The Vig

Andy and Scooter met for lunch today.  Andy says they’re going to stay good friends and that’s it.  No more radio for Scooter.  A shame.

The Hawks have a good one in Andy, imho and my campaign to bring Scooter back shouldn’t be interpreted as a slight toward him.  Andy’s knowledge of the game is second to none and he’s a joy to listen to on the radio, whether as the #1 or #2 guy.  My Tivo though…

I kid.

The whole point of this campaign though resides in the fact that there’s a ton of work to be done in order to restore the Hawks to their former glory in this market.  There’s no one better suited for the task than Dean Vrooman.  He has the contacts and he has the passion.  So I shall keep banging the drum.

Is it futile?  Most likely.  But I’m going to continue anyway.

As long as we’re discussing the Hawks, did anyone hear Dwight on the radio this afternoon?  He brought up a good point about why we’re seeing the delay in the sale.  It’s one I’ve made in the past and forgot in all my excitement.  They’re taking their time to make sure they have the right guy and that he not only has the resources he claims (Alan Caldwell dug up an interesting tidbit), but is willing to use them.  Hopefully everything checks out and we have a new group in a few months.  Hopefully.

Rumors out if the Hawk camp this afternoon suggest the front office was let go. If true, it’s a dark day in Hawk history. This does not bode well for the future of the franchise, either in Portland or elsewhere. It’s time for the league to step in and take over.

Update: Well, it’s true. The two J’s have cleaned house and slashed their payroll down to next to zero. The question now is what did the league office know and when? And what does the league office do now? There’s an outside audit of the books due to be conducted in the next several days, the purpose of which is unclear. There remain, as of this morning, dozens of unpaid bills and many upset vendors. League president Ron Robison has cast his lot with the two J’s. He may be in for a shock over the next several days as the depth of the Hawks’ leadership and finance crises is discovered.

The organization has spent the last few seasons trading on the names and reputations of its employees. From it’s inception, the Winter Hawks have always been a mom-and-pop operation where deals were more likely done via handshake than by contract. You can thank Dean Vrooman for the majority of that goodwill. He’s gone. And now so is the rest of their goodwill crew. Like Vrooman, I expect those let go today will take the high road, at least publicly. Fans all know those were decent, hardworking employees that were let go this morning.

Without their human capital, it’s difficult to see how the organization can continue. Apparently there’s a deal in place to move the franchise to Salem by 2010. All that stands in the way is about $2 million in improvements to the Expo Center on the state fairgrounds. Will they be able to make it that long? Or will they simply fold-up the tents and try and reconstitute themselves in two years? I’m guessing they’ll do their best to limp along.

They’ll be doing it without me. I love hockey and I love the Winter Hawks, but the combination of today’s firings and the impending move to Salem has me at the end of my rope. I don’t see how I can pour my heart out for an organization this poorly managed, and one planning to rip my heart out by moving 50 miles away from my home.

Andy offers his thoughts here. Dylan B. here.

Thanks to my Hawks blog readers for finding their way over here.  I hope you take the time to subscribe to the RSS feed or at least bookmark me since I’ll be doing a lot of the same stuff here that I did for O-Live.  OregonLive gave me a tremendous platform for two seasons and I’m eternally grateful to them for the opportunity.  They’ll be in very capable hands with Dylan.  I’m sure you’ll dig him as much as I do.

It’s been an interesting off-season for the Hawks.  I think I’ll take events in order.

King Jim:  Hawks owner Jim Goldsmith got things off to a rousing start by giving himself the title of Director of Hockey Operations.  Basically all on-ice decisions would flow through him.  The decision seemed to be greeted pretty warmly within the organization.  Folks seemed to believe people weren’t all on the same page for key decisions and that was affecting the product.  So Jim stepped into the void and took on the job of straightening the organization out.  Now instead of trying to get several people to sign off on a deal, there’s only one person to please.  It makes things cleaner.  Fine.  Do I have confidence Goldsmith knows what the heck he’s doing with hockey?  Ummm….no.  That said, he made a comment a while back in the Hawks forum that’s stuck with me, and it’s a prism through which I’ve viewed his decisions.  He wants to be a Mark Cuban-type owner.  Cuban is passionate about his team and will yell and scream when he believes he’s getting jobbed.  As an owner, he puts his people to work and expects them to perform.  If they do, he leaves them alone.  When they slip…  Well…  Don’t slip.  So Goldsmith is in charge of the day-to-day management of the on-ice product.  His dime, let him do what he wants.  Cuban is smart enough to bring in people to help him where he’s weak.  Goldsmith, I expect, will be that smart as well.

The Draft:  The whole day couldn’t have gone better.  When it became evident that Luke Moffatt wouldn’t be signing with the team, Goldsmith followed through on his pledge to only chase kids he knew he could sign.  He bailed out of the #1 pick and still got the guy he wanted, Bradley Ross.  The Hawks picked four times in the first 40 picks.  Not a bad draft day at all.  More importantly, they got four of their first five picks signed.  Its going to be a few years before these guys suit up for the Hawks, but I think we can say with certainty that the future hasn’t looked this bright in a while.

Gord Loiselle:  Frustrated with Goldsmith, Loiselle resigned a few weeks after the draft and took the player personnel position with Kamloops.  I didn’t know Gord.  And I honestly wouldn’t know if he did a good job for the Hawks or not.  He was Ken’s man and as we’re finding, Ken’s people are slowly being replaced.  I looked at the resignation as simply a need for change.  On all sides.

The Euro Draft:  I keep thinking Joe Balej is coming back.  I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that we need a Euro burner.  We need Joe Balej.  He ain’t coming.  The best news to come out of the draft was the return of Viktor Sjodin.  That dude was one of my favorite players last season.  And if the Hawks can get a sniper or two, he’s gonna clear up some room for them.  Sjodin reminds me so much of Big Snake.  He’s a guy the opposition needs to be aware of whenever he’s on the ice.  The second you take your eyes off him is the second you find yourself flat on your arse.  He’d rather hit you than play the puck.  And that’s fine by me.  So the Hawks traded away their second round pick for future considerations and picked up Czech Radim Valchar.  Euros are a crapshoot.  When you get a good one like Sjodin, you’d best be prepared to move Heaven and Earth to keep him.  Fortunately the Hawks did.

Mike Williamson:  Back in the day the Trail Blazers had a plucky point guard on their roster by the name of Danny Ainge.  A local boy, he was a crowd favorite.  He loved playing close to home, playing for a team that was an Arvydas Sabonis away from dominating the NBA for a decade.  Trouble was he was a free agent after the 91-92 season.  The Blazers could sure use his leadership and spark.  And like I said, he liked it here.  But as negotiations dragged on, it became apparent that he and the Blazers were going to part ways.  Marshall Glickman became the bad guy in the whole deal and would eventually be replaced by Trader Bob Whitsitt.  But I remember at the time thinking if either party had wanted the other, Ainge would still be a Blazer.  It’s a lesson I’ve taken with me ever since.  Watching the Williamson negotiation reminded me so much of the Ainge thing a decade ago.

Mike wanted to stay.  Of that I have zero doubt.  Did Goldsmith want him to stay?  Eh.  I’ll give that one probably 55-45, no.  Had he wanted Willy to stay, he would have figured out the contract and gotten Willy signed.  He wouldn’t have received everything he wanted, but in a negotiation, no one ever does.  At the end, no matter how badly he wanted to stay, Williamson just couldn’t sign what was in front of him.  What was the straw that broke the deal’s back?  My guess is somehow his pay got tied to performance.  He ran the numbers both as things stood and in a best case scenario and decided it wasn’t worth it.  I mean would you want your ability to meet your mortgage dependent on an inopportune bounce of the puck?  Me neither.  The thing is we’ll never know what the deal was because no one is talking.  Mike’s way to classy and Goldsmith…well…he doesn’t want to be the bad guy.  He’s a winner, don’t you know.  (You’re gonna have to scroll down a little ways to enjoy the wisdom of Jim Goldsmith).

Scooter:  As puzzling a decision as I’ve ever seen.  My guess is Goldsmith did something that Scooter vehemently disagreed with one day.  Scooter went home and slept on it that night.  He got up the next morning.  Called Andy, and then tendered his resignation.  What was that thing?  Did he job Scooter on a commission?  Was it something else organizationally?  Again, we’ll never know.  In my mind, there are two possibilities:

1. This was a strategy by Goldsmith to turn the screws on Scooter until he finally broke.  Donovan was quoted in the Columbian saying his first move upon taking over the team was going to be letting Scooter go.  But Scooter had built a network of sponsors he went back to year after year, so it made sense to keep him around.  Like any good sales manager, the J’s took the time to go out on calls with Scooter to meet the check writers.  Maybe start building relationships independent of Scooter.  Maybe.  And once all the sponsors were lined up for the new season, change the rules on Vrooman and see him out the door.  Anyone who’s ever worked a sales gig has seen that play out a time or two.  The thing is the sponsors are as loyal to Scooter as they are to the Hawks.  To them, they’re on in the same.  It’ll be interesting to see who’s still around next season.  From Donovan’s perspective, I think he believes he can do it better.  We’ll see.
2. All was well and Scooter truly blindsided everyone.  Under this scenario, Scooter was planning his exit all along, waited until the sponsors were all signed, then pulled the ‘chute leaving friends and colleagues high and dry.  A truly un-Scooterlike move and one I simply refuse to believe.  He would, I hope, have planned for some sort of transition.

I consider Andy a friend and respect his work with both the blog and on the air (TV and radio).  But he’s got a career with a company he loves and simply will not have the time to devote to the broadcasts that Scooter had.  I don’t know how he’ll do it.  But he’s learned how to do it from the best and I doubt we’ll notice a difference in the quality of the broadcast.

Still, Dean Vrooman was the face of the Hawks organization for the last two-plus decades and represented so much of what made the organization great.  I cant imagine what it’s like to give up something you love so much.

Quick Scooter Fact: He’s unable to donate blood as he actually bleeds red, white, and black.

Hopefully there’s another opportunity out there for him. Actually I thought of the perfect one while I was in the shower tonight.  Portland State.  Talk about a place that could use his energy.  You hook him up with Glanville, and I bet something special could happen over there.  Something to think about at least.

So back to Goldsmith.  Is he Cuban?  No.  He’s Jerry Jones.  Owner/GM.  Loud.  Brash.  Unafraid to express an opinion and unafraid to slay sacred cows.  Jones was a complete shock to both the team and the league when he took over the Cowboys in 1989.  He dumped Tom Landry.  Traded Herschel Walker.  Three years later, the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII.  Goldsmith is on a similar initial path.  Will he reach his destination?  Dunno.  But I’m gonna stick around to find out.