LA Kings End-Of-Year Survey

It is customary at the end of any event or occasion for a survey to be handed out in an attempt to get feedback from the attendees. Most of the time, the bare minimum is given, but with the ones I get from the Los Angeles Kings I try and give them as much constructive feedback as I possibly can. Otherwise, how are they going to be aware of what they can improve upon? So I take it as my civic duty to give more than yes and no answers because there's always something that can be changed. Plus everyone has their own needs they're concerned about and I'm no different; I love this team and want to make my in-arena experience as excellent as it can be.

When I first saw the email pop into my inbox, I didn't think anything was going to be different from last year's survey, but when I clicked the starting link, I had to stop and write a post because of the first question (as shown).

My first thought was, "why is there an option to select 'Not a fan' in a survey about the Kings?" And then I thought, "Why would someone even take this survey if they're not on the newsletter mailing list or even a mild fan?" You wouldn't see me taking a survey on the Columbus Blue Jackets, but if I did, all my responses would be "Not applicable" and "I think Rick Nash is damn good." Perhaps, in this case, 1 should have said, "I'm a fan but I hate what the team is doing/has done for the following reasons. Etc." I myself chose 5 but I associate the word "avid" with something akin to "avid card collector." NOT that there's anything wrong with that! Just saying.

More after The Jump.

Most of the questions were pretty straight forward with the majority asking about the experience at STAPLES Center and the Kings' attempt at social media. Regarding the latter, I was a bit (but not completely) surprised with one of the questions, but maybe I'm just picking at semantic straws.

As the large arrow points out, there is one blatant place they neglected to give ink to. Why is that? Why do communities such as these have to be placed in the "Other" box? I don't feel like blogs are necessarily entitled to have a voice on this type of survey, but it's not like it's a huge underground community existing in the social space. In the time I've written about the Kings in my blog spaces, the ability for the mainstream to ignore these types of fans has been diminishing significantly to the point where now writers are engaging with bloggers in public dialogue. See: Pension Plan Puppets and PPP's engagement with Bob McKenzie on Twitter. Granted, PPP is a bit more combative than I could ever be, but I'm still going to use him as an example because he's awesome and you should have him as your friend.

Also, why in the world are you taking this survey if you "did not follow the LA Kings this season"?

My apologies if you can't read this next one. Just click on the image and it'll take you full size where you can actually make out the words.

So I was about to gloss over this one and realized that I didn't see any "Black Lights" in the arena during the playoffs; or at least, nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone out there know what they're talking about? Was it during the opening montage that I had to miss because the start times were pushed to 7:00pm Pacific? The idea of having to rush to STAPLES for a game is unattractive to me, especially during the work week because I don't get off at 4:00pm. So yeah, black lights?

The rally towels. They were fine. Did anyone else notice the Kings trying to get a "blackout" in the arena but then handing out white towels?

In the feedback section regarding the playoffs, I definitely mentioned what I thought the regular season concession stand experience was like. For instance, have you ever been to Tico's Tacos? If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. You struggle to find parking, then you're waiting at least 10 minutes before you get to the counter, you order, the same person assembles your food, packages it in their signature plain, brown box, then takes your money and gives you your change. Talk about inefficiency! It's the same thing in line at STAPLES Center, and this time I only have 17 minutes before the next period starts!

All in all, I do like my experiences at STAPLES. The facility is clean and I feel safe, which are two very important criteria for me. I did give them a few words on what I thought about having to place a deposit for seats for next year in order to buy tickets for the playoffs. There are a lot of corporate layers going on in there that I'm not even going to try and dissect. I got my tickets in the end and that's that.

Did anyone else notice anything interesting in the survey or want to share a STAPLES story?