News broke on Tuesday that the Sea Dogs had let Roszell go from his full-time role as manager of media and communications/play-by-play announcer. The position will no longer be a full-time role, but part-time.
Roszell has been offered the part-time position with the team, which would include broadcasting home games on webcast along with some communications work. No one else has been offered the role and the team is waiting for Roszell's decision before moving forward.
The Sea Dogs, at this time, are not planing on having radio broadcasts next season, we are told. Whether there will be a free audio stream of games - and if so, how many games - as a replacement is not yet known.
A petition has been started by fans to bring Roszell's full-time role back. At the time of this writing, the petition had 382 supporters.
Former Sea Dogs goaltender Karel St. Laurent has shared his support for the petition online.
Andrew McGilligan, who was the Sea Dogs' beat reporter at the Telegraph-Journal for the 2007-08 season, has done the same.A season filed with stupid nonsense decisions and, to top it all off, they fire one of the best in the business. A guy who’s been loyal to this organization since day 1 and who was loved by everyone. This is an absolute joke. #SaintJohnDeservesBetterhttps://t.co/2SN0XAOtiT— Karel St-Laurent (@stlaurent35) March 31, 2018
The Sea Dogs would not comment on the move.If you’re a fan of @TimGRoszell and his great work calling Sea Dogs hockey, take a minute and sign this petition. Let’s hope the team values loyalty and professionalism and reverses it’s decision: https://t.co/ExX5DMlIlT— Andrew McGilligan (@AMcGilligan) March 31, 2018
Roszell has been the team's play-by-play voice since the 2006-07 season. He was hired by the team in 2013 following news that Rogers would be selling News 88.9. He has missed only a couple handfuls of games since becoming the team's radio voice.
There aren't many junior teams with a radio voice on full-time staff, and if the Sea Dogs are no longer going to broadcast all games, the move makes more sense. That still leaves the question about the communications side, but that will presumably fall on others in the office for the time being.
Roszell is a very popular figure in Sea Dogs land, and the thought of losing him is obviously not something fans are pleased with. There are no doubt some concerns from fans about the future of radio broadcasts as well. While simply listening to the other team's broadcast seems like a simple solution, things won't be fun when the Dogs are in a French market and there is no English feed available. Plus, the radio broadcast is still the only place to get certain kinds of information - such as roster updates and injury news.
Hopefully, the team has thought this all through and has plans in place to replace this source of information. We may have to wait awhile though, as most media deals seem to come together and get finalized very close to be beginning the season. We'll see what happens.
There have been a number of staff changes in the Sea Dogs' front office over the past couple months. Ben Zayandehroudi and Kevin Hamilton both left their positions in the sales department. Andree Stephen's role changed to Manager of Sales and Customer Experience while Mike Harroun is now Director of Sales.
I enjoy tim roszell play by play action. He is so entertaining and professional. I love attending Seadogs' games but times when I can't attend the game I like listening to it on radio and tv and I count on Tim to call the game! He makes the game more enjoyable!!
ReplyDeleteTHIS MUST BE A LATE APRIL FOOLS JOKE...OR THE FRONT OFFICE IS A JOKE???
ReplyDeleteI think management needs a change. They may have got a bunch of Picks for trading top players this year, but a team needs experience too. I am used to Listening to Tim and he is the "Dogs" Voice...I am used to and expect when listening to the dogs. By the sounds of it, the dogs cutting back on games being announced...is not a good thing. This will effect the number of times I go to games next year. Dogs were a top notch organization, now they're penny pinching...less announcing...will lead to less interest in the organization...guess we'll find out next year. Some one else will snatch up Tim. Dog's loss.
ReplyDeleteBruce Holder has been a fan since the team came here. He also is not liking these changes and thinks management should reconsider. He is standing here next to me while I type his comments.
ReplyDelete