Remember that one time wide receiver Terrell Owens said “Get your popcorn ready?” Yeah well, get your cell phone ready.
The Nashville Predators are set to debut a new in-game feature that will allow you – that’s right YOU – a chance to suggest the music heard inside Bridgestone Arena this season.
The Game Operations crew has set up a @PredsDJ account on Twitter so the fans inside the arena can tweet the songs they want to hear during play stoppages, TV time outs and intermissions.
“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to get the fans involved in our game presentation,” the Predators’ Game Presentation Producer said. “With the popularity of Twitter and it being on most cell phones, this seemed like an easy and fun way for fans to get engaged.
“The fans are a huge part of everything we do so allowing them to be a part of the game like this is just another way for us to add value to their experience.”
As with anything, don’t be shocked if the song you tweeted doesn’t get played. Realistically, there’s no way they can accommodate everyone and, worst case scenario, the Game Ops crew might not even have your song in-house. But that’s actually another benefit to the promotion. If there’s enough tweeps that share your desire to hear a certain song they don’t have, they’ll know they need to go out and get it.
“Part of our goal is not to just play the songs we have that people want to hear, but to find out what songs people want to hear that we don’t have and work those into the game presentation.”
The best part of the promotion? You don’t even have to follow @PredsDJ. It’s just there basically for inbound tweets only and thus a traditional follow isn’t necessary.
The cynic must wonder what the Preds get out of all this. After all, with almost any promotion, there’s something trying to be sold or offered. It’s almost never just for fun. But, with the Predators embracing social media, this is the exception to the rule.
“Fortunately, Twitter is a fairly passive medium and users can use it if they so choose or ignore it just as easily,” he said. “I think its importance is more in the fact that we’re looking to play what fans want to hear and now there’s an easy way to do that.”
You won’t have to wait long to get in on the action as Thursday night’s pre-season game will serve as the maiden voyage for the promotion.
So, basically what we’re saying is… get your cell phone ready.