win the award for the first minor league team to work Brett Favre into a promotion.

The GreenJackets will make fun of the retired, maybe now un-retired, quarterback legend, by giving away flip flops in honor of the flip flopper.

The first 100 fans through the gates for the team’s August 4th game against the Savannah Sand Gnats will receive a pair of flip flops.

But that’s not all. The GreenJackets plan on retiring Favre’s jersey number (4), only to reinstate it the next day. Luckily, the team doesn’t currently have a player wearing that number.

The idea for the night is still in development, but other events planned include seat upgrades to anyone wearing a Favre jersey. Fans wearing a “cheesehead” will also receive a free brat at the concession stand. The team will also be hosting contests including the “Lambeau Leap” and the “Strahan Sack.” Though we’re not exactly sure how the latter would work. Who could do the best fake? (Rovell Blog)

In my theme of the week, here’s a team taking a simple idea and running with it thru their entire game night. Giveaway, contest, ticket promotions, food tie-ins….all helping to garner a big free media day.

I don’t think you can get away with limiting your giveaway nights to 100 pieces often, but the giveaway isn’t really the point here.

–Cudo

The recent promotion held by the Grand Prairie AirHogs was perhaps inevitable given recent publicity concerning a certain baseball star’s love life.

The AirHogs are an independent team, playing in the American Association and located about 20 miles west of Dallas. This is their first year of operation.

The team held A-Rod and Madonna Night. Anyone wearing an A-Rod jersey (presumably from the Mariners, Rangers or Yankees) or dressed like Madonna could buy a ticket to Wednesday’s game for only a dollar. A-Rod and Madonna couples were then treated to a phony wedding ceremony between innings and had opportunities to win a house, car and other luxury items.

After taking Dunedin to task yesterday I wanted to highlight a promotion for taking the extra steps to connect the theme through-out the game. The AirHogs took their promotion from a ticket discount program into the game with the wedding and prizes.

This from the team who brought their fans pallbearer races ion conjunction with a Funeral Night theme earlier this year.

–Cudo

Thanks to noted blog-reader and 10-speed enthusiast Joel L. for the alert, and for the SportsBiz blog for their story.