Marco Iannuzzi to retire at the end of this season

[Hambone]

Was a little shocked to learn that Chayka has absolutely zero interest in social media:

http://advantagemagazine.ca/2016/inside-look-bc-lions/

Blog or website you follow religiously?
None.

What’s better: Facebook or Twitter?
Don’t use either.

DH

Yay. Another old fart like me.

I'm more lurker than participant on Facebook. I used to look around more regularly popping in when I received a notification of interest. I found I was deleting about 90% of the notifications without viewing them and figured how to turn them off. Now I go in every two or three weeks when I'm bored sitting in a pub and check to see how some folks might be doing. As for Twitter I only joined because my cousin chose to use that to communicate how he was doing down at the World Series of Poker a few years ago. Haven't used it since then and from all the tweets I see posted in forums and on the regular newsfeeds I choose to read I find even less reason to use it.

Social media? Bah Humbug.

[mountaincat]

these leos are mighty luck to have someone like marco as stoked as he is to get involved in the business side of things. with the incompetence and lack of interest on display, it's not like things could get much worse. i realize there are differing opinions on that, but now is the time for fresh blood, fresh faces & fresh ideas and marco has my vote to get involved in any capacity

[#52Fan]

Marco and Geroy are great ‘faces’ for the organization, but Presidents and GMs are not poster boys. They’re behind the scenes grinders, they’re deal makers and diplomats. They’re board room bears and organizational architects. Both Marco and Geroy would be great in public relations, community outreach, season ticket sales, publicity etc, but without any hard business foundation, giving either of them a ‘throne’ at this point would be premature and unfair. Either or both would be an asset to the organization, but a President is not just a figure-head and his main role is not to attract a young audience, he’s supposed to delegate things like that to people like Marco and Geroy. Presidents manage people, usually department heads, and all the Harvard education in the world pales in comparison to a few years experience working deep within a large organization. White collar executives like to think they’re like athletes ... but they really aren’t.

Marco can appeal to a younger fan-base, but not if he’s spending 14 hours a day in meetings ... and if he’s not spending 14 hours a day in meetings he can’t do a very good job of being President. (A far too simplistic analogy, I know, but you get my point). Give the young man a position where he can have the freedom to build a younger fan-base and let him grow into something greater.

[TheLionKing]

Was a little shocked to learn that Chayka has absolutely zero interest in social media:

http://advantagemagazine.ca/2016/inside-look-bc-lions/

Blog or website you follow religiously?
None.

What’s better: Facebook or Twitter?
Don’t use either.

DH

Yay. Another old fart like me.

I'm more lurker than participant on Facebook. I used to look around more regularly popping in when I received a notification of interest. I found I was deleting about 90% of the notifications without viewing them and figured how to turn them off. Now I go in every two or three weeks when I'm bored sitting in a pub and check to see how some folks might be doing. As for Twitter I only joined because my cousin chose to use that to communicate how he was doing down at the World Series of Poker a few years ago. Haven't used it since then and from all the tweets I see posted in forums and on the regular newsfeeds I choose to read I find even less reason to use it.

Social media? Bah Humbug.

I'm with you Hambone. I got better things to do than to keep track of what someone is doing, eating or going. I have a Facebook account but just to see what my 7 year old niece is up to

[Hambone]

Marco and Geroy are great ‘faces’ for the organization, but Presidents and GMs are not poster boys. They’re behind the scenes grinders, they’re deal makers and diplomats. They’re board room bears and organizational architects. Both Marco and Geroy would be great in public relations, community outreach, season ticket sales, publicity etc, but without any hard business foundation, giving either of them a ‘throne’ at this point would be premature and unfair. Either or both would be an asset to the organization, but a President is not just a figure-head and his main role is not to attract a young audience, he’s supposed to delegate things like that to people like Marco and Geroy. Presidents manage people, usually department heads, and all the Harvard education in the world pales in comparison to a few years experience working deep within a large organization. White collar executives like to think they’re like athletes ... but they really aren’t.

Marco can appeal to a younger fan-base, but not if he’s spending 14 hours a day in meetings ... and if he’s not spending 14 hours a day in meetings he can’t do a very good job of being President. (A far too simplistic analogy, I know, but you get my point). Give the young man a position where he can have the freedom to build a younger fan-base and let him grow into something greater.

I agree with that. By nature of the position and how close it works with the HC and players a GM does become fairly visible on TV and radio. If a team President or owner becomes a face of a franchise it's rarely a good sign.

[Hambone]

As far as other roles for Marco, I can't see him leaving a successful career as a financial analyst to become the club's community outreach director. Besides, Jamie Taras does a pretty good job at that. I could see Marco in George Chayka's role as VP of Business, at least to start. I would think he knows his way around a spread sheet pretty well. Nothing against George, I was actually very favourably impressed by his swift email response to an issue I had, but he has held the position for a number of years now and a new voice and fresh set of eyes might be a good thing. I have faith that Marco could really get out there in the business community and drum up sponsors for the team.
DH

No doubt Iannuzzi is a very bright individual and very confident in his abilities. However he would also be extremely wet behind the ears in terms of pro sports business management. To me it would be very much high risk, possibly high reward, possibly the opposite for the club to start him at the top. Even starting in Chayka's role would be pushing things but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be a quick study who could climb the org chart in rapid fashion once he gets his feet wet.

There are some parallels between the two. Chayka played for the SFU Clan from 77 to 80 graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He then spent a year as a graduate assistant coach there before moving on to become a player agent from 82 to 92. Then he joined the Lions front office. I'm not sure what he did initially but he's been working in the business ops side of the Lions for 20 years. He worked under Bob Ackles from start to finish of Bob's successful return.

IMO starting in a role working directly with Chayka would be the ideal fit for Marco. It would allow him to learn, develop and grow into one of those senior positions that he covets. Given Chayka's bio has him starting his college career in 1977 I'd peg him at 58, maybe 59. He's not going to be in that role forever. 3 or 4 years of grooming would have Marco well positioned to take over. Fresh blood doesn't have to start at the top to have a tremendous impact on an organization with their thoughts and ideas.

[Toppy Vann]

Nice move (hopefully and likely not out of his pocket) but he's positioned this nicely - something lacking in Lions marketing with their sleeper ads like "Who is Sol E" and 'Who is Jennings' .

The problem with the Lions is that they usually dump the ex-player into an ill-defined role in "Community Relations" and that rarely translates to fans at games unless it's linked to marketing to community segments.

I'm assuming the Community Relations group is responsible for all the work done with the various community programs the Lions run. During the offseason they seem to be pretty much "balls to the wall" with community appearances by players leading these programs in schools across the lower mainland, the island and other cities and towns in the province. I happened to look at their schedule back in February and was quite surprised and pleased to see how many sessions and appearances players were making in the course of a week. It would be no small task coordinating the logistics and arrangements for those efforts not to mention attracting the sponsors who also get behind them. Lots of griping goes on here about lack of marketing with ticket pricing seeming to be the only solution ever offered. These community programs are a huge part of the marketing efforts. They were a big part of Bob Ackles approach. He would be proud to see that not only do they continue to be a big part of the marketing efforts, they have in fact been expanded upon and grown since we lost him.

Don't get me wrong - the LAST thing I want to sound like is that somehow I'm demeaning the efforts or success of the ex players and others in their Community Relations initiatives. That is definitely not what I want to sound like.

I'm just not convinced that the Lions have really taken advantage of a number of things in building the game experience such that folks want to get out to games nor have marketed consistently and effectively.

To make any function in marketing work - it requires some critical mass of resources, dollars and money.

I'm always one to think of ways to do things on a low cost budget where you get community involvement so the community helps. I think in Green Bay, volunteers clean the stadium if it snows?? Not marketing and not viable here.

But with all the talent out there why not poster contests with everything from kids to adults.

Contests for universities and colleges to develop marketing campaigns etc.

All these things could be funded cheaply and linked to tickets etc as well as use the Lions platform to give them publicity and boost to their profiles, experiences and careers.

Art schools to do posters of players.

I'm no marketer but there are brilliant minds out there who know how to lever social media and do things that work and not at a million dollars.

I always look at the English Premier League and other European leagues as over 8 years in Hong Kong there is nothing but a parade of teams thru Asian cities all getting sponsors and all to sell jerseys!!

The problem in football is too many football guys and too few with a marketing flare.

If I were them I'd bring in top marketers like Doug Morneau - local guy who did the Canucks at one time and get them involved.


>>>

I totally agree that Dennis Skulsky media background was not directly related to marketing in any way. His background was outstanding if you own a chain of papers and need someone to run it. But he's not a marketer.

Marco would be an interested choice.

[B.C.FAN]

Iannuzzi says goodbye and gives thanks:

[TheLionKing]

What a classy post.

[WestCoastJoe]

Wow. Awesome post, Marco.

I hope you stay with the organization.

[Hambone]

As much as I respected Marco as a receiver and returner I think my favourite memory of him was in a defensive role at Tempire in his rookie year. BC was playing the Argos. Marco had dropped back to receive the punt. Facing 3rd and 10 from their own 41 the Argos instead tried the fake with Prefontaine trying to connect 20 yards downfield with a pass. Iannuzzi in only his 7th pro game sniffed out the fake and jumped the route for the interception at the BC 47.

[David]

Really disappointed the club didn't recognize Marco's tireless contributions to the club and community last night. The only thing they did, was show his face on the giant scoreboard in the 4th quarter. No special call-out (that I am aware of), or even introducing him last out of the tunnel (they introduced special teams).

They didn't even try to get the ball in his hands. In fact, he was substituted for Vandervoort. Bit of a fail as far as I'm concerned. On a night of massive misfires and colossal blunders, this wasn't a huge one, but should be pointed out.


DH

[B.C.FAN]

Iannuzzi is smart enough to know when his time as a player was up. This was his best season statistically, with 425 yards receiving, but half of that total came in four games with Travis Lulay at quarterback. Jonathon Jennings seldom looked at him or any of the other outside receivers. Iannuzzi had no catches in his final four games.

The game plan tried to get him one last touchdown, isolating him on a back side corner route in the first half but the Argos double teamed him and the pass was well overthrown. After giving way to the next generation at halftime, he was brought back on the field for one last try on the final play of the game but Jennings’ end-zone pass was so badly thrown that it was hard to tell whether Iannuzzi or Shaq Johnson was the intended target. Iannuzzi nonetheless followed through after the Argo interception and made the tackle on the final play of his career. It wasn’t the best way to end his career but it seemed like a fitting end to a sad season in franchise history.