ISLANDERS, INK.
Newsday, celeb puck-drop, IBC & MSG+
(This Ts us off: Gillies - Hall of Fame hockey player, the women love him AND he rules at golf. Life's not fair.)
An occasional look at some Islanders behind-the-scenes business.
Golf Outing: The Islanders Business Club is hosting what it calls its “first annual” Golf Outing on Monday, October 20 at Tam O’Shanter Country Club. The golf portion – including foursomes with luminaries such as Bossy, DiPietro, Trottier, Comrie and Gillies – is sold out.
However, we’re told there are still tickets available for the dinner, another chance to mingle with your favorite Islanders. For information contact Michelle Winter at 516.501.6764 or at michelle.winter@newyorkislanders.com. Proceeds benefit the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
Home Opener: We’ve been unable to confirm some buzz that “Entourage” star and Long Islander Kevin Connolly will drop the ceremonial opening faceoff at Saturday’s home opener.
If true, we’re mixed on this because we feel this is an honor best reserved for an Islanders legend or local hero whose presence might help lift the roof off the barn. The lovely celebrity activist-model Christie Brinkley received a warm, but far from thunderous ovation when she did the honors last season.
But you gotta give it up for Connolly. This is a man who borrows a spare Islanders cap from Garth Snow one night and six months later he’s wearing it throughout the season premiere of “Entourage” before a million households. He’s a true fan of the team and uses his celebrity to spotlight the brand.
Newsday: In a week in which the Islanders’ season opens, there was not a single word on the Islanders in the print edition of (The Hockey) Newsday on Monday or Tuesday. Especially when the Blueshirt Bulletin Newsday has noticeably increased its hockey coverage, two straight days without Islanders coverage in the paper is astounding.
And to think, the paper’s management can talk about their moral distinction between the advertsing and editorial departments until they’re Ranger blue in the face, but the Islanders appear to have spent serious marketing dollars heading into the season. Guess the space must be taken up by all the Yankee and Met playoff games.
Islanders Illustrated: The magazine version of the I.I. brand features Scott Gordon on its October cover and will be available on the concourse beginning at the home opener. For subscriptions, go here.
While getting into the monthly magazine publishing business is an expensive and risky business in this age of gotta-have-info-now, you can’t argue with the team providing free subscriptions to their full and partial season ticketholders. And at a time when coverage is down (see above), you can’t argue against the Islanders providing a fancy outlet for fans to learn more about their team.
As for Islanders Illustrated on the television, the Season Preview show repeats Oct. 8 (7 pm), Oct. 9 (12:30 am, 8 pm) and Oct. 10 (1:30 am – anybody remember when “American Gladiators” used to be on at that time?) The next ep of Illustrated on TV premieres Oct. 23 at 6:30 pm as a lead-in to Islanders Dallas. The shows are on MSG Minus Plus and provide bloggers everywhere an excuse to run an image of host Shawna Ryan.
(Kevin Connolly of "Entourage" and Garth Snow at an IBC event, wondering if it's okay to have a beer)
Islanders Business Club: The Islanders’ efforts – designed by team president Chris Dey and led by team legend Mike Bossy – to build the corporate support base is second only to the Lighthouse Project in important ventures away from the ice.
The IBC hosted a trade show at the exhibition game at the NVMC last week and had close to 500 current and prospective business partners in attendance. Another good stride.
For the Islanders to significantly grow their season subscriber list over the next year or two as a Lighthouse shovel eventually breaks ground, can’t overstate the need to succeed in this venture. We should be able to tell by mid-season if progress has been made in the corporate outreach.
The Pre-Game Show: Islanders MSG+ post-game shows will be the same as last season, with about 30 minutes of coverage at the Coliseum featuring the coach’s press briefing, in-studio interviews, sound from the locker room and analysis from Jaff and Co. Road game recaps will be the usual 15 minutes, because as kind a cat as Scott Gordon seems to be, we doubt he’s holding up the post-game travel party so Howie can get on the bus.
But bound to touch a nerve in Islanders Country is the news that there will not be even a hint of an Islanders pre-game show, yet the New Jersey Devils will have one for their MSG+ broadcasts.
Pre-game shows are dicey propositions because they usually start at 6:30 pm and you can imagine what the ratings must be like in that time slot. But it’s hard to explain why the MSG family has pre-gamers for two of its hockey club rightsholders, but not the NYI.
In addition, while we’re hopeful Butch Goring will be given more time as the Islanders studio legend-in-residence, we’re told he is currently scheduled to appear only on the MSG/MSG+ one-hour Hockey Night post-game extravaganzas on Saturday nights. In comparison, New Jersey resident legend Ken Daneyko will be all over New Jersey broadcasts.
Intermission coverage will stay with Rose, Jaffe and C.J. Papa wherever the Islanders are playing, yet when you consider two of three between-periods segments were produced on-site anyway, that’s an upgrade of at most a whopping 3 minutes an intermission. Call us cynical, but it’s not a stretch to suggest intermissions are staying with the Islanders crew because MSG wants to keep its studio for the Rangers.
The Islanders and MSG can point to the airing of the team-produced “Islanders Illustrated” as an example of both parties working together to bring more content to the airwaves. And that would be fair.
We’re also well aware of the team’s significant revenue stream from their Cablevision contract, although make no mistake: if the Islanders ever became a TV free agent, they would have other suitors. For a few years now, MSG has not been the only game in town.
A regular look at our email and Comments space illustrates to us the hunger for more Islanders on the tube. The dichotomy between Islanders and Devils game broadcasts is flat-out wrong. We have to believe amicable conversations between team and network will continue.
28 Responses to ISLANDERS, INK.
Newsday, celeb puck-drop, IBC & MSG+
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Chris says:
What is there to cover about the Islanders, They are the most BORING team in the EAST and the laughing stock of the NHL. When you have a team of Andy Dilberts and you see NO need for an Enforcer or the lame excuse we cant find room, you know your in for a REAL LONG season. Snow i heard views Enforcers as a part time role, well Snow you just created a part time fan. I will not watch another game and i would never pay what they want to watch them till they get some players that generate some excitement when they are not putting the puck in the net, which will be quite often. The “NEW” NHL and the Islanders both SUCK and are not worth the INK used to print stories in any newspaper.
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Chris says:
Who is Kevin Connolly? You have to be kidding me right? Where is P Diddy when you need him? I think the Islanders are grasping at straws picking Connolly, this is all we could come up with. Bring back Mick Vukota to drop the puck i’ll guarantee he gets a better reception than Connolly.
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Bill, I see the song remains the same with your feelings about Logan which you find every outlet to express.
The magazine is beautiful and a good keepsake.
A lack of “newsprint” coverage is balanced by the 24/7 info you’ve now made available. (we are truly grateful)
I guess we will all be sending poison pen letters to MSG once again this season for their lack of coverage.
Happy Wednesday.
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Gajonka says:
WE NEED SOMEONE TO DROP THE PUCK THAT WILL GET THE CROWD FIRED UP! NOT CONNELYY, I DFONT EVEN WATCH THAT DUMB SHOW, AND EITHER DO 7/8 OF ALL IN ATTENDANCE. BRINKLY WAS GOOD LAST YEAR, SHE SAT NEXT TO ME.
WHAT A JOKE , CHRIS, WHEN YOU SAY “THE ISLANDERS SPENT ALOT OF MARKETING DOLLARS” YOU KNOW THAT IS JUST BS, SO PLEASE SAVE IT…
YES, GORING NEEDS MORE TIME, WE ARE ALREADY SCREWED WITH THE TV SCHEDULE.
WHAT CHANNEL IS MSG+ 2 ?????
WHAT IS THE NEW GOAL SONG??>???
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Chris TMC says:
I worry that if Botta is bombarded with random complaints and gigantic blog pieces of your own instead of comments/ discussions every time he puts something up that he is going to lose his interest in posting so much. If everyone likes this site, how is constantly complaining about, well, everything, and being so negative and long winded about everything he says, going to sustain his enthusiasm for this work?
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admin says:
Bill from NYI Central: this particular column was about Islanders business, about a charity golf outing, the IBC, MSG+’s pre-game show and Newsday going two days without an Islanders article in the paper. The Islanders, Ink. column was not about the menage of Greg-Bailey-Filatov. And seems to me your rant about Logan’s blog should be on his site, no? That is, unless you want to go on Greg’s site and talk about Point Blank. If you do, please include a link! Thanks, Bill…CB
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gazaroog says:
Chris,
I have been trying to get the Isles to address an issue that they won’t respond to. I understand why they won’t, but perhaps you will.The pre-season games this season were already being produced and put together by the Islander organization, like it was last season. They were even aired on ITV 2 days later. But they were all prepared to do a live feed of the games and MSG/Dolan’s said no.
Can you please answer the obvious question? The only answer I come up with is spite. And they can’t use the excuse of National Broadcasting rights of other rinks when they wouldn’t even do this for the game at the Coliseum.
Can you please tackle this question? I would appreciate the honesty.
Regards
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toorude says:
I like that idea about Mick dropping the puck on opening night. If he is unavailable maybe Steve Webb?
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Gaz: That question was alreday answered in an article on this site. MSG controls all rights, and they said no. It’s the Islanders’ fight. I’m sure they tried…CB
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Dmarie says:
Yep It stinks, no Islander coverage or lack of, no preseason games aired, it’s sad really. But Cablevision and Newsday are partners in crime, MSG is one of cables biggest and MSG is Ranger country. And now that cablevision an newsday are buddies..well I guess Newsday is the Rangers paper now too?
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Mr Botta,
My comments spoke to the lack of Newsday coverage on Monday which I agree with your take on completely.
Having written that I should have posted my comments on Mr Logan’s tuesday blog about Fliatov vs Bailey and who is the more ready among two injured players in your other entry.
As for my other point I consider Newsday’s Islander blog in line with your take on Newsday coverage yesterday which is why I wrote about it here but I should
not have expanded that to include
Mr Logan’s his overall blog performance because that was also not the question for the day.It goes without writing it Mr Logan should not alone carry the burden of coverage nor should he have been in Florida on Monday, but you felt someone should have been writing something about the game which is why I responded here, not at Newsday.
I supose if Mr Logan writes about the lack of coverage at Point Blank (I was still hoping PB meant Peter Botte the other day wrote something) I will go there to defend your efforts which will include a link.
And we move on.
Thank You. -
Paul says:
Chris, it is a joke. Thankfully there is NYIFC & this blog, as well as the e-mail list I am on. The TV coverage is a joke, and while they might not get the dollars, there are now two other channels that need the winter programming (one moe than the other) The fact that three days from the start of the season there were no Islander stories in the print edition of Newsday is a joke, and they should be (but aren’t) ashamed of themselves. Good thing that Newsday said they were increasinf their hockey coverage…although, anyone who was smart knew that meant increased rag$ coverage. If they did not think that they would p.o. some politicians, I guarantee they would give the team even less coverage.
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Pride-N- Passion NYI Hockey~ says:
Het guys, lay off Connolly.
c;mon lets be realistic here, In a time where the Islanders seem to struggle to stay relevant In the New York Metro Sports area, (let alone the NHL)Kevin has shown un-dying loyalty to this club.
Now even though I am far from a Fan of “hollywood” in any way,shape or form.
I realize “Overall”,
it certainly can not hurt having somebody thats “socially relevant” from the east coast to the west coast wearing an Islander Hat or a Tee shirt on a nationally viewed Show!Now in a Hollywood climte where lots of attention is payed to the trendy here & Now… Connolly has the the guts to buck the trend and stay loyal to the Team & community he grew up with as a child.
(im sure wearing an Islander anything is not very fashionable in Hollywood lrt alone here on the Island these days)
Pretty Cool you ask me!
We came from the same high school Pat-Med,
he never displayed anything but a down to earth attitude back then & now…got a chance to sit near him & his lifelong friend Steve l. last season.
(even invited me out for a beer after game)
that night,he was just a Normal fan no glitz no papparazzi, Just rooted hard core for his team!
Thats alright with me.
(kevin how about an Islander Jersey on this years show)Now that would be going all in!
I’d even with the show for that
He never forgot his roots.. Good Man!Lets Go NY Islanders 2008-09′
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* watch the show*
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Jax says:
Connolly is a die hard fan and you guys are ripping him? He sports the Isles colors two years in a row on the season premiere and you are ripping him? You would rather have some big name star who could give two shits about the isles drop the puck instead of a homegrown die hard??? Embarrassing. As far as coverage who cares as long as we have CB doing his thing and B.D. doing his on HB and here we’ll be fine. Let newsday drop us big deal. I love this new blog CB, who needs print anymore?
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Chris,
I guess I should be more specific with my question, sorry:Why, would MSG say no to the Isles to broadcast the game live, when the Isles spent all the money on the telecast for the pre-season games. There was no expense for MSG. They simply had to say, “ok Isles you can televise the games on ITV”. But they said no.
Why would they say no? Only answer I can come up with is Spite. Would you agree?
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Of course it’s spite. Plus it has to be killing Dolan that he is paying the ilses over 20 million a year for the rights to broadcast. Maybe he is pushing the isles to try to agree to a buyout and let the isles go to SNY. I would love that, but Wang can’t afford to leave that kind of money on the table. SNY wouldn’t pony up that kind of cash for their rights. I’m thinking maybe half that. Who knows if the Lighthouse project goes through maybe wang thinks about getting out of that contract, but until then we just have to bite the bullet. Plus who really watches the pregame show?
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CT Isles Fan says:
I agree with Pride-N- Passion NYI Hockey and Jax.
Connolly is probably the most main stream thing the NHL has, let alone the Islanders. Keep in mind no NHL team is on ESPN.
If you don’t watch the show, you are probably too old or too busy watching Dancing with the Stars on DVR with your wife.
ALOT of people watch Entourage. For Conolly to wear an Islanders T-Shirt in the first scene, of the season premier was pretty huge. Couldn’t help but feel proud for being an Islander fan when I saw that.
Connolly is cool as hell too. He was at Champs drinking beers with everyone after last years home opener.
Kristy Brinkly over Kevin Connolly? Atleast he knows that the boards have glass, not “windows”.
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Cross sports-promo: Get a Mets player to drop the 1st puck. I don’t think any of them are busy right now.
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Haha yeah. Then you will REALLY hear some boos.
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Gaz: I don’t know why MSG would block. We can speculate, as you have, but they’re not saying. Maybe Neil Best can give it a shot! CB
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Jim says:
“Bill” from New York Islander Fan Central is the individual that flooded the Ranger Blog on Newsday (and other Ranger Blogs) with insults disguised as “Rag Contraction” which resulted in the Islander Blog being flooded with Ranger fans. He should not be given a space on this Blog. He is a trouble maker.
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The Comments have been awesome, but what I don’t want to do is turn this into a message board. In Islandermania, I feel fans have one of the best in pro sports. Bill and everyone else are cool. I don’t have a problem with Rangers fans, as long as they’re not continually pounding the site with rants just to get everyone worked up. I’ll do my best to monitor profanity and just flat-out dopey stuff…CB
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John says:
Have Mike Comrie to drop the puck, I hear he dates someone famous. I know from way back when that Isles Cablevision contract was an asset. But now with the conflict of interest it is more like a bad debt and MSG will sytematically try to marginalize the Isles bit by bit. This is not in the best interest of the franchise and better be dealt with sooner than later. What is the current length of the contract? This team needs to be on SNY, YES and the Nets already.
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Richie says:
This team should be on a network like SNY. In fact, I wish they would move to SNY. Link up the Islanders and Mets, thats something that would be huge for our organization, to share a network with Mets. I can almost guarentee you that they would have no problem giving us a half-hour pre-game and post-game show. MSG,NY is a joke, they’re more interested in Concerts and other things that have absolutely nothing to do with sports. SNY gets it done, every team, everyday. They actually show highlights from Islander Games, Wow, imagine that, a team that has nothing to do with us still finds time to cover our games and even once in a while send a reporter to the Coli.
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charles says:
Chris–
Why are Islander fans finding out about the lack of a pregame show on your blog (and Neil Best’s) instead of the Isles’ website? They should have it on their site and make announcements at the Coliseum telling fans to contact Cablevision to tell them they are sick of MSG treating their team as third-class citizens (they treat the Rangers and Knicks as first-class and Devils as second-class). -
Tom says:
Chris, I agree with your take on Newsday & MSG. Unfortunately this is nothing new. Isles coverage went into the toilet the second The Dolans bought SportsChannel. That was 10 years ago I think, maybe longer? It is great though that you are devoting time to this subject. Can you imagine Microsoft being in charge of Apple’s marketing? That’s what we get when the Dolan’s market Wang’s product.
Mr Botta,
That all sounds nice and reads well with Newsday not covering the game and you
calling them on it but you have to go all the way and question Greg Logan for writing ” Nikita Filatov looks look like an NHL player right now ” in his Tuesday blog.
Filatov finally played his first game last Thursday for Columbus before scoring on Sunday against Buffalo because he was out with a leg injury.
Is this what Mr Logan consideres as someone ready for the NHL because in that case he should have been bloging on every move Josh Bailey made in Florida ready to make the same statement about him if he scored.
As for the game coverage in Florida by Newsday do you really think Cablevision told Greg Logan or anyone with access to the Islander blog they could not write
about Monday’s game?
That memo did not reach Mr Rieber or Mr Baumbach who did the shock jock act on the Isles who have been doing that long before Cablevision bought the club and could have done an article on the game and made some calls if they had time to blog and insult the club.
As fashionable as it is to blame Cablevision and as often as my blog does it there are times to take a step back and look at the individuals and their reportng habits.
In fact last year Mr Logan was defended as
longer blogs compensate the difference vs
Mr Zipay which for NYI Fan Central
will never fly as an excuse for the only paper with an professional blog on this team.
Instead of Mr Logan or anyone at Newsday blogging on the game he returned Tuesday
and made a statement on Filatov that at best was a guess on an injured players ability in another organization.
For the record Bob McKenzie feels Fliatov
is heading down Wednesday if paperwork gets done.
Mr Logan’s Tuesday blog seemed designed to stir up reaction which led to you having to question Scott Gordon on it.
Thank You