Dear Mr. Stamkos,

How Tampa should be marketed to keep our beloved captain.

As many Lightning fans know and dread, Steven Stamkos has nearly finished the final regular season of his contract. Most people believe that if he is not going to resign with Tampa, he will make his way north, back home to Toronto. I am no I am not the only one who hates the idea of this. No fear, if Tampa can market itself to Stamkos like I mention he has all the reason to stay.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy…

Dear Steven,

Jun 6, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Hockey fans arrive before game two of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

1. Legacy

First and foremost, you have built a hockey town from the ground up. Yes we won the Cup in 2004, and that laid a nice foundation down, but nothing can compare to the impact you have had. You are the face of not just the Tampa Bay Lightning, but Tampa Bay sports as a whole. You have been carrying this weight since your rookie year, where like lightning itself, you struck the league with all the shock and awe anyone could ask for. Dave Andreychuk, Vincent Lecavalier, and Martin St. Louis, did their share in starting the fire, and they will forever be remembered and loved. You have kept the fire roaring and built quite the legacy for yourself here. A legacy that can be solidified by bringing the Cup back to the Bay.

2. The Stanley Cup

So close yet so far…

The ultimate goal for any NHL player is to hoist the Stanley Cup, and be engraved into history on all of its glory. No one wants to be the best player to never win the Cup. Twice, you have come so close, and yet the Cup seems to elude you. After your first trip to the Conference Finals in 2011, the team fell and missed the Playoffs for two straight years. I am sure the seasons were long and bitter, but you kept working. The team kept building. Just last year you were two games short, just two games short. Toronto, on the other hand, is on the complete reverse of the spectrum. Why throw away the years of work and rebuilding just to leave? The team is solid. The chemistry is something that can’t be replicated, no matter how close to home you are.

3. Tampa

Tampa offers you so much:

I. Weather

No one on Earth can deny the gorgeous weather of Tampa. Who wants to go freeze their pucks off in Toronto?

II. Taxes

Florida provides its employed people to pay significantly less taxes than most locations in the world. What does this mean for you? Obviously, it means more money for you. However, it also means more money for your teammates. More money for your teammates means a higher quality of teammates. When it comes down to it, people need money in some way or another.

III. Home Away From Home

There will never be anything like home and family. That being said, what you have built here in Tampa, comes pretty damn close. The community here is in love with you. They have taken you in as one of their own. Honestly, you are one of us, no one that lives in Florida was born here, but we stay because we fall in love. So please fall in love. Also let’s not forget the family in the locker room. We can see it when we watch, you are truly the leader of this team. There isn’t one player on the ice who doesn’t look up to you. Of course I mean figuratively, let’s be real Sustr is very tall.

In closing…

When it comes down to it as much as we would love to have you stay here for your entire career, we understand that you have your own life. Whatever you may decide to do, those of us who truly love what you have done and the person you are, will continue to do so. Whenever you would play in Tampa, fans would come from all over to sing your praises as they did in the good ol days. What you have built here will stand forever. We just hope and pray that you are here to help us keep it going. We have a good thing going right now.

Sincerely,

The City of Tampa

p.s let’s get the Cup this year to be safe.

I Wanna Be the Very Best Like No One Ever Was

I’ve been feeling nostalgic time travel with me real quick, 16 years ago…

Sit back, relax and enjoy…

Alright so now that we are here what are we seeing? A little 4 year old Connor on a Saturday morning.

I am sitting in my older brother, Christopher’s, room. Both of my older siblings are there, Christopher and Alyssa. It’s early and the TV is on. Like millions of other kids across the nation we were tuning in to the beloved Pokémon. The show started in Japan, but had taken the entire world by storm. Unlike the Saturday morning cartoons of our parents, Pokémon did not end at the TV screen. Pokémon was in our Gameboys, in our toy boxes, in binders full of cards, and most importantly in our minds.

These Saturday mornings are some of my most fond memories as a child. Being the youngest of three children, anytime I got to spend with my older siblings was always awesome. On these mornings, I was not just a little brother, but I was just another crazy fanatical kid who loved Pokémon. Anytime where I could feel that I was excited about the same things they were felt like I was older, and sort earned a rite passage as a cool kid. I suppose what I mean by that is the times really made me feel a part and equal, as opposed to just the youngest. With our cards and games in hand, we would always feel excited to see a Pokémon that we either owned a card for or had in the game. It was just a special time and one that is hard to describe, and even harder to replicate.

Pokémon, is now entering its 20th year and has become more active on the marketing side than it has been in a long time. Of course I can really only speak from the USA’s perspective, they have and always will be active in Japan. So what examples do I have for this claim? Well let’s take a look.