My Three Questions

I've received a few emails already asking how I answered the three questions.  Here they are in their entirety:

1.As President, what would be your first act?

Typically a recently elected president of any organization would take a few days off and relax from the campaign, then begin to get his or herleadership together and prepare for inauguration.  I will not have this luxury. With voting coming to an end on the 28th, I'll only have two Twinkie games left to get my cabinet organized so that I can lead the Nation into the ALDS series against Mr. Ichiro et al. 

However, once I do have that cabinet together I'd like to address one of the needs of The Nation right off, and that is the ability to interact with one another in some positive ways.  The good folks over at www.newenglandsportscountry.com have a nice live game chat room in place, but it's not well advertised and may not be the right solution software/bandwidth wise.  The Nation wants to talk during the game and message boards just don't work for that.  We need to have multiple chat rooms to serve the multiple wants and needs of the nation, moderated by carefully selected moderators.  We also need a place on The Nation website to visibly promote local RSN clubs that join together around the world to watch the games together.  My technology background will help facilitate this matter.

2. As President, what would your advice be to John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino?

As President of RSN, I think it will be important for me to liaise with the Red Sox front office to ensure that RSN has a voice.  My election will not be a mandate to participate in trade talks, discuss roster moves or in any way, shape or form run the Sox on a daily basis. The Sox already have a President in Mr Lucchino and it is not my intention to try and take on any of those duties.  I will however remind the front office that there are several reasons they enjoy working in Boston instead of say Tampa Bay, and one of those reasons is Red Sox Nation.  Therefore, The Nation needs to be heard, and I will be that voice.

On that note, I will specifically advise Mr's Henry, Werner, and Lucchino that a large part of The Nation is upset with the availability of tickets.  Yes, I will concede that the diligent fans that live close to the park and keep a constant eye out for ticket drops can get tickets to many home games.  But the further from Fenway a fan is, the less likely this is apt to happen.  And 36% of The Nation resides 100 miles from Fenway.  I will encourage the senior leadership to take a closer look at the ticket sales process for individual games and Sox Pax.  It is not a random process as the virtual waiting room states. Random would be giving everybody one entry ticket, drawing them out of a hat, and contacting them to see what they'd like to buy.  I'm not saying this is the correct solution due to the administrative nightmare of it, but we need to get away from the virtual waiting room, constantly hitting refresh, and having 30 browsers open.  Also, when I have this dialog with the Big
Three, I will demand to know HOW StubHub.com has thousands of tickets available moments after I give up on the virtual waiting room, and I will demand to know WHY the Red Sox don't break from the MLB tolerance of such outfits and urge them to not let ticket resellers advertise at Fenway.  I think it's shameful that the Tickets link on MLB.com goes to StubHub.   Replay, Ticket Toss and a couple of drawings during the year are great, but we need to get the December and January processes refined and we need to put an end to 300% markups online.

3. As President, what would your advice be to Commissioner Selig?

I'm not sure that Commissioner Selig will be looking for advise from me, or that it would be appropriate for me to offer any.  However, should the good commissioner come looking to me for advise, I would tactfully suggest that perhaps he consider if baseball is better off with him as its commissioner or if it might benefit from change.   Mr. Selig has brought remarkable change to MLB in his 9 years at the helm. Interleague play, revenue sharing, the wild card, etc.  However, the almost daily reports of widespread performance enhancing drug abuse, coupled with a negative public perception of the commissioner during the Bonds home run chase, might suggest that it is time for baseball to move on under different leadership.  If done so now, Mr Selig could step down with dignity and without scrutiny, and allow someone new to guide baseball through this difficult time, someone that hasn't been a part of baseball during it.

Respectfully,

Patrick F. Kennedy
RSN Presidential Candidate
patrick@digital-horizons.com