BTW...

Last weekend marked the start of the AHL season. The Phantoms opened their season at home on Friday night, plus they had a game on Sunday night -- both wins. :o) And though I didn't entirely avail myself of the new privileges I have after either game, I'm going to do my best to take advantage of the opportunity from here on out.

Long story short: I have co-moderated this Phantoms mailing list on Yahoo, which has existed nearly as long as the team itself, for several years now. The list owner, Tim, has had media passes for a long time. However, since his job situation has changed, and requires a lot of travel now, he won't be able to attend many home games this year. Therefore, he requested a full-season media pass for me, and the request was granted.

By the time this transpired, I already had purchased my season ticket and parking for the year. But I can also opt to sit in the press box, rather than the season ticket seat, and the option of receiving a full-season or per-game parking pass is available to media members, as well.

For the first two games, I availed myself of the copious printed information provided for media members -- stats and other information about players from both teams. I'm going to continue to do that, because I'm a stats junkie and I LOVE that kind of stuff. :o) But I sat in my regular seat, instead of in the press box, and I didn't go downstairs to interview any of the coaches or players following the game on either night.

That latter detail is about to change, and here's why. For a few years now, I've been acquainted with some people who've grown from being "just fans" to writing pieces for sites like nhl.com, doing hockey-related radio shows on XM (satellite) radio's NHL channels, etc. I've witnessed this happen and thought, "Lucky them. How do you get THAT gig?"

And then, out of the blue, a full-season media pass for the Phantoms pretty much literally came out of the clear blue sky. Surprise! It dawned on me yesterday that I guess THAT'S how you "get that gig". Get your foot in the door somehow, then prove through effort and intelligence that you know what you're talking about.

So, here goes. Today the mailing list, maybe tomorrow the world. Stay tuned. :o)