A Bet, the Mighty Ducks & A Wedding
I was preparing a presentation at the office this week, a “Public Relations 101” PowerPoint presentation for a sales summit. It reminded me of a fun sports story and I thought of sharing it with you. It is a little long but worth it. The timing could not be better. The event happened right around this time of year, when the Stanley Cup playoffs were just getting under way.
In 2003, while working for the Mighty Ducks (now Anaheim Ducks), I received a letter from a fan. It was from a friend of Christina Servoss who thought I should know about a bet her best friend had made with her boyfriend.
While with the Ducks, we had a PR guy who handled the player and beat-related communications. My department was more the business side of sports as it related to help marketing, sponsorship, ticket sales, branding, and community relations tell their stories. We were intent on keeping the team in the news (off the sports pages) during the playoffs. This would help build buzz, hopefully sell a few extra playoffs tickets. You see in 2003, we were worried we might not sell out many of the home playoff games.
Back to our story. So, I had received the letter about Christina and the bet she made with boyfriend Steve De Sena. I learned both were die-hard Ducks fans (good news for us), had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few years and at the start of the hockey season, they made a ridiculous bet. The wager was that if the Ducks won the Stanley Cup, they would get married. Chrstina was ready, Steve doing just fine with the status quo.
After a quick call, I asked Christina permission to promote the wager, knowing that this was a perfect story for the Los Angeles Times. She quickly agreed and I pitched the story to Kimi Yoshino, a local reporter. Kimi took the idea and produced a great half page story in the California section of the Times.
I had achieved my initial goal of keeping a Ducks-related story in front of a Southern California audience. What became much more fascinating was what took place next. Christina and Steve became the center of media attention that no one had expected.
Peter Tildon, who was doing a local radio show, decided to adopt this couple. One of his producers picked up on the Times story and immediately made it their quest to marry this couple on the air. Over the course of the next week, they ran promotions on their show to have wedding related items donated in order to get the boyfriend and girlfriend hitched. The show received commitments from listeners for a free wedding dress, limo, a wedding ring, a place for the wedding even a free honeymoon. The catch was to get all of the free items, they had to marry by the end of the week. . I was not listening to the show but Christina kept me updated. They passed on the proposal.
I think she was enjoying the fun, but Steve wanted no part of it. This was now an unexpected bonus for the Ducks as the publicity had taken off in a new direction. The Ducks and the Stanley Cup were mentioned on the air, in an unexpected place every day.
The Ducks had steamrolled through the playoffs towards the Stanley Cup. It started with the Ducks sweeping the Red Wings, including a triple overtime win in the first game vs. Detroit. The team then beat the Dallas Stars in six games. Then a second sweep, this time over the Minnesota Wild and the hockey club had reached the Stanley Cups finals for the first time in team history.
As a front office team, we were elated, overworked, overjoyed and in a place that anyone who works in sports wants to be, the championship. Christina was on cloud nine. At this point in the story, I am pretty sure Steve was laying eggs.
The story stayed alive and media visiting from out of town picked up on it. They also wrote about the story and the momentum continued. We now turned to local TV stations and kept the story alive by having the Christina and Steve interviewed during games.
The excitement continued on the ice. Down 3-2 in Game 6, the Ducks facing elimination win 5-2 as then hometown hero Paul Kariya comes back on the ice after getting knocked out cold to score a goal that shook the building. I still get goose bumps about the moment as I am typing this.
I had the happy couple interviewed by ABC on national TV by Sam Ryan during game 6. Now, folks at ABC picked up on the personal story and wanted to fly the couple to New Jersey for game 7, on their dime..
There was one condition. Win, everyone knew they were getting married. If they lost, ABC got to interview Steve on national TV and ask the question if he would marry Christina. Knowing this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, Christina and Steve quickly agreed.
It remains painful to write these words, even today. But we laid our own egg in game seven and lost to the New Jersey Devils.
Like most Hollywood movies however, it had a happy ending. Facing a national TV audience, Steve proposed to Christina and the couple agreed to marry.
Christina wrote me a kind thank you note and thanked me for all of our efforts. If I remember correctly, me might have even sent Wild Wing, the team’s mascot, to the wedding. That part remains a little fuzzy.
The publicity from it all, which began with a friend’s brief letter, was truly amazing. Things slowed down and we moved on.
Then several months later, we got a call. The TV show 20-20 was doing a story on unusual wedding proposals and asked to speak with the couple.
The publicity continued.
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Here are a couple of quick links to stories I found online relating to this
Sports Illustrated Story
