Office of the President

Tailgating Sunday March 21st - Watching Party April 10th - 2010 General Meeting

Jay Leask — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:20:00 GMT

As our season winds down we find ourselves in a situation where we may not have many chances to tailgate with our friends anymore - Saturday and Sunday are our last opportunities during the regular season and there is no guarantee that we'll see a post season game. In an attempt to not tire people out or make them choose between games (and to avoid the rain and cold) we're going to cancel the tailgate for Saturday and focus on Sunday.

In short: TAILGATE, SUNDAY the 21st!!!

Bring some good food to, some drinks, some chairs and join us at the corner of Harwood and Payne FOUR (4) HOURS PRIOR TO THE PUCK DROP this Sunday. We will supply the grill - and we got our gas line fixed so we won't run out of fuel; everything else is on you! We may even bring the fire pit, since we aren't hitting 100 degree days yet! Even if you're not attending the game feel free to swing by for an hour or two and say hi to the friends you haven't seen for a (long) while!

I'm not going to say for sure, but we're working on a special guest for Sunday and may have some free tickets to give away ... you won't know unless you check your email Sunday or COME TO THE TAILGATE!!!!

IN OTHER NEWS

We will be hosting a watching party for the regular season finale, Saturday April 10th. Put it in your calendar and watch here for more information.

Expect to hear news about the general meeting this summer soon - we are already starting to plan it! If you are interested in taking a role in leadership of the fanatics for the 2010-11 season LE ME KNOW and start thinking now about who you think should win the annual awards:

BRENDEN MORROW AWARD - “PERSONAL SACRIFICE”

The Brenden Morrow Award is an annual award given to the Fanatic who proves his or her ability to go above and beyond when it really matters. This Fanatic not only saw ways to improve the Stars Fanatics' image, but made the necessary personal sacrifices to be sure that these improvements did not fall by the wayside.

In 2006 Brenden Morrow's leadership abilities and personal sacrifices paid off as he was made the 5th captain of the Dallas Stars franchise. While this sparked a heated debate among fans, Morrow ignored the controversy and continued to do what he does best. Morrow's first year as captain was cut short when two tendons in his right wrist were severed by a skate blade, but that didn't stop him as he came back in time to show his "lead by example" style for the playoffs that year. From being a hard-hitting enforcer to a team leader in points, Brenden Morrow consistently sacrifices his own body for the good of the team.

JERE LEHTINEN AWARD - “MOST DEDICATED”

The Jere Lehtinen Award is an annual award given to the Fanatic judged to be the most dedicated Fanatic throughout the year. This Fanatic is the backbone of the organization on a day to day basis. Setting up, taking down, moving equipment, painting faces, dying hair, starting chants: if there were scenes, this Fanatic would be behind each and every one of them.

A 3 time Frank J. Selke Trophy winner, Jere Lehtinen found a way to make a difference offensively and defensively every game for over a decade. He has led the Dallas Stars with a stellar plus/minus ranking twice, +27 and +39. Jere represented Team Finland on multiple occasions including being part of 4 medal winning World Championship teams, 3 medal winning Olympic teams and 2 World Cup of Hockey teams.

MIKE MODANO AWARD - “Face of the Fanatics”

The Mike Modano Award is an annual award given to the Fanatic judged to be the best example of the very definition of a Stars Fanatic. When the crowd gets quiet the Fanatics keep cheering, but when the Fanatics lose their spirit this Fanatic becomes their inspiration. Win or lose, game or not, this Fanatic's attitude and energy is an inspiration to all others.

Mike Modano has been the face of the Dallas Stars since his 1st overall draft pick in 1988. Modano holds eight career franchise records (games played, playoff games played, goals, playoff goals, assists, playoff assists, points, playoff points) as well as 2 NHL records (goals and points by an American-Born player). With his sweater flapping in the wind behind him there has been no other player of whom average hockey fans thought more when they thought of the Dallas Stars.

See you Sunday!!!

--Jay "The Wall" Leask
President, Stars Fanatics
http://starsfanatics.com

Saturday January 16th: Detroit Red Wings SUCK

Jay Leask — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:31:00 GMT

It's that time of year again, when we celebrate just how much the Detroit Red Wings SUCK! :)

Saturday is an early game, 1pm, so the tailgate will be at 10am in the usual yard at the corner of Harwood and Payne. Come join us to celebrate just how much we hate the Red Wings!!! Bring your favorite "RED WINGS SUCK" signs and letters; create an effigy to show how much you hate them; paint up in your Sunday best (you know, green, black and gold!). In short, come join us, for real!!!

But wait, there's MORE! Yes, we've talked about it at the game a couple times, but this time we're really going to do it, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! During warm-ups on Saturday the Stars Fanatics are going to line the glass from our bench all the way around our side of the ice to the penalty box with the Stars Fanatics Rally Scarves (2008 scarves also welcome, so bring your own). We will need 15-20 people in order to pull this off - show up at the tailgate by noon in order to help us with this ... WE NEED YOU!!!!! And yes, the 2009-2010 scarves we hold up on the glass will also be for sale, but I'll give you more information about that at the tailgate.

In short, This Saturday:

CREATE YOUR SIGNS AND EFFIGY
COME TO THE TAILGATE
HELP LINE THE GLASS
SHOW HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THE STARS
SHOW HOW MUCH WE HATE THE WINGS!!!!!!!!

--Jay "The Wall" Leask
President, Stars Fanatics
http://starsfanatics.com

PS - We still have scarves for sale, so MAKE YOUR NECK HAPPY (or your friend's neck) and buy a 2009-2010 Rally Scarf today!!!! http://store.starsfanatics.com/

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Fanatic News - 10/16

Jay Leask — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:59:00 GMT

Another week down and the Stars are looking great! So far the Stars are one of two teams in the league who have not lost in regulation, well on their way to a 100 point season (an unrealistic hope, but hey, I'm just averaging!) Buckle-up Fanatics, it could be a GREAT YEAR!

It's been a couple weeks since our last tailgate and it looks to be a few weeks more but mark your calendars because in November and December we have 4 tailgates in 5 weeks, and yes, we'll bring the fire pit to help stay warm!

The first two games of the season have been GREAT! We've had a solid group of over a dozen rowdy Stars Fanatics leading section 332 in cheers and song and the entire arena has gotten into it on both nights with MARTY, LET'S GO STARS and other chants (including some fun ELLLLIIIIIIS heckling Wednesday); honestly it's brought a tear to my eye a couple times hearing the arena join us in cheering our boys on.

On a more solem note, the TV has not been kind to hockey fans this year. Between DirecTV not carrying Versus and Dish Network only carrying 2/3 of the Stars Games that FoxSW is supposed to broadcast, it's hard to be a hockey fan. Ryan DeLong, our fearless account representative with the Dallas Stars passed along a note for me requesting that we start a letter writing campaign, perhaps. Here is some of what he said:

Hey Jay,

Not sure if any of your folks have Dish network, but they are in a dispute with Fox Sports over not televising 20 Stars games, including Wednesday night and Friday. Short story: Fox Sports SW picked up 60 of our games this year versus the 40 (rough numbers) they usually broadcast. As a result, they asked for more money from DirecTV, Comcast, Dish, etc, since they are broadcasting more games and they are a “pay” network. Everyone but Dish network paid their fee—Dish network’s decision has been to blackout 20 Stars FoxSW games rather than pay more to Fox Sports.

We have heard from some clients who’ve called Dish to complain that they were told the issue was the Stars’ decision in order to get more people to come to games, which is absolutely not the case. I wanted to see if I could recruit you guys (or at least those of you with Dish Network) to reach out to Dish Network, for one to see if you get the response that this is our fault, and two to complain about their decision not to televise all our games.

I’m hoping some of you have Dish Network so there’s an incentive to call, but I figure I can at least communicate with a large network of people by emailing you, and I also wanted to be proactive in letting y’all know why some games aren’t on Dish, since it seems they are misinforming some people.

See a post from the Dallas News blog below for a little more info.

--Ryan

I called Dish Network's corporate office line 303-723-1000. I asked to speak with the CEO, which they wouldn't allow. I explained the nature of my call and they transferred me to "Executive Resolutions" and spoke to a somewhat helpful person. I let it be known that I am not happy with Dish Network's decision to not broadcast nearly 1/4 of the season and that with the amount of choices available in Dallas, it wont be hard to make the move to a competitor who will broadcast all the hockey games. He was pretty sympathetic, but we'll see what happens. He did give me his direct phone number in case I had any other questions. I asked him what other people could do to help make their opinions heard and he said to flood their phone lines and email them. Call that corporate number listed above and ask for Charles Ergen, he's the CEO. They'll transfer you directly to the "Executive Resolutions" department, and I didn't sit on hold to get to them either.

The guy I spoke to said he would send an internal email to the programming folks and call me back within 48 hours with a response as to what the solution will be. He also gave me $20 off my bill for the next 10 months. Again, I made it clear to him that money off my bill doesn't get me Dallas Stars hockey and if this isn't resolved in my favor I will go to a competitor and I will not pay the contract cancellation fee. I figure if I take try to take it to small claims court for breach of contract they'll just drop the charges and move on. It's not worth their time to send someone for an entire day to court to fight $100.

Our websites are doing great too! We have 4 people regularly contributing to the Facebook page with real-time game updates from the AAC, links to articles about the Stars and photographs of the Stars Fanatics in action. Our community page at www.starsfanatics.com has grown to over 30 members and has even helped our Active Fanatics ranks grow with new members we never would have met if it wasn't for our websites. Here's a few of the conversations going on:

Hockey Fights Cancer night at the AAC was Wednesday, too short of notice to really plan anything but thanks to the heads up from Jeff K we were able to get a few signs up (hey, did anyone get any pictures?) http://community.starsfanatics.com/forums/p/49/67.aspx
Razor bought 18,000 tickets for fans this week and the Fanatics had some great ideas on how to help him make some of that money back for the Dallas Stars Foundation. While the Stars politely declined our first offer, maybe you can come up with another suggestion that they'll like: http://community.starsfanatics.com/forums/p/48/59.aspx
Mohawk Andy posted some pictures from the road trip to Austin for the Battle of the Stars: http://community.starsfanatics.com/media/g/battle_of_the_stars_2009/default.aspx
The new profiles are growing as both new and old members of the Fanatics begin filling out their profiles. Some of the higlihts include Diane, Don, Jeff K, Whalers Guy ... why haven't you created your profile yet? You can upload photographs, videos, enjoy conversations with your friends, find tickets in the ticket exchange ... Help make our home on the web AWESOME!!!
Have you downloaded and sent in your membership form yet? Do you remember what the benefits are? How would you like:
- an @starsfanatics.com email address?
- a blog at www.starsfanatics.com
- the 2009/10 Stars Fanatics t-shirt and patch?
- special game-day ticket prices?
- IT ONLY COSTS $20 PER PERSON!!!

OH! Last thing, then I'll let you get back to your "daily grind" before tonights game: WE ORDERED THE SCARVES!!! The 2009/2010 Rally Scarves have been ordered, 400 in total, and will be here in early December (yes, for those of you who remember the issues we had last year, the company has given us a deal AND put a rush order to help get the scarves here on time). If you haven't seen the design check it out in our Fanatics Store (well, it's like a store) and while you are at it download the order form and get your orders in quick ... while the pre-sale was supposed to end October 15th I'm extending the deadline for a week or two ... SO QUICK GET YOUR ORDER IN BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP!!!! Just as an example of what you might do, James purchased 20 scarves at the pre-sale price and plans to sell them at the arena for the regular sale price ... if all goes well he should make $100 just for buying early ... how great is that!!!

OK - that's it for today. I hope to see you all at a game soon, but if not, at least on the website!!!