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!!!

Office of the President : facebook

Fanatic News - 10/16