Fortunately I’ve built a few relationships with the folks in the Bulls’ front office and they’ve always been very generous and gracious with me despite my creepy over-zealous fandom. So when I got invited to this event the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass myself, this blog or the team. Searching for some insight on what to expect from an event like this I turned to The War Room on Sirius/XM’s NHL Home Ice.

Peter Berce offered up the following:
1) Don’t touch the other reporters (actually that was something I came up with).
2) Talk with the people who invited you and try to get some information to report.
3) Take pictures.
4) If they’re giving away free stuff take it.
5) If they’re giving away free food eat it (but not too much or they won’t ask you back).

I can handle that.

Item #1: I didn’t get too creepy when meeting all the reporters I’ve grown up watching on TV. ‘No inappropriate touching’ was a success.

Item #2: Luckily I knew some of the Bulls staff as well as the local radio personality who was the event’s Master of Ceremony. I was able to pass the time with some lively conversation while waiting for the event to start. It wasn’t totally awkward standing there amongst all the cameras.

Item #3: See below.

Item #4: Since I’m not a dignitary (the mayor of Daly City was in attendance as well as representatives from the San Francisco mayor’s office) or a regular media personality I didn’t get a bag of swag. Maybe next time.

Item #5: There was food but the line was too long.

The Cow Palace

Lamont and Tonelli from 107.7 The Bone - Your Hosts

Pat Curcio, President and Head Coach

The Media

The Mascot - Rawhide

The Ice

The Food

I think I need a better camera…

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Today the Bulls revealed what the boys will be wearing at the Cow Place come this October. The story goes when thinking of a name for the team they considered the history of hockey in San Francisco - The WHL San Francisco Seals, The Shamrocks, The Spiders, The Sharks (when they played at the Cow Palace). When observing the seals at Fisherman’s Wharf someone pointed out that a male seal is called a ‘bull’ - bull, seals - a connection was being made. But then upon returning to the office someone realized the team was going to play at the ‘Cow Palace’ - you know, cows - bulls, hence the term ‘bulls’ went from ‘bull seals’ to ‘bull cows’. The San Francisco Bulls was born. And the team colors are orange and gold - orange from the San Francisco Giants and gold from the San Francisco 49ers (’Bridging the Divide’ if you will).

And by the way, the home opener is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 13th.

And here you go:

ECHL rules apparently dictate that the dark sweater be worn at home for half the season and the white sweater the other half of the season.

And they won’t be on sale for another 3 months.

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Or so I thought.

If you think about the landscape of American culture there is an aspect of it where fashion meets sport. And that’s the sports logo. From the simple baseball cap to the team jersey, from your rural high school football team to your favorite European soccer club, the wearing of sports merchandise is probably just as ubiquitous in America as designer fashion. In some places it even trumps designer fashion.

How many pieces of sports gear sit in your closet? How many pieces of designer clothing do you own? And since being a fan is fanaticism, you probably own several pieces of your team’s merchandise. Nothing shows your allegiance better than wearing something with your team’s logo on it.

Well kids, next week history will be made. The San Francisco Bulls are going to unveil their new sweater at a media-only event and yours truly has been invited to be there. That’s right, The ‘Net is all growd up and we’re heading to the Cow Palace to get a look at what hopefully will become a fixture in the San Francisco cultural landscape. Tune in next week to see if I can take any pictures worth a damn. In the mean time since I know you’re all peeing all over yourselves in anticipation I’ve created this ‘artist rendering’ to hold you over. Enjoy.

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For a reality check I defer to John Buccigross who posted his Top 10 Cup Contenders today. The San Jose Sharks are on the list (I won’t spoil it by telling you where we fell). His assessment is that the loss of Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley has put a dent in our offensive firepower. I suppose that’s a pretty accurate, simple assessment. Our defense is better this year, we just have trouble scoring. So what do we do?

Let’s take a look at the Chicago Blackhawks. Dropping like a rock, they’re in the middle of a 9 game losing streak. On of their problem, according to Barry Melrose (and others on XM’s NHL Home Ice), is goal tending. Chicago needs a goaltender, the Sharks need more offense.

Jeremy Roenick says the Blackhawks could and should consider trading Patrick Kane. What if, just if, the Sharks acquired Patrick Kane in exchange for Antero Niittymaki and one other defensive prospect? Would the Sharks Nation be interested in that kind of deal?

What about Kane’s reputation for drinking too much? Would a change of scenery help? How about if that scenery came with someone you trust? How about Pat Curcio? My sources tell me (I like the fact that I can finally say that!) that Coach Curcio (of the San Francisco Bulls) and Kane (whom he coached) are pretty close. Perhaps having someone trusted - who was there before all the fame - could help provide some well-needed personal perspective.

Hey Coach - can you text Patrick and see what he thinks, maybe we can work something out!

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The San Francisco 49ers just finished their season on what can be argued was either a high point or a low point. No one expected the NFC Championship Game to be played at Candlestick Park, so even though they lost you can pick your outcome – glass half empty or glass half full. The question is how did a team who couldn’t put together a winning record over the past 8 years make it that far in the playoffs, and how did they do it with basically the same players but a new head coach?

When I asked Coach Curcio who the most talented teams in the NHL were he mentioned a few teams in the East. If the Sharks aren’t the most talented team why are they consistent playoff contenders – the last two Western Conference finals not withstanding? He said talent alone doesn’t win.

‘Talent alone doesn’t win’ certainly applies to the 49ers. The 49ers are definitely a talented team but I don’t think anyone is going to accuse them of being the most talented team in the NFL. Therefore one conclusion is that the 49ers proved to be one of the top 4 teams in the NFL because of their hard work and team effort.

Here we sit at the NHL All-Star break and the Sharks sit at 13th overall against all teams. They sit first in the weakest division in hockey. Dropping out of first place in the division drops you to 7th in the West. The team is 17th on the power play, 28th on the penalty kill, and 13th in scoring. In the one category where ‘last is best’, the Sharks have played the fewest games in the NHL (47) and have, on average, 3 games ‘in hand’ against the top 8 of the teams in the Western Conference.

In other words, the team is average.

If you watch the team on any regular basis can you honestly say everyone on the team is working hard and the team as a whole is putting forth that great team effort? Is this a team that could achieve more with more work and more effort? If not then we’re in trouble, because I don’t think what we have can go deep in the playoffs – the team feels ‘shallow’ to me. I don’t know if we could outwork another top 8 team over a 7-game series.

The Sharks have key injuries. One could argue that not all of their summertime acquisitions are working out as hoped. But what happened to General Manager Doug Wilson’s statement that he wouldn’t wait until this late in the season to make moves if the team wasn’t performing up to par? Is the fact that we’re division leader despite our average performance good enough to keep moving forward with what we have? Have we ‘maxed out all our credit cards’ and just can’t afford to trade away anymore high draft picks and/or prospects to shore up the team? Have we already traded away too much?

If the playoffs are ‘the grind’ then the Sharks are about to embark on ‘the grind before the grind’. During the last 6 weeks of the season (starting mid-February) the Sharks will only have a two-day break only twice. The rest of the time it’s either every-other night or back-to-back games.

And if you’re interested in asking Coach Curcio your own questions the San Francisco Bulls are running another ‘night out with the coach’ contest. Just one favor, if you win tell him I sent you!

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Enter the Bulls, San Francisco’s new ECHL hockey team. When I first heard that we were getting a new hockey team two thoughts ran through my head. The first was how excited I was to be able to go watch a small-venue professional hockey team right here in my own back yard. The second thought was that I needed to make sure I got in to see them their first season because I doubted they’d last more than one year.

Despite a thriving sports climate (NFL x2, NBA, MLB x2) the immediate San Francisco area historically seems like the kind of place where people want to start new sports franchises but fail to remain viable. It is this history of failure that I judged the viability of a new hockey team. This has nothing to do with the Bulls management or investors but everything to do with the area’s apparent inability to support new sports franchises.

But it was my good fortune to win an evening of San Jose Sharks’ hockey with the head coach and some staff of the San Francisco Bulls and I have to tell you we had a great time. Talking with Coach Curcio hasn’t turned me into a hockey expert but I’ve learned a thing or two about the business of hockey. It’s also reaffirmed the notion that hockey is still a pretty closed club and it’s that club that owns and operates almost everthing related to the professional sport.

Unlike the past endeavors to expand the sports landscape here in San Francisco, the Bulls might actually stand a chance. Based on some of the things we talked about as far as sustainability of the team, comparing the draw the Spiders had back in the 90’s, the Bulls have attendance targets that are very attainable. Add in my perception that interest in hockey has increased since the days of the Spiders and we could be looking at pretty full barn.

On the hockey side of things the ECHL has a natural churn built into the system so year over year teams, for the most part, have mostly new rosters. This will allow the Bulls to start off on as close a level playing field with other teams as is possible. At the end of the day the success of the team is going to come down to winning, and starting on par with the talent of other teams should prove invaluable towards that. The standard is too high around here. If you don’t win people won’t come out.

Desipite my dreams of sticky floors, drunk mascots and fights in the stands the San Francisco Bulls instead appear poised to become a viable, sustainable fixture on the San Francisco sports landscape. The only question left in my mind is, will it be ‘Let’s Go Bulls!’ or ‘Go Bulls Go!’

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Believe it or not I - The Ref - won a contest to go to tomorrow’s San Jose Sharks game with the coach of the Bulls Pat Curcio! Interestingly enough he’s also the team’s President and General Manager. We’ll be out there sporting our San Francisco Bulls swag promoting the new team and I’ll be asking a ton of questions of Coach/President/GM Curcio about managing and coaching a hockey team.

One problem - Coach Curcio is friends with the coach of the Washington Capitals so for him it’s ‘Go Caps Go!’. Best way to quiet a Capitals fan is a Sharks win!

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