Category Archives: Blogosphere

Whoa!!!!!!!!

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This is getting way out of hand.

I encourage our players to be interactive and to be transparent. I want them to be on Facebook or to Tweet away. To respond to emails; to be out and about; to sign all autographs; and to be approachable.

Thirteen years ago, I gave all of our players’ laptops and email addresses to jump start the effort. It was the first time in professional sports that happened.

Just so you know, I blog every day and I am on Facebook and Twitter. All of our players are as well. It is generational.What I did say in an interview was that while most people like interactivity, some fans have told me they don’t like seeing some players’ Tweets or posting personal photos and that seeing behind the curtain sometimes makes a fan lose some respect for the player.

Interactivity can cut both ways.

I hope this provides some perspective and context here as this is the third article I have read that makes it sound like I don’t encourage our players to be online and in social networks. Thank you.

New Year – New Ways to Interact

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Happy New Year.

It felt great to unplug and to spend quality time with my family; do some volunteer work; and take some time off and get some sun and fun in. It also felt great to get some sleep and to get some healthy workouts in with regularity. I really needed to recharge.

I must admit that I was feeling a bit burnt out heading towards the end of the year.

I am receiving more than 300 emails per day now from people that have issues and questions regarding the Washington Capitals; Washington Wizards; Washington Mystics; and Verizon Center. This is becoming unmanageable for me as I do all of my email personally and I was starting to feel like a customer service desk and a call-in radio show host plus a psychologist all combined.

I also was very disappointed in how some people dealt with us and me personally during our 8 game losing streak at the Caps and after the first episode of HBO’s 24/7. You certainly get to know who your friends are when things get tough.

I also blog frequently every day. There are numerous comments to deal with on my blog as well.

I have a Facebook account, too. I receive about 200 emails per week on Facebook. And I get Twitter and get re-tweeted a lot.

And I also am very open and transparent and interactive with the media and the blogosphere.

There are so many requests and so many issues to deal with and so many needs and asks. To be honest, I was glued to my computer and was missing the forest from the trees. Plus I wasn’t very happy with this role and I was spending so much time with a few people online that I was neglecting many important issues and people in the real world.

I have to admit that my family has to come first in my life. They are my priority.

I must also strike a balance between my work and ownership with the teams and my work with SnagFilms; Groupon; Clearspring Technologies; MediaBank; American Express; and Rosetta Stone, etc. That is an important goal for the New Year. I am not writing any more books. I am not making any more films. I am trying to claw back time for myself.

I also need to have the time to have some fun on my own accord; to be able to have some “me” time to work out and be healthier in the New Year; take some more frequent vacations; do some things that are meaningful for our family outside of sports; and pursue some work with charities that move me. Pursuit of a higher calling is a key motivator for me.

So here is what I will try to do in the New Year:

I will blog less. I don’t feel I have to blog after every game and comment on a day by day basis on the teams. I will blog more about other issues. Ted’s Take is not a Washington Capitals blog. It is a personal blog and I will feel comfortable with blogging about what moves me and won’t feel compelled to blog every day.

I promise to read your emails but I am not going to be able to respond to you as much. I simply cannot. I may pass your emails on to some folks to follow up for me when needed. I will also only read my email twice per day. I just can’t be responding in a real time manner any longer.

I will not respond to people about players, coaches and team play in email on a regular basis. And as I look at my email, I see the same people sending me the same emails over and over again. It starts to feel abusive from about 15 people who email me 2 to 3 times per day so I honestly can’t deal with you in the way I did in the past. It isn’t healthy and productive so I am officially unplugging to gain back some time for more productive pursuits. I apologize if this offends you in any way. “It isn’t you – it is me.”

I also will not read and respond to any Facebook mail. I don’t check that account that often and most of the email is from Facebook community members and deals with requests and asks. People can send me emails at my accounts that I can read and deal with. The last thing I need is another email account to check with regularity so – heads up – please don’t expect me to respond to emergency situations on Facebook email. I am being serious here. I just can’t respond to you all on Facebook. I love being a member of this community but there are 500 plus million people on Facebook all with the ability to ask me for something via email and I can’t open that door. It would become a full time job. Thank you for understanding.

I will also start to be less available to media and bloggers. There are many people that can speak for all of the enterprises I am involved with. I don’t need to spend as much time with the media and in giving speeches. I just want to reclaim just a bit more time and take control of my bandwidth. I hope you understand.

I am hopeful that folks will respect this new way of working. I am trying to gain some perspective and push away from the keyboard a bit more in the New Year. I want to spend more time with people face to face. I want to focus a bit more on my self and my happiness. I want to focus more time on my family and time is flying by and my children are growing up quickly.

Here is to a healthy and happy and productive New Year.

A little less keyboard and a lot more real world living is my mantra for 2011.

I believe in transparency. I believe in interactivity. I am just trying to strike a better balance to be a better person and a happier and healthier person as well. Thanks for understanding.

Why I Like Bloggers

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Here is a very creative, thoughtful and frankly honest set of articles about our team; our players; and the industry. Nice artwork, too!

I am sure the blogosphere will be tough-minded on us. I won’t complain but I get to comment as well back on my blog. This give and take is what makes the blogosphere go round.

I am sure the bloggers will argue with one another, too. And share and comment on each other’s point of view.

I think this is all goodness. It generates interest and shines a light on the great game of basketball.

Blog away. Comment away. Generate those pixels. Feed the algorithm.

Love the game and respect the fans. These folks care about the game. They are passionate. They work very hard all for the love of the game. I am impressed with the diligence shown here. Thank you.

How Can It Be A Cover Up?

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When we were unabashed in our communications about the matter?

Of what we were doing? And why.

Here you go. Click here.

I also have noted about a hundred times that I am a small investor in SBNation, too.

I helped to kick off the blogosphere. I am proud of these facts.

And have been very transparent about it all.

I will also note that we have a full press room at all games now. The strategy seemed to work. Our pixels generated are perhaps amongst the most robust in the league. We embrace all bloggers. We embrace and invite all MSM and all hyphenates MSM-bloggers. We have a big tent. All are welcome as long as they follow the guidelines.

Too Funny – You Think Dirty

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We are all getting too old.

One of our rookies tweeted “Kettler” is “dirty.”

Of course several fans emailed me right away to tell me to clean up the facility. And that I was slacking.

I, of course, jumped into action. Where is it dirty? What can we do to keep it polished up and clean? I will go walk through the building with my own punch list. Kettler is and must remain “world class.”

The comments got re-circulated onto the Washington Post Capitals Insider blog (by the way, I also have noticed some naked pix on that blog as well as pix of girls making out with girls - guess it must drive traffic?) and then a blogger emailed me asking how could we let Kettler get “dirty” and what was our plan to improve it?

Of course, we just learned that the rookie was using slang as in ”That was a filthy goal.” ”Kettler is dirty” I guess means Kettler is awesome and quite nice. :-)

Phew. Funny. This Internet thing. We all gotta get a handle on it, huh?

False alarm but I will still walk around the building to make sure it is really clean like you all deserve.

You Are Simply Uninformed

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If you are a journalist, simply pick up the phone and call me to interview me or send me an email and I shall respond. Always have - always will. Why would you write this and question if you know or don’t know what I am thinking if you didn’t find the time to ask?

In this new media world transparency and real time repartee is crucial and if you don’t respond the other view gets cemented in the algorithms for all time. You must generate your pixels and point of view or lose your rankings and your direct communications pathway to your audience.

You should be happy I am reading and commenting on your blog post. It may drive some traffic and link love to this page.

We would never shut out a journalist from coming to our games. We would never shut out anyone from writing anything about us. We just won’t cooperate with promoting the book in question. We will tell our side of the story to our fans. That is all we will do. And when we deal with the writer in question we will simply be more on guard as we now know how he operates regarding our star player, whom we adore.

I hope you also realize that we are fairly immune now to any media remarks. We are now fully inoculated. We use our own media; our website; my blog; our Facebook page; Twitter; my Facebook page; direct email; our ad dollars; our arena where more than 2.5 million people attend annually; SnagFilms where we reach 250 million monthly pages; our radio network; our association with Comcast SportsNet; and our own television programming.

We are our own largest media outlet now.

We will use all of the tools we have to protect our players and our reputation if and when we think we have been wronged by bad facts.

If you write something that is incorrect, we will let the world know. The rules have changed. It is no longer a one way street where you write and we hide. We are now bigger as a media outlet than most of the media that covers us. So write away and blog away. Ninety-nine percent of the stuff is great. When there is a comment or fact that is wrong, I reserve the right to point out the wrong facts or state my opinion. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

It is a new world order. It is a world of balance now - of give and take. Journalists have to get used to it, too. Welcome to the blogosphere.

Another One on Bloggers in Press Rooms

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Here is a mature and well written piece on the issues at hand.

Everyone knows where I stand and where we as a franchise stand on the  matter.

And I am a blogger — I read a lot too — and in my blog — I link to  many articles  from main stream media and bloggers as well.

I am non denominational in my linking; if it is a good  and thoughtful piece — I offer “link love”; and I am not afraid to take to task  anyone on  my blog when someone writes something I disagree with — that is the power of interactivity.

As I noted — there are 200 million bloggers around the world now — this isn’t a fad — this is mainstream.

Also — why aren’t more owners  doing  daily blogging? Or answering  all fan email? Jump in the water — it is nice and warm and inviting, I promise.