The St. Louis Blues need to boost PR initiative

The St. Louis Blues need to find a new approach next season.

Don’t get me wrong, the Blues have some of the best fan-friendly public relations in the entire NHL, but they are going to be running into some problems next season if the team does not get any better.

The Blues missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year, and the team’s season ended anticlimactically last night.

I love the Blues, but I have had a very hard time watching them this season. Injuries destroyed the team, and it really isn’t anyone’s fault, especially in PR where the Blues are fantastic.

Still, the Blues are going to be a tough sell next season because nobody is going to expect the same old same old to work if the team is not good enough to get into the playoffs.

The Blues marketing folks tried everything this year. They offered a season ticket plan where “you pay half in advance and the second half when the Blues make the playoffs.”

That worked out well.

There is only so much their PR department can do with a perennial losing team, and it doesn’t help matters because TJ Oshie missed a practice because he was hungover a few weeks ago.

the team pride approach only works so far, and the Blues need to get creative. Maybe “Don’t pay a penny for season tickets until we make the playoffs.”

That may be the only way they get anybody to go to their games.

What is on your wishlist for things you would like to see the Blues PR Department do?

Missouri’s new coach not going over so well

In the wake of college basketball’s national championship game, the University of Missouri has been busy trying to find its next Head Coach after Mike Anderson left for Arkansas.

Missouri’s Athletic Director Mike Alden was unable to get Matt Painter from Purdue, and Tubby Smith from Minnesota. Shaka Smart said he was not going to leave VCU, and let’s be real. Brad Stevens will never leave Butler because of how great of a situation that school has become.

So, he went for what he thought would be the next best thing, hiring Frank Haith, the coach of Miami.

Haith has a losing record in the ACC, but has had a few positives in his career. The people at Missouri however were not so pleased with the hiring of Haith.

Social media places like Twitter have been ramped with negative feedback on the hiring of Haith. Missouri students even organized a protest of the hiring at the famed columns on the Columbia campus.

Alden has been considered a joke by many people who know him. He comes off as arrogant and is unable to turn the corner for Missouri and make it a national winner. For a major conference team, the fan-base is largely apathetic.

Missouri needs to do some damage control here. Reversing the hiring of Haith, which at one point was considered a possibility is extreme, and would probably call for Alden’s resignation. It is an embarrassment.

Missouri needs to rally around their new coach, and make a statement about winning. They need to implement a new marketing strategy to show their fan-base they are ready to turn that corner and become a championship contender. It is embarrassing on the part of the Missouri fans to be so privileged to have to have a championship team. I feel as though power conference teams feel as though they have to be number one every year, and just appearing in the NCAA tournament is nowhere near enough.

It’s time for Missouri fans to suck it up with Frank Haith or send Alden on his way.

Sheen bombs in Detroit

Aptly named, Charlie Sheen’s Violent Torpedo of Truth tour was indeed violent, a torpedo and shed light on some truth.

Charlie Sheen is not all he is cracked up to be.

The actor, self proclaimed winner and addict Sheen performed his first ever live show in Detroit earlier this week to less than stellar reviews. Sheen was booed throughout the night, as was his opening act and his pitiful performance went down as probably the worst in the history of live comedy.

It was a disaster of epic proportions.

Sheen at one point told his booing audience “Sorry, I already have your money.”

That really isn’t a great way to engage with your audience.

It was a torpedo of F___ you sent out to his entire paying audience.

Sheen’s arrogance really goes to show he isn’t worth what people are paying to see him, and those at the Detroit show were lucky to get in the Ford Theatre for less than $80. To make it worse, a big chunk of the show was spent showing videos on a projector rather than Sheen actually performing, as he was supposed to be.

The crowd wasn’t giving in to his question and answer session either.

Here is a timeline of the early events:

8:53 — The show officially begins with a mock iPhone ad, advertising the “MaSheen.” This app will be used throughout the show to introduce each segment. Two attractive scantily clad women — contest winners Kelly Jean and Lisa Jaques — come onstage to sing the national anthem before a waving flag. They’re not exactly great singers. “Do it topless!” one audience member shouts.

8:58 — Film clips are playing onscreen. Die Hard, Midnight Express, Taxi Driver, Animal House, Sheen’s own Platoon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and (of course) Apocalypse Now. There’s no context, just the violent clips. One imagines it’s like being inside Sheen’s fever dream and the experience is taking on a Clockwork Orange quality.

9:00 — Two goddesses are now making out onstage. And finally, Charlie Sheen returns. He holds up a sports shirt of the style that’s worn by his Two and a Half Men character and puts it on. The audience gamely boos. The Two and a Half Men theme song plays and is intercut with a scene from a classic film of a man screaming “Turn it off!” Then, Sheen grabs a Detroit Tigers shirt instead. The crowd roars and gives him a standing ovation. Regarding the Men shirt, Sheen says, “Take that out and burn it.” On video, the girls burn the shirt backstage.

9:07 — Sheen steps behind a presidential-style podium that proclaims “Warlock States of Sheen.” Guitarist Robert Pattinson is playing onstage. Sheen begins a lengthy speech in his newfound Malibu Messiah semi-coherent metaphor-stuffed neo-Hunter S. Thompson style, talking about his “napalm dripping brain.” “I’m here to solve a portion of this grand mystery,” he says.

That just sounds painful.

Sheen apparently got his act together for his second show in Chicago, but answering his critics has proved difficult. His attitude is just going to drive him down, rather than propel him to the superstardom he is expecting.