Holland and Nill Promoted - Violetta Added

[40#1Fan 0]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=224847&hubname=nhl

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings have promoted Ken Holland and Jim Nill and added Steve Violetta to the front office.

Owner Mike Ilitch announced Monday that executive is being inserted in front of Holland's title of vice-president and general manager, Nill is now a vice-president as well as assistant general manager, and Steve Violetta joins the management team as senior vice-president of business affairs.

''I believe these personnel moves will greatly enhance our ability to meet the ever-growing needs and challenges of operating a professional sports team in a highly competitive market,'' said Ilitch. ''Ken and Jim have been instrumental in our success over the years.

''The promotions are well-deserved and, combined with the addition of Steve's position, will enable us to put the best product forward both on and off the ice and will lead to an even more successful franchise.''

Violetta will report to Ilitch and work closely with Holland, Nill and the rest of the staff.

''We're excited to have Steve and his vast experience as part of the team,'' said Ilitch. ''This new organizational structure is similar to what we've done with the Detroit Tigers and we certainly expect to see similar, successful results as Violetta focuses on making the fans' hockey experience all it can be.''

Violetta was executive vice-president of business affairs for the Nashville Predators since July 2005. Under his leadership, the season ticket base and overall ticket revenue grew more than 50 per cent, corporate sponsorships

[VM1138 1,921]

Hm. So this really doesn't mean anything, does it? I'm not sure what all "executive" implies, but I don't forsee their roles changing. As for Violetta, well, our marketing has sucked before, so it can't get any worse.

What I'm concerned about is organizing it like the Tigers. Let's alter a successful franchise to model after an absolutely terrible franchise that had two surprising years, both ending in failure?

[WhiteLightning91 105]

Hm. So this really doesn't mean anything, does it? I'm not sure what all "executive" implies, but I don't forsee their roles changing. As for Violetta, well, our marketing has sucked before, so it can't get any worse.

What I'm concerned about is organizing it like the Tigers. Let's alter a successful franchise to model after an absolutely terrible franchise that had two surprising years, both ending in failure?

It could get worse with Violetta. I remember Legionnaire pointing out a few marketing aspects that Violetta tried with the Predators and they were scary to think about. I believe one of them was blacking out playoff games and blaming individual fans for bad attendance in Nashville.

As for running the organizing like the Tigers, I'm assuming they meant from a marketing stand point, which the Tiger's are better at.

Edited December 10, 2007 by WhiteLightning91

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

for god sakes just come up with a better slogan than FIRE ON ICE!!! get to it steve

[OsGOD 3]

Violetta was executive vice-president of business affairs for the Nashville Predators since July 2005. Under his leadership, the season ticket base and overall ticket revenue grew more than 50 per cent, corporate sponsorships

Psst... we don't need corporate sponsorships... we need lower tickets to get us "non-corporate" owners into the seats... copy that?

Under the current ticket prices the season ticket base dropped by over 25% for detroit, a much more solid hockeytown... seems like Mr. Violetta has his work cut out for him up here!

BTW Violetta as you are called now... Dickhead later will be your name if you chose to blackout playoff games at home... Blacking them out won't make me attend the games... It will make me hate you more and refer to you as the aformentioned dickhead... Copy that?

Edited December 10, 2007 by OsGOD

[irishtemper14+25 11]

man, i hope we dont start charging more for "premium games"...thats just a stupid move

[Drimo 0]

I believe one of them was blacking out playoff games and blaming individual fans for bad attendance in Nashville.

I hope he doesn't try that in Detroit. I live in Cincinnati and it's bad enough I can't watch Versus games from home. Hopefully something has been learned from the recent passing of William Wirtz and the Blackhawks relation with fans over the telecast of home games.

[Dabura 12,232]

The Cup, she's as good as ours!

[SuperCalaFilppulastic! 34]

If Violetta is responsible for the "$1 hot dog" nights for certain games... then he's already doing a GREAT job!

[Jwo 7]

Hopefully Steve Violetta put's in the model like he did with Nashville with the cheap mini plans packeges.

[Zion 93]

Congrats Kenny and Jim!

As for Steve V...

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[Legionnaire11 0]

to be fair, they never actually blacked out the games, just threatened it. There was a huge immediate backlash from the fans that they quickly dropped that threat all together.

[wingfanatic4alltime 32]

Im very nervous about this violetta blacking out playoff games im going to need guys in white coats to take me away if playoff games get blacked out.