A couple weeks ago, Dave and I had an interesting phone call that was cut short by a trip to the airport. After the usual small talk (mostly consisting of me trying to get out of Dave what his work entails...for the record I still don't understand, but I'm sure he's doing a FANTASTIC job) we got on a rather exciting subject. I bring it to you after mulling it over a great deal (mostly while walking the dog). I think this blog is the perfect place for this idea to be debated, contributed to, and hopefully moved forward in some way. And it is this...
What if the Norwood House was a company?
What would we do? What would we sell? What services would we provide? What niche would we fill (or "Phil" if you prefer)?
It really got me thinking. Obviously each of us has our own dreams, our own talents, and our own plans. But, I think it would be fun, just as an exercise to hear what we all think would be good ideas. I'll get the ball rolling...
Idea #1: After suffering through a tough inaugural season with a record of 1-16, the fledgling Cincinnati Jungle Kats (http://www.junglekatsfootball.com/index2.php) of the Arena Football League 2 are in need of some fresh thinking.
Idea #2: We all move to some beautiful mountain town and start our own version of the Eureka Ranch, complete with go-karts, pinball, and pizza vending machines. It's like OM for adults.
Idea #3: We open a business that provides an adventure experience to extremely rich clients. Think Total Recall meets The Game with Michael Douglas. We could create global treasure hunts, across the country games of Sardines, multinational Scavenger Hunts. Like the Amazing Race, but not on TV. Families could play together or compete against other families. Singles could be paired up as a way to meet people. And we would all get an excuse to travel on the company's dime. We would use Summer Sojourn to fleece Rich-istan!
Idea #4: Two words: Sports Bar. I'm thinking a Soccer Bar in Cincy. There have to be a lot of 1) American fans that would follow it and 2) many people from other countries looking for somewhere to enjoy their national past-time. Someone is always playing soccer somewhere right?
Idea #5: After I'm done grad school, you guys help me start a theatre.
Idea #6: We all take a summer and shoot a movie to enter in film festivals all over the country.
Idea #7: Develop some kind of educational program that we could take across the country to schools. Utilize the entertainment and presentation skills I have, Matt's creative writing ability, Flip and Mikey's teaching experience, Dave's managerial know how, Phil's moxie, height, and intangible tenacity, and Martin's knowledge of marine navigation. What kid wouldn't be blown away by that?
Idea #8: Start a local sports network. First on the Internet, then on TV. In depth local coverage of high school, college, and professional sports teams. Focus on local coverage though. Catch all the stuff that the newspaper and local news don't have time or space to pay a lot of attention to.
Idea #9: Invent and market a new board game. If you recall, we have already made several attempts to modify existing games.
Idea #10: Invest all of our money (by which I mean your money) into nano-technology. From what I hear...it's...never mind.
So there you go. Comment or piggy-back on one of these ideas, or submit your own. Who knows, this could be the start of something life changing for all of us.
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13 comments:
Aren't we like 2 pages into a screenplay for Inca Gold? If I remember correctly we spent more time on the seating at the opening night party, who was sitting next to Jennifer Aniston again?
I love this post. When we start the "Best American Sportswriting" column later in the month, this could be my nominee.
Thanks for the plug. Perhaps in the future you need to put keywords in the post that will draw attention to the page, so then everyone can find out how great of an employee I am.
Full response coming later, but let me do some quick hits in regards to each idea:
1. Never heard of them, but I did minor in sports marketing. Remember when Duke reintroduced midnight practice. It was Dav that coined it "AM Mayhem". And he coined the team poster that year "Lights, CAMERON, Action". Mac will attest to this.
2. Perhaps we should actually apply to the real Ranch. My mom still works there. Apparently they all (the young folks) work 70 hour weeks. Can't handle that.
3. Perhaps the best idea. I love this. Might take some SERIOUS capital to get started up. Might have to find some extreme venture capitalists willing to the make the leap. But this, in the vein of Outward Bound for adults, would be incredible.
4. This has always been my dream. Flaming Dav's. "When the weight of the world has got ya down and you wanna end our life/ bills to pay dead end job and problems with your wife/ dont throw in the towel cause theres a place right down the block/ where you can drink your misery away/ at flam-ming davs (lets all go to flaming dav's) / Where liquour in a mug/ can warm you like a hug/ happiness is just a flaming dav away"
N.B. I wrote all those lyrics from memory. That's either awesome or awesomely pathetic.
5. If you are serious about this, go visit my dad. He still does the "Ya fry an egggggg" routine when he asks about you. Which is always. He might be looking for a change in this point of his life.
6. Love this one too. Like the lonley planet guys (headed by andy samberg) film wacky youtubish videos. [Matt and Ian are hitting their heads on the keyboard saying that thousands of dummies are doing the exact same thing right now]
7. meh
And if you are relying on my managerial know-how, double meh.
Also, please use the Jay Bilas's NBA Draft term when referring to Phil's 'length'.
8. I love this one. My morning radio guys, the Junks have a similar story. I love it. Four buddies who grew up together. www.junkiesradio.com We could easily do that.
9. Another great idea. Kids drive today's consumer market. Look at Hannah Montana, High School Musical. PARENTS SPOIL CHILDREN.
Love it, love it, love it.
9.
8.
Jennifer Aniston will be sitting between Mikey and Rick Moranis. Not sure who is making who look better on that one.
What if we opened some sort of Catchall consulting firm. With our eclectic backgrounds and broad spectrum intelligences we can cover most areas. (hell just between us we have education, business management, advertising, journalism, theater management, acting, military, accounting, consulting) Not to mention we have years of experience in solving problems by bouncing ideas off eachother.
Think 'the cincinnati fixers' we go around helping companies fix problems or help them implement new systems or modern ideas into their stagnant workplaces. My dad's office has 2 in house guys who only teach new clients how to use their new software every year.
if presented a problem do you have any doubt that between the 7 of us we can use our brains and connections to figure out a solution.
A practical application hanley already has is to help kids apply to college, you would be astounded how inept big school systems and parents are at doing that. Just think how much money our parents would have shelled out for that, and now think about Indian Hill parents....
I would have to imagine any type of consulting company would have to be predicated on ridiculously low prices and an insanely effective sales pitches considering our collective experience and reputation...
Bar are cash cows, if they are in the right location. Perhaps with the blossoming "NoNo" area, we could try to be first to market with a down-home, good-ol' sports bar.
Actually Ian, one thing I've been kicking around is the idea of opening a movie theatre that shows EVERYTHING. not just movies. sporting events, popular TV shows, classic films, televises lectures. hosts playsand ballet and opera. whathaveyou. It would be like the Aronoff for everyone. That could be the motto. Radio City Music Hall meets the Mt. Lookout Cinema Grill.
It would have to be set in a place like the 20th Century in Oakley, but massive, with several different halls for different purposes. Aesthetics would be part of the point. You could host a prom there, or this weekend's Steelers-Pats game, and both groups should be equally comfortable.
two thoughts on this: 1) liquor license would be a must 2) It would have to be in a central location that drew on the rich/old crowd there for the art, and the "groundlings" there for the blood and guts.
Honestly, you're telling me that at least 200 people in the Cincinnati area wouldn't want to watch "Lost" on the big screen with booze? I say they would.
Also, I think we should start an airline. It's inarguably the most poorly run industry in the country. I say we could make a killing as the "Dopey guys that fly." You charge everything ala Carte, like skybus or valujet, and then take some seats out of the planes and put in an xbox or a pinball machine, satelitte TV, a sports bar.
Like the yankee clipper except with more sports on TV. Maybe some plants, you need plants on the plane for the feng shui.
Also, I think Dav and Phil should get married and open and antique store. I know it's a pipe dream, but I feel like they both would be so happy. Is that weird? Maybe, but I know every single one of you can visualize it.
Also, my old roommates Dad invented a board game that actually got produced. It's called "Last Car: The Game of the Energy Crisis," and while it went through a period of irrelevance in the 80's and 90's and most of this century, it's really enjoying a comeback with the rise in gas prices.
Despite it's truly brilliant premise (It's like a mix of Mousetrap without all the fun gadgets and Monopoly without money changing hands---booooooooooooooring) it never really caught on. Board games are just not that lucrative sayeth Bill Tucker, so I say we jettison that idea.
It's funny that Matt should mention this entertainment-a-palooza venue. I've thought about that idea as well. There are obvious concerns about trying to do too much at once, but now is not the time for concerns.
In my mind, all of the suggestions have real merit (except nano-technology, the perils of which both Clive Cussler and Michael Criton have opened our eyes to). I think the next step would be to figure out if any of these are financially viable at all. What is the cheapest (not necessarily the easiest) of these projects? Are there any that we could use one as a tester model. One that has a definitive end-point (as opposed to something like a restaurant that you have to continue running)?
Is there any way to utilize the internet (a new invention school children across the nation are abuzz about) so that geography is not a problem? An internet-based consulting firm?
At this point I'm just spinning out ideas....
What if we had an internet sports bar. have links to all the live internet feeds of games, as well as hold nightly trivia contests, have discussion threads for all the nights games and the major topics of the day.
have chat rooms where friends from across the country can enter into while watching said games and talk with eachother.
all we need is some sort of virtual beer and nachos.
I am totally onboard for anything that this group would want to do. The three ideas I like the best, in order are:
1) the sports bar. or some sort of ambiance driven restaurant maybe. i've often thrown out the idea of somehow getting the license to have a skyline/larosas/graeters all-in-one venue. I love Phil's idea of capitalizing on the NoNo market early. I think this in combo with the actual Norwood House just down the street could be good for recognition with the college crowd. Love it.
2) the consulting idea flip mentioned. going to companies and finding out what their biggest goals and hurdles are and then helping through those challenges. it would be challenging in all the right ways as well as potentially very lucrative depending on our clientelle. i also think that with our parents and stepparents we have an incredible resource of knowledge and connections to tap on to help in every aspect of this idea.
3) the ultimate game for rich clients idea is genius. obviously this would probably be one of the more challenging ones to pull off--however I think its definitely something that we would have huge satisfaction in accomplishing plus it would be a blast to do.
And don't think that the only thing I bring to the table is Navigation...don't forget the oracle of Moe who predicted my future as a game show host! Maybe we could spin off the board game idea and come up with a new game show...something like price is right meets pyramid meets love connection meets jeopardy.
I'm in!
Seriously...have you seen Drew Carey on "The Price is Right"? You'd be waaay better.
The only word I can think for it is:
"Fe-DOUCHE-iary"!
I think losing Bob Parker was one of the biggest kick in the balls that has happened to day-time television in a long time. But to see Drew Carey taking his place is like having your balls stepped on by a fat guy with black-rimmed glasses who was the least funny thing about his own sitcom.
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