Uhhh... hold the boat here. The Islanders, 25th in the league in attendance (generously listed at 13,600, including thousands of free tickets every game), have promoted the person in charge of sales to President. Isn't that like taking the kid in 12th grade who failed three of his final exams and making him valedictorian?
What's next, Blair Betts taking over first line center duties for the Rangers?
I don't know. Maybe this is like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine can't fire the crazy guy in the mail room so he eventually becomes the head writer. Maybe Chris Dey has connections in the mob. In which case, congratulations on your promotion, buddy! My cake is in the mail!
Zach, my good man, its called nepotism... Dey is Wang's son in law... Go ahead have a feild day with that little gem...
ReplyDeleteI'm the biggest Islander fan I know, and even I can't justify this one. I guess they needed to give the title to somebody. But yeah, the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is the fact that while attendance did go up, the Isles distributed a crapload of free (and near-free) tickets to make that happen. I guess Dey gets the credit for at least filling those seats; I mean, as much as I love the Islanders, there was no way I was paying good money to watch that team last year.
ReplyDeleteZach, you are a real serious douche. You want to talk about mismanagement and yet you fail to even include the name Dolan.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness though, I believe Dey and the rest of the Islanders staff did a good job last year and since Garth's taken over in marketing and micro-promoting the game to kids. Clearly, the NHL can't start giving out sticks, skates and pucks in the inner city. But what it can do is put asses in seats and hope kids and adults see something they like enough to return. While the 06-07, 07-08, etc... Isles might not be that something, perhaps the '11-'12 Isles will be.
The Islanders don't have the built in cache of the Rangers, MSG or NYC. Since they spent almost the entire 1990s destroying their goodwill of a fanbase, they must spend several years (decades?) rebuilding it amongst Long Island's youth. It's a slow process, but I believe a worthwhile one.
While none of this serves to really defend the decision to promote Chris Dey, it does serve this purpose. Go fuck yourself Zach. How's that halal food treatin ya?