These folks have taken an interesting angle on blogging with regards to the immediate availability of news through the blogging community over status quo news agencies. Basically if you want to find out what is happening you might be better off doing a google or technorati search instead of just hitting the standard news channels. The reasoning is simple, with cell phone cameras (both photo and video) and sites such as youtube or personal blogs regular joes like you and me can be giving the rest of the world news faster than organized news channels. Interesting and fun for this blog to have gotten a little press so I hope you don’t mind my sharing.

Here is their article…

CRISIS MANAGER UNIVERSITY

Editor’s Note: When I received a short description of this situation from the author, a long-time “Crisis Manager” reader, I asked if he could develop it into a case history. He did so, superbly!

The Rockies Were Rookies at Crisis Management
By Robert Austin, APR

With its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, 300 days of sunshine per year, 650 miles of urban bike trails and over 20,000 acres of public parks and open space, Denver is a perfect setting for sports of every kind imaginable. Add in eight professional teams and you have a town where sport can be a religious experience.

When a team in such a place makes it to a championship, it is, for many, more rare and significant than a virgin birth. Tens of thousands will make whatever pilgrimage necessary to touch the holy grail of a ticket. It follows that when the Colorado Rockies made it to the World Series, fans prepared to camp out at Coors Field for the lottery that might lead them to salvation. Five days before the sale, however, the Rockies’ front office committed a blasphemy that put fans up and down the Rocky Mountain Front Range in crisis mode:tickets would be sold only online.

Immediately, fans and analysts began to question the logistics of the decision. Local news stations invited computer experts to give their opinions on how any system could handle the expected onslaught of Internet users looking for tickets from around the world. ESPN easily found non-experts to comment, quoting one hopeful fan, “If 250,000 people are online trying to get tickets, I can’t imagine the Rockies’ Web server can handle that sort of load.”

After thoroughly debating the technical aspects, attention turned to the fairness of the process. Some speculated that scalpers would use automated software that would enable them to process requests much faster than a human could. Others pointed to the number of fans disadvantaged with slow, dial-up connections or no Internet access at all. Still others pointed to the fact that anyone, anywhere in the world was able to stand in line, a situation that a queue at Coors Field might have averted.

Throughout these debates, the Rockies’ front office stayed on message. The fears of technical snafus were met with confidence. Both the club and Major League Baseball gave reassurances that all would be fine. Rockies spokesperson Jay Alves insisted the club’s computers were ready to go and said the staff prepared for any crashes. “We don’t anticipate that, but if something happens, we’re ready for that too,” he said. Matthew Gould, vice president of corporate communications for MLB, allayed fears by pointing to experience. “Obviously, this is not a first-time thing for us,” he said. No one gave any details about contingency plans.

On Monday, October 22 at 10:00 a.m., the sale began. Tens of thousands of fans sat in front of computer screens, aimlessly clicking the “refresh” button only to be repeatedly faced with the ominous message “site not available.” Two hours into it, Mike Miller, author of the blog The Urban Brain performed a “whois” search for evenue.net, the apparent host for the online sale. From that search, he obtained a phone number of the parent company, Paciolan, and called it. Miller then scooped news outlets with a blog post describing the developing crisis:

“The very nice lady who was answering phones caught on to what I was up to right away as she asked ‘are you calling about Rockies tickets’.

‘Yes’ I replied. So she gave me the scoop.

They are having issues, big issues, on the hosting side with their ISP. Whatever is going on, they can’t resolve traffic between their servers and the outside ISP’s.

They have contacted their ISP and are hoping for some resolution soon. They don’t know if it is something really big or something really easy to fix, but either way they are dead in the water and the update they gave me is that fewer than 100 tickets have been sold so far.

She said the IT guys just were not expecting this mass amount of response and they whole system is overwhelmed.

Well duh, what did they think would happen? Someone is going to get a little dose of reality about this whole thing.”

Three hours after Miller’s post, Rockies Spokesperson Alves appeared at a press conference in front of eager reporters. Enough fans had shown up at the ballpark for furious chants of “we want tickets; we want tickets” to be heard over the spokesman. Alves announced that ticket sales had been suspended due to a system crash brought on by 8.5 million hits in 90 minutes. The crash was so bad that all of Paciolan’s North American customers were affected.

At 4:36 p.m., the Rockies posted a press release on the club Web site announcing suspension of the sale. Prior to that, the Web site still featured a banner announcing the sale was in progress. It wasn’t until the 10:00 p.m. newscast that the club announced the system was fixed, that sales would go back online at noon the following day and that a contingency plan was in place should anything go wrong again, although no details of that plan were given.

By this time, the club and Paciolan had also figured out the problem: a malicious attack. “Our Web site, and ultimately, our fans and our organization, were the victim of an external malicious attack on our Web site that shut down the system and kept our fans from being able to purchase their World Series tickets,” Alves said.

Yet, even fans with no IT background doubted that claim. One fan, who had been a victim of such an attack said flat out, “They’re lying.” Drew Curtis, the owner of Fark.com, told The Denver Channel. Com: “If they notified their upstream provider that they were under attack, the upstream provider could have shut that off in no time flat.”

The following day ticket sales went off without a hitch and some 60,000 tickets were sold within a few hours. At this point, news outlets pointed out that no investigation was being launched for the perpetrators of the attack. Analysts and computer experts began a new discussion on this topic.
The Aftermath

In the end, tickets sold out and, inevitably, thousands ended up disappointed and ticketless. So what was the actual damage?

* Confidence in the club’s management faltered. On blogs and news outlet Web sites, fans wrote at length about the poor treatment the club gave its fans.

* Business lost immeasurable productivity. Many fans took the day off to try for tickets online. Others used office computers. In fact, a Denver Post news report blogged live from the offices of Blue Cross/Blue Shield detailed how several employees tied up office computers for several hours trying to access the site. The fact that the entire process was repeated the next day may have doubled the loss.

* Paciolan’s entire North American customer base were thrown into crisis mode as well. They, too, likely suffered loss of sales. For example, the Denver Center for Performing Arts also uses Paciolan for online ticket sales. The DCPA first started to experience a slowdown shortly after the Rockies sale began. Soon after, the system failed entirely. During the outage, the DCPA posted a notice on its web site advising ticket buyers to order their tickets by phone or in person. Those were options Rockies fans didn’t have. Anita Edwards, the Center’s Web services manager said, “harm done.” It would take another few weeks before the Center could assess any financial damages.

The Lessons

This crisis began long before the servers crashed. It began the moment the Rockies made the announcement that tickets would be sold only online. It was at that moment that the club’s public, its fans, went into crisis mode. Many made immediate plans to take the day off, to have multiple computers set up to try to up their odds of scoring a ticket. After the announcement, news outlets and computer experts began to ask questions that were answered too easily and almost flippantly: “Obviously, we’ve done this before.” Questions on the fairness of the decision were left unanswered. In announcing the decision, the club simply stated that it was the most fair way for fans to get tickets – period, no discussion.

As communicators, we’ve all heard the tips on how to manage crises. We learn about the first, golden hour of a developing situation. We list out steps to be taken, messages to be disseminated and follow-up to be carried out. We practice how to talk to the media to convey those messages and how to think on our feet with microphones pressed in our faces. We train our employees not to make unauthorized statements to members of the media (or others, for that matter).

Each of these lessons is reinforced by the Rockies’ ticket woes. Among them:

* The club was slow to respond to the media and to its fans. Blogger Mike Miller exposed the crash at least two hours before the club made any statement. It took five hours to get a statement on the Web site – the very place where thousands of fans had been camped out for information.

* When the club and its partners did give an explanation, a “malicious attack,” no details were given and no investigations were launched. To skeptics, this was further evidence that the club, MLB and Paciolan simply weren’t taking responsibility for messing up.

Ultimately, however, the biggest lesson lies in the failure to think the decision to sell tickets exclusively online all the way through in the first place. Our job, as communicators, is to try to anticipate the perceptions, attitudes and actions of our publics. That means examining every policy decision and asking the “what if” questions.

Sure, it is possible that our colleagues at the Rockies don’t have a seat at the table where these questions can be asked, which merely underscores another lesson of crisis management. Nonetheless, someone at the club should have been asking the questions. What if we sold the tickets using a system tested by other clubs in the past? What if the servers can’t handle the load? What if there was a back-up plan to shift to in-person or phone sales if the server did crash? What if we’re wrong and this system isn’t fair to local fans? What if we did have a lottery system, even if it were for online only sales? What if a rookie performance in ticket sales somehow translates to a rookie performance on the field? We may never know.

Robert Austin, APR, is Director of Professional and Public Relations for the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank in Denver, CO. Contact: raustin@corneas.org.

This topic might get more comments than any others so in advance I’ve set up a forum discussion. The trick in the mix is that the owners have also pointed out that if the Rockies and the city advocate groups feel that strongly about preserving the views they can always buy the land away from them. That’s not such a crazy argument and I would think that if the city OR the rockies started to approach local developers they just might find some interested parties who would love the idea of developing the Coors Field lofts.

It has branding, it has some panache, it has some great possibilities (anyone out there who decides to do it give me a call :) ).

Really, just think about it. There is no need to step on property rights or to ruin the views for the stadium folks. Every challenge is an opportunity. First of all, just build the building to the maximum height that still keeps the Rockies owners and the advocate groups happy. That is still a fairly high range and I expect that several floors of condos could go in there.

Secondly, if the Rockies and their advocates are a partner in this to preserve their asset (The stadium views) they could also come up with some killer marketing idea that makes the units unique and increases the price per square foot they obtain and work to make it not just a winning move for the stadium, but also a profitable one for the group involved. What would that perk be…. who knows. What about those units carrying a 10 year season ticket package and rights to renew beyond that for each unit. What about a Rockies affiliated restaurant in the base. What about a rooftop Rockies sports lounge. Heck, you can even throw in autographed Rockie jerseys and baseballs for each owner as a welcome gift at almost no cost but a huge value.

Forget fighting about it. Someone take this bull by the horns and make it the opportunity it should be. My guess is a lower building with a Rockies tie in would sell better ane more profitably than a generic taller building that is in contention with the city. PR matters. Branding matters, and this just begs for a flip from bad to good. Let’s also get the city to do their part with a pedestrian bridge over to the stadium across the tracks from that building. There are always options to make it a home run (had to have at least one pun).

So lets do a little marketing and development feedback here on my crazy little idea. The land looks to be for sale from this info I found when I googled 2010 Delgany so this fiction can become reality. Any buyers out there?

Link to PDF of proposed change

Rocky Mountain News Article

Ah, but no miracles last night.

The fans came with heart, so did the players, but I gotta admit I think we got out coached last night. Boston wasn’t making mistakes in a game that everyone said was going to come down to pitching. The Sox had it down to simple stupid… If they aren’t pitching well pull them. Have no hesitation, no maybes, just leave in the folks who are hot and pull those who are cold.

We couldn’t get that simple idea into our high altitude heads. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Every single person around me, in both of the past two games, could not understand why in the world we kept giving the ball to Fuentes. He was erratic as heck, slinging balls wild and walking the Sox or else pitching straight to them. This is not about picking on Fuentes. Everyone can have a good day, a bad day, a team that they can strike out and a team that licks its chomps when you hit the mound. It was clear to everyone except the coaching team that the Sox had Fuentes’ number. And sure enough, pitch one HR which could have been all the difference (don’t even get me going on game 3).

My point is… lets hope we learn from this for next year. I bought 4 season tickets on my iphone in the middle of the game last night as a show of faith. We hit the homer right after.

We didn’t follow the simple rule of “stick with what works”. The Sox pull pitchers at the first sign of a problem, the rotate back in the pitchers that work. We just didn’t learn. There also was a rumor going on that the karma was impacted by the ticket sale screw up that hit the fans in a bad way. I’m not sure I buy into that one, but then again Baseball is a superstitious sport.

But we were in the World Series. We tasted it. And we will be back again.

Go Rockies!!! Denver loves you!! Thanks for the experience and we can’t wait until next year.

I was on the phone with the hosting company a few times. I was hoping it wasn’t the same snafu as before and wanted to help. I started to tell them what I was experiencing and they suddenly got excited. I guess they weren’t sure where the hangup was. So I told them. I even sent them information on where the system was hanging up after they asked for my help. And it got something moving because they said it was what they needed and I got the following email back after sending the error info when I asked if my email made it to her or if it disappeared.

From: “Cheryl XXXX”
Date: October 23, 2007 12:59:23 PM MDT
Subject: RE: stop page

No, it didn’t disappear! I’m thinking you may be the “man of the hour”.

I said that was great and all, but wanted to be was the “man at the game”. I was baiting for tickets but they couldn’t do it. I understand, even if I lend a helping hand they were selling the tickets as a company and they (I found out) were not even allowed to buy tickets as individuals. But they told me some things that might block someone or mess with they system. Old cookies might need to be cleared out from when the settings were different at the beginning. Those of you with cookies from the start when the server settings were off might have had a handicap and someone who entered the rounds later might have been better off. They also mentioned something about screening IP’s to block the ticket scalpers. This worries me too since who knows how they decide what requests or IP’s to block.

For all I know, the fact that the whole office, heck the whole network of offices were trying to get tickets might have made us look like an IP to block. My guess is that there were so many mistakes made that who knows what might have thrown a request out. I heard sad stories about my friends mom making it to the booking screen only to have the system time out and bomb in processing (no happy ending, the tickets weren’t purchased) and many others of the same.

But the saddest was the stories I heard about folks who have NO PLAN TO GO TO THE GAME. Scalpers, profiteers, bad guys who were grabbing tickets only to resell them. No Rockies fans, no loyalty. Bleah! And my worry is that all the safeguards that were put into place to block these guys also slowed the system down and it was the regular folks, on their slow connections, with slow computers and no knowledge of how to “clear cookies” or the like who ultimately got denied. It sucks.

And yes, I am bitter. I just jumped on stubhub.com and bought two tickets to game 4 at an exponentially inflated price. Why? It might be a once in a lifetime experience. And because I believe. I got all my other seats at face value, maybe I’ll just rationalize out that this puts me at a slightly higher average.

For the record. I bought 4 seats to all the other national and division games and went to each and every one. I took people I know, and anyone who joined me just paid the face cost. That is how it should be.

I am always looking for a new business idea and I think I just found it. I don’t know what I’ll call it, maybe www.loyaltytickets.com, but perhaps my own ticket system that helps the loyal fans get their tickets first.

Ho Hum, drat and Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttt to the whole system. Maybe next time use Ticketmaster, as the Rockies are the only professional team here in Denver I heard who doesn’t use them. Now maybe they’ll know why.

Share your experience here and let me know if you gave up to watch at home or if you bought in the secondary market and for how much (and what section). This photo does not represent the section I bought in, I was more around the $900 a ticket range (OUCH). I had some $499 per tickets in the Rockpile but they were gone by the time I clicked through. Already the section I bought in (Pavilion) is jumping above this but who knows.

Go Rockies!!

Still no tickets, and online since before noon. I checked in with the folks doing the hosting and at first they said all things were good.

That soon must have changed because then I encountered long ring cycles and voice mail. I feel sorry for these guys if they have problems two days in a row.

Finally, I get through again and I am told the IT team dead some modifications in the last 90 seconds and to logout and try again. Heck, I’ll try anything.

Either way, I keep getting caught up at ev3.evenue.net which should be the main booking engine. And it just sits, and sits, and sits.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Give me some feedback as to what you all are experiencing or think. But look at it this way, if they sell 80 tickets a day there will be plenty left to buy at the stadium on game day.

**** By the way, I just heard from a someone who had 15 computers going that they did get in (Time 12:44 PM). So we have no choice but keep trying.

I was told I can walk away from my computer screen, go grab a shower, and relax for at least the rest of the evening. No more ticket sales this afternoon, or this evening. At the earliest it will be tomorrow. I still recommend you wait until 5 PM to hear the official release but that is the unofficial official scoop.

As you can tell, I am pretty excited about the opportunity to go to see the Rockies play in the World Series.

I was an early believer. Before everyone fully started a feeding frenzy I got online and bought tickets through every game I could. Maybe it was hope, maybe it was rooting for the local underdog team no one thought would make it. Maybe I am just sentimental. Or maybe I just loved going to the rare Rockies games I could catch, sitting in the sun and enjoying the game, and the thought of that same team having a shot at the series got me pumped up.

I was also a late believer. Other fans have been buying season tickets year after year, season after season. They were going to games when Coors Field would almost be empty. These folks are not fair weather. They are true to the team and have been for years.

I mention this because something about this online ticket sales process bothers me. 8.5 million hits is alot. My chances of getting any seats is terrible. And there are folks out there who are only buying them to scalp them. I still have hope of course. But part of me was hoping they would have opened the windows at the stadium and started selling to the fans who mobbed Coors Field. These are probably the same folks that have been going year after year and are the real fans.

And what about the folks who bought in for the Division and National Series or who bought regular season tickets. Maybe they aren’t full season holders, but they were fans before the Series became a reality. Wouldn’t it be nice to reach into that database and somehow give all those folks a first shot before it gets opened up to the world. Granted, I am one of those people, so I am biased.

But I would like to think that the earlier you started believing in the Rockies the better your odds of getting a ticket were. Maybe that is where Karma plays in and it will all work out. Whether I am watching them in the stands or on TV I’ll still be rooting them on.

But my record for good Karma while sitting in the stands is good with me The games I went to… all wins. The game I missed, the one loss. In fact here is a quick summary of my past week. To start off the week I was at the final game in the Sweep by the Rockies. WOW!!!! What an amazing experience. I don’t know what more I can say about how amazing it was to be there.

Out r in pre game bloody mary: $6
Streeside vendor gyro with the works: $7
OSU team jersey: $70
Celebrating a Buckeye homecoming victory in the stadium for my first time in over 10 years: priceless

Then it was off to Columbus, Ohio for my first Homecoming game in over 10 years. Heck, it’s my first Ohio State game in over 10 years but the fact that it was Homecoming made it even more special. I even almost got teary eyed with the traditional script Ohio and songs. There is something special about going to your alumni games years after. I got a chance to laugh with old friends, visit old favorite spots, and travel back in time for a day. Plus we beat Michigan State (24-17) which is always a plus, although the 3rd quarter almost gave me an ulcer.

And then as a final wrap up I flew out of Columbus yesterday morning and headed to Denver to watch the Broncos play the Steelers. I felt a little remorse about picking on the Steelers too bad (great game) because I hod gotten my Ohio State ticket from an old friend of mine who is a die hard Steelers fan.

That makes it a pretty special sports week for me. I’d like to carry that momentum on for the Rockies World Series. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and wherever I am you will hear me cheer.

They are calling it quits, throwing in the towel, regrouping… whatever you want to call it. I just talked again with the hosting company and the official unofficial is that they have cancelled the online sales for now. And there will be NO SALES AT THE STADIUM. They are going to regroup and reschedule and it will likely be tomorrow. I asked her what she thought because rumors are that it might be later today but my source was guessing tomorrow.

Guess that brings this little episode to a wrap. But I am a bit too scared to step back and risk it in case it opens up again later this afternoon.

I just checked with the nice lady at the hosting company and she said there were two bits of good news..

ONLY 80 TICKETS WERE SOLD ONLINE… So that means tons of tickets remain.

Here other bit of good news was that no stadium sales were to be done. I don’t know if that is good or bad news until I see if I get tickets. Lets all keep our fingers crossed.

First I tried to call the Rockies office, but no one answered.

Then I tried to pull up evenue.net, but the site didn’t respond. evenue.net looks to be the folks who are handling the sale of tickets for the rockies.

Then I went to Network Solutions and did a whois on the domain owner of evenue.net…. and found them with a front desk number. So I of course called the company to see if I could find out the scoop. The very nice lady who was answering phones caught on to what I was up to right away as she asked “are you calling about Rockies tickets”. “Yes” I replied. So she gave me the scoop.

They are having issues, big issues, on the hosting side with their ISP. Whatever is going on, they can’t resolve traffic between their servers and the outside ISP’s. They have contacted their ISP and are hoping for some resolution soon. They don’t know if it is something really big or something really easy to fix, but either way they are dead in the water and the update they gave me is that fewer than 100 tickets have been sold so far. She said the IT guys just were not expecting this mass amount of response and they whole system is overwhelmed.

Well duh, what did they think would happen. Someone is going to get a little dose of reality about this whole thing.

I heard that Rockies.com did an interview where they said it was all going okay. Don’t believe it, they are still down. I hope you all get tickets, just not mine. :)

But it didn’t matter. On their feet, cheering every play, screaming with joy when the Rockies scored in the 6th to break the tie and put the Rockies up 4-1 the fans didn’t even pay attention to the rain.

I was down in section 117 with a great shot on the 1st base line. We hunkered down in our sweatshirts, rain gear, poncho wrapped around our legs, ball caps protecting our faces and dripping water in front of our eyes. The lights were illuminating the shower overhead and created a surreal effect over the players. Fingers pruned, voices hoarse from cheering, and cold beers in our cold hands we loved every minute. And a little secret for future cold games, if you go up top they make hot chocolate with schnapps…. perfect for this kind of night.

Something about this game was different. Maybe it was enduring the rain. Maybe it was everyone sharing the experience. But it felt like we had jumped back in time somehow. The respect for the game, for the team, was just amazing.

I hope many of you got a chance to be at the game tonight. I’ll be there tonight, cheering for our Rockies, enjoying the game. Just one more for the worlds series.

Awesome!

Here is the scoop from cbs4denver.com

(CBS4) DENVER The crew shooting Eddie Murphy’s new movie “Nowhereland” began filming Monday and the producer said filming in Denver is scheduled for 10 working days.

The movie tells a story of a busy father trying to connect with his daughter through her imaginary world, Nowhereland. The decision to set the film in Denver was based on aspects of the script.

“The writer had several choices,” said producer Lorenzo diBonaventura. “We had western motifs in our story and we decided Denver was the perfect city for us.”

Certain aspects of the characters also made the producers want to set the film in Denver.

The 10 days of filming will be mainly exteriors so that the movie will really have the feel of Denver and so far, the producers and crew have loved the experience.

“It’s a great town and what is nice for us is that has been under-utilized on film, so every place is a pretty fresh place to put a camera and as filmmakers, that’s exciting,” diBonaventura said.

“One of the great things is how welcoming everybody has been,” he said. “As filmmakers, that makes you feel really good because we are moving pretty fast and hard. If the people embrace you, it makes it easier for us, frankly, and makes you want to come back.”

Murphy stars as the father in the film. Newcomer Yara Shahidi stars as his daughter and Thomas Haden Church plays the other major role.

“Nowhereland” is currently slated to be released Sept. 26, 2008.

Pretty cool! The plaza will be famous again.