Dear dimwit on the phone

Sounds to me that this is one of those BS tournaments every school, ever, hosts and just because they're doing something for the first time doesn't make it news.

 

The first time its news. The second time is when you don't care.

 

Not telling you about a first time wrestling tournament should be cause for a jail sentence.

 

The thing that always gets me about calls like this is, the people probably had to make arrangements a few months before the event to rent the gym, passed around signup sheets for volunteers to work concessions, needed to get a design to the tshirt shop by a certain deadline so they can be sold at the event, and all sorts of little details ... but the paper is supposed to drop everything at the last minute and cover them? Yeah, sure ...

I compare and contrast with the PR people I work with at the local casino whenever they do an MMA or boxing program. About a month before fight night, I'll get a press release and bout sheet. A couple of weeks before the show, it's another press release and and updated bout sheet, plus if there's local fighters on the card, they'll call and ask if I'd like an interview or to get on a conference call. The week of the fight, they'll call again early in the week to see if I need anything else, and they're always available fight night. Yes, it's very unfair to compare PR pros with the typical wrestling parent, but it beats the hell out of "we're starting now, can you send a camera guy?"

 

That's because they assume that all journalists do is sit around in the newsroom and wait for news to happen. They see them rushing off to cover a fire or a crime, and think that they have nothing else to do. And they assume sports guys are the same.

 

HanSenSE, I agree with your post. For whatever reason, MMA seems to be really, really sharp about PR and making life easy. UFC in particular. It's kind of like going back in time, to when newspapers mattered and major sports treated them with greater respect and accomodation.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the coach didn't send in a schedule. Kinda hard to know what's going on and when if you don't have a schedule of the team's meets/tournaments.

 

This.

 

Should someone tell the San Francisco Chronicle? [/crossthread]

Seriously, we've got one local on WEC and the last two times he's been on Versus, they'll send me a heads-up e-mail and quotes after the match. All we need to do is have someone by the TV when he fights. Hope the UFC folks keep them on. We've also got a boxer who is being handled by the same promoter that supplies boxers to the local casino, and I know I can always count on them.

And lets face it, about 99 percent of the people we deal with in this racket are all right. Was at a soccer game in a storm tonight and both coaches were happy to see me there and get out of the rain for interviews. It's the 1 percent that are a-holes that drive me to drink!

 

The NFL team in my area had a nice event not long ago, where they brought in a bunch of high school kids to talk about balancing academics and football, being a good citizen, blah, blah, blah. Obviously the sort of thing that gets done to death, but still would have made for a good story. NFL team's PR person sends the release to tell us about it at 6 p.m. the evening before the event, which started first thing the next morning. No time to rearrange anyone's schedule, so we didn't get to it. Amazing that someone in PR at that level wouldn't have a better understanding.

Of course, that's better than the organizers of a big high school basketball showcase we had last weekend, where there was no head's up to the media at all, and then they hassled our guy at the door when he tried to get in to cover one of the games. He wasn't on the "VIP list" so they wouldn't let him in until one of the coaches vouched for him.

 

That's happened a time or two -- even when I've had my press pass handy. One time a lady said "You're not on the *list*, so I can't let you in." Luckily a coach just happened to be in the area, and vouched for me.

 

"That's fine, ma'am. Oh, one more thing. Can I have your name so when this isn't in the paper tomorrow and the organizer bitches, I can specifically mention your name?"