…And put your money where your mouth is.
It was a perfect storm of events, 4 first goals of the season, 30 of 31 shots blocked, back to back loses for the Red Wings, and the fans devotion to end not only the winless drought, but the battle with cancer.
All in all, the Hockey Fights Cancer night and the Money on the board are two great ideas and when combined, well that’s a homerun if I’ve ever seen one (wrong to have a different sports analogy here? – let’s try an empty net game winner instead.) For those unfamiliar with the Money on the board, check out the story here, basically in the middle of a 5-game loosing drought, a young fan challenged the CBJ and its fans to put its money where its mouth is, raise some money for a good cause and light a fire under the team. Roughly $10,000 or so later the Blue Jackets and some great charities were victorious and the Red Wings were sent packing.
Fast forward to this year, the Blue Jackets now in a 7 game drought and looking for a spark against the evil Red Wings, reached out to their fans and asked to once again, put that money on the board, and what was the result? Well how about ANOTHER victory over the Red Wings and the First win of the season, Not to mention another large sum of money heading to the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma (waiting on @moneyontheboard for the official amount or at least a close estimate).
That’s great and all, but why stop on just one night? Why not reach out to fans and ask them to be the support/fire the team needs all season (aren’t they suppose to be anyways?) Why not help a good cause all season long?
I am no marketing genius but think we have quite the catchy slogan with the “Carry the Flag” campaign but maybe it’s time to put the flag down, and put our money where our mouths are. Every fan thinks they know what’s best for the team and has a million and one trades or plays or schemes they would do if they were in charge. Sadly we are not, but that’s not to say we can’t show the same amount of passion in other ways. Let’s put the flag down (for just a moment) reach into our pockets and prove we are 100% behind our team (it’s worked twice before, whose to say it wouldn’t work 70+ more times this season?)
Yes this sounds crazy, and no I, like the rest of you I am not swimming in pools and pools of money, but whose to say we all can’t show our support and give to a good cause for a couple of dollars a game (think $1-$2 a game by every fan for every game, that’s a lot of dough!)
So put down the flag (gently and within arms reach) and grab that wallet and let’s turn that spark that gave us our first win into a blaze of playoff glory!
Put that Money on the board!!!