John Blanchette: Speak softly, carry a big pocket
It turns out Bobby Brett does care.
He was so distraught about his hockey team not making the playoffs again this year that he took bold, decisive action.
He fired his soccer team.
Indeed, Spokane’s favorite sports owner – wait, can we really say that anymore? – was so preoccupied for the longest time with l’affair Albi that we weren’t sure hockey was even on his radar. But now that he’s outrun his Shadow, finished playing sidewalk Red Rover with the mayor and banked $330,000 because the city fathers couldn’t get out of their own way, Brett is back with a plan to put hockey back into the hearts of the Spokane fans who seem to be finding other amusements.
He’s going to give them their money back.
Sort of.
Well, not really.
On Monday, Brett guaranteed that the Spokane Chiefs will make the Western Hockey League playoffs in 2007. If they don’t, he’s pledged that $100,000 will be refunded to ticket package holders.
Just how will this bounty be divvied up?
“It’s not going to make any difference because it’s not going to happen,” insisted Brett. “I don’t care how it works. In light of what’s happened the last couple of years, I felt it was time to make a statement and do something – but it’s not going to happen.”
Uh, OK. Then wake me up when something does happen.
I’m afraid I have to share the blame for this publicity grab. Kicking around the ashes of another Chiefs flameout in March, I wrote that it was time for the proprietor to at least clear his throat and convince the hockey clientele that he actually gives a damn about more than the bottom line. The suggestions ranged from constructive action – a thorough organizational review by a well-placed, independent hockey mind or a boost to the scouting budget or even wholesale change at the top – to the grandstand play of a rebate to loyal ticket buyers.
Dumb.
Look, you never tell a kid, “Sure, candy tastes good, but Brussels sprouts will make you grow up big and strong.” Because all he’ll hear is, “Candy tastes good.”
This is Brett’s candy.
Hey, 100 grand isn’t pocket lint even to Bobby Brett. Of course, in his other pocket is that $330,000 of ours the city council forfeited to him last week. So he’s pretty much playing with house money, is all I’m saying, and even if he isn’t, he’s not exactly betting on some impossible dream like Dennis Hession giving him a character reference.
The hardest thing to do in the WHL is not make the playoffs. Sixteen of 20 teams currently do, and four of five in Spokane’s U.S. Division – a demonstration of how truly dismal the Chiefs have become. But each of the other four U.S. teams will take significant graduation hits; the Chiefs possibly none. What’s more, an expansion team – Chilliwack – will now account for a nice chunk of Spokane’s schedule. Meanwhile, Kootenay – 11-2-1 against the Chiefs the past two years – moves into another conference altogether.
But never mind that. If the division takes its likely step back, the Chiefs won’t even have to improve to make the playoffs. Two years ago, Moose Jaw won 14 games and made it; in 2003, Portland did it with 19 victories. Makes Spokane’s 25 of last season look like Everest.
One step at a time, I know, but is mediocrity really the grail Bobby Brett wants to hold up for his hockey club? In effect, that’s exactly what his guarantee does.
Still, there remains that slender chance that it all goes to hell again, in which case the average season ticket holder would recoup $106 of his $404 investment, according to the Chiefs’ calculations based on last year’s sales.
Not a hollow gesture. More like cream filled.
Wouldn’t the steady customers be more appreciative of a substantive illustration of the Chiefs’ blueprint to regain their lost stature? Something that doesn’t have the air of another tired between-periods promotion?
If so, Brett wasn’t forthcoming with one. He did allow that he undertook a full review of the organization, did soul-searching with the staff, consulted with people in and outside the league – all in the hopes of discovering “what we have to do to turn things around.” Pushed for specifics as to what he found, however, he fell back on two personnel changes made a year ago – the addition of scouting boss Chris Moulton and coach Bill Peters – and made vague reference to “changes in how we recruit guys and changes in the scouting department in how we go about things.”
And then, while acknowledging mistakes and moves that didn’t pan out, he said his review “convinced me that the key management we have in place – Chris, Billy and Tim Speltz as our general manager – are the right people to lead us. If I thought we needed to make a change, we’d make a change.”
If you read the letters to the editor on Sundays, it’s obvious that’s not an opinion widely shared. Speltz has come in for heavy criticism, presiding as he has over this five-year slide while coaches have been changed twice. That’s a heck of a bulletproof vest in a volatile business, though Brett defended it by saying, “The easy thing would have been to get rid of somebody at the top.”
Really? It’s not easier to stick by a close friend who owns a piece of the team? I would think that might compromise an even-handed job evaluation, but Brett insisted otherwise.
“I think continuity is good,” he said.
Yes it is. For example, it’s been a huge part of Gonzaga’s basketball success across town. But so has the fact that the continuum has been enhanced by innovation and bold initiative that capitalized on success.
I guess a money-back guarantee is bold. It’s just not very meaningful.