Expanded playlist, sweeter sound debut vs. Rangers
When the Maple Leafs scored their fourth goal on Saturday night and it was apparent to all inside the Air Canada Centre that their 11-game losing streak would end, the team’s new game operations staff had a little fun.
Up in a corner of the Foster Hewitt Media Gondola, they pressed play on a computer screen for “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin.
“At that point, it was the right song for the building, because you could feel the audience think: ‘We’re going to win tonight,’ ” said Leafs music consultant Alan Cross. “It felt good.”
Then, when the downtrodden Maple Leafs scored their fifth, out blasted Toby Keith’s “How Do You Like Me Now?”
If you were listening, you had to chuckle. Then you had to think: When did the Leafs’ game operations people get so clever?
While the team can’t promise fans a playoff spot, they are continuing to make inroads on a better in-game experience. The club has completely overhauled its game-operations staff under president Brendan Shanahan.
Slowly, the show beyond the action — the big screen, music and social media outreach — is improving. It started with the notion of using the ice as a projection screen pre-game, and continued by incorporating fan tweets and Instagram posts into the scoreboard display over the ice during the game.
Tuesday night, when the Leafs play the Rangers at the Air Canada Centre, they will roll out a new, 2,500-song library.
It will be backed by better software for an improved sound and an experienced crew with an ear toward humour and an eye on the moment.
For a team with a history of quiet crowds and sometimes cringe-inducing arena entertainment, it really makes you wonder what took them so long.
“That’s a good question,” said Reid Black, Leafs’ senior director of marketing.
Black, who has been with the club for 18 months, is overseeing the overhaul. In October, he brought in Steve Edgar from the Calgary Flames — generally considered the NHL’s best in this area — as manager of game presentation. Edgar, in turn, added Cross and Dave Charles — two of Toronto’s notable radio movers and shakers (Cross at CFNY, Charles cofounder of Q107).
Cross and Charles — whose own arena experience consulting business is called Major League Mixes Inc., assembled the Leafs’ new songbook that will vastly expand the repertoire at each game.
“There were a lot of songs that were overused,” said Cross. “We’ve cleaned all that up. We used some tried-and-true market radio research to determine Toronto’s favourite radio songs. We found there was a much broader consensus about what music works at a hockey game.
“It goes across all genres: rock, pop, hip-hop and country — heavily rock. There are some favourites, and some songs people never want to hear again.”
No songs are completely dead, other than “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and maybe “Love In An Elevator,” says Cross.
AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” might be the most overplayed at any stadium, but will remain on the playlist — just not for every game.
“There are five or six anthemic songs by AC/DC that are applicable to hockey,” says Charles. “People love their favourite groups. You don’t want to take it away; you want to add to it.”
The plan down the road is for fans to make requests, download songs during the game and listen to the team’s playlist at home.
Cross will eventually produce a Leafs top 50.
“The first thing is to get the in-game music right,” says Cross. “Then what we want to be able to do is share the music being played with anybody who wants it. There’s a whole social media element to this.”
The songs are coded for the experience, with titles at the ready for when afight breaks out (a lot of metal), for a big save (say, “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath), or when the other team scores (“Heartache Tonight” by the Eagles, “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, “Courage” by The Tragically Hip).
“We have enough songs in that library that we could go four or five games without playing the same song,” says Edgar. No repetition? Music to our ears. “But we do like to play some of the classics, like “Fifty Mission Cap,” because of the tie to the Maple Leafs.”
Amore subtle change, however, will be how songs fade in and out. Hard to believe, but the previous software blared music at only one level. The new setup allows the sound to rise and fall more gently, a little more naturally.
And if there’s a quick stoppage in play, game ops can go back to the same song quickly, right where it left off. Or they can play medleys, three songs during a stoppage instead of one.
Fans of organist Jimmy Holmstrom, a Maple Leafs fixture, have no worries: The organ will remain a big part of the show.
Will it all work? Will the sit-on-their-hands fans of Toronto get excited?
“The way we look at it, it’s a sophisticated crowd,” says Black. “They cheer when there’s a good play, they cheer when it’s appropriate. But we’re starting to see the fans participate.
“They might not scream at the top of their lungs, but they will participate in these programs if you put it in front of them, if it’s really easy and user friendly.”