Between this season's playoff quarter finals and the playoff
finals weekend, after much deliberation, we announced through the Frozen Steel
MNL account on Twitter that the 2017/18 EIHL season would be the last for
Frozen Steel in its entirety. We would like to take this opportunity to fully
explain, as promised, why we have come to this very difficult decision. There
will be three parts to this statement
1. Explaining the reasons for the closure of Frozen Steel
Blog.
2. Explaining in further detail why Alan will cease to
provide his own MNL service.
3. The "next generation" of Steelers bloggers and
where you can find them.
Grab a cuppa folks, this WILL be a long read.
During the course of this season, we had found it
increasingly difficult to find the appropriate time to regularly produce and
release our articles for you to read on the blog, produce a podcast for you to
listen to each week and also were unable to give a newly formed junior section
the appropriate push it deserved.
A lot of this has been down to Alan having to spend and
focus a serious amount of his time on his work and his business, having hit
financial troubles with it early in the season. Due to having to then recover
the business, he has since sacrificed, and continues to sacrifice, a lot of
time away from home, which is the main reason for there being no podcasts in
several months. We looked at trying to record podcasts through different means,
but due to technical difficulties, it proved too difficult to try and get
around. He had also hoped to create and promote a new junior section for the
blog, to help find the next generation of bloggers in the Steelers fan base,
having agreed to merge with the Steel The Puck blog and take them under our
wing. Again, due to his work and his business, he was unable to focus the
appropriate amount of time towards helping George grow the junior section after
its creation.
Further to this, soon after the turn of the year, Mark was
finding it increasingly difficult to find the spare time required to keep
editing, producing and releasing the various articles for you to read on the
blog itself. He also had other things to focus on in his life, such as his
football media commitments and his better half. He eventually came to a
decision in mid-March that he would be looking to step down from the blog and
look to utilise his free time elsewhere.
We decided that before making a final decision on the fate
of Frozen Steel, we would sit down and discuss at length any possible further
alternatives to keep the blog running. In the end, we concluded that it would
simply be far too time consuming, even to spread the workload even more, and
thus decided that this season would be the last.
Since the initial announcement that Frozen Steel would be
fully closing, a lot of people were upset to see that our MNL Twitter account
particularly would be closing, and not just be renamed as something else and
the service continue to be provided. There were also a few comments with
regards to our Breaking The Ice podcast that we provided. To explain that
decision further, Alan had the following to say on the two matters.
"Four years ago, I decided to create the MNL Twitter
account as a little bit of a project, something different for me to do on a
match night, to add a new dimension if you will to my hockey night experience.
Back then, I felt that the club wasn't as good as it could have been in keeping
the fans regularly up to date on what was happening during the games, both
Steelers fans not at the game and the visiting teams’ fans as well. We were
starting to see an increase in the following on the blog, so I simply thought,
why not?
Not long after that, things just blew up. The account took
off and I was able to enjoy my hockey nights even more because of people being
thankful that I was able to keep them informed of what was going on. In turn,
it also helped grow the blog itself furthermore. More followers, more articles
and then eventually the podcast, something I will address shortly.
However, I also knew that at some point the club would start
to improve its official match night updates. Over the course of the 2017/18
season, plus towards the very back end of the 2016/17 season, I have been
incredibly fortunate enough to be able to help the club directly in keeping the
fans informed on its official account, on odd occasions. That has been
something that I have taken great pride in being able to do with the trust of
the club. I have David Simms to thank personally for that, having first asked
me to help him out as an emergency for an away game in Nottingham. We also owe
him a huge thank you for allowing us to promote the podcast we were producing
through the club’s Twitter account as well.
One thing I would like to make clear however is this.
Despite me deciding to shut down my own update service, either as Frozen Steel
MNL or under another name, I will gladly continue to assist the club directly
in keeping fans up to date on away games, on the clubs official account,
whenever they need me to fill in for them if I am able to be there myself. I
have always said that between the MNL account and the official account that we
would always find a way to have you covered. Going forward, I hope that we can
continue to do that with me helping the club directly from now on, should they
require my assistance at any time.
With regards to the podcast, due to my work and business
having to take a huge priority, the podcast took quite a shelving and had a
very abrupt finish. A podcast however, MAY still feature next season, but that
is something I will look at further down the line, even if it only ends up
being a monthly thing. Other clubs have podcasts about it, and our club
certainly should have one as well, so that is something I'll look into again
during the summer."
Going forward, we are pleased to say that there IS a new
generation of bloggers out there starting to regularly cover things to do with
our club. With the decision to close Frozen Steel fully, George has decided
that he would bring back his Steel The Puck blog. He has since reversed the
name change to Frozen Steel Jr, and Steel The Puck is now back on Twitter. You
can find it at @steelthepuck so make sure you go and follow it.
Also, when we created the junior section, part of the
original team brought in was Amy-Leigh. However, after a slow start to getting
articles put online, she decided she would go it alone and start to produce her
own blog and articles. We are pleased to say that over the season, her work has
improved greatly and now becomes an enjoyable read, with one or two pieces in
our minds being quite exceptional, not just for someone her age either. She has
also been able to get interviews directly with players as well as a couple of
other surprising features. You can find her blog at @ice_the_puck on Twitter.
Furthermore, you can find the direct links for the blogs are www.steelthepuck.wordpress.com
and www.icethepuck.wordpress.com Please, please, PLEASE give these two young
fans the follows and support that they deserve.
In closing this statement, there are a few thank yous that
should be made:
Firstly, thank you to Liam McCausland, for being one that
created Frozen Steel in the first place and asking for Alan and Tom to assist
him after its creation. Whilst things ended pretty badly between the three of
them, we must respect, as we always have, that without Liam’s initial idea,
none of us would be here doing this for the length of time that we have.
Secondly, thank you to Tom Walkeden, for his time with the
blog until he decided he needed to focus on more important issues. We will
always be here for Tom, through thick and thin. You will always be a part of
the Frozen Steel team.
Thirdly, thank you to Tony, for his time in assisting us
(particularly Mark) in collaborating our Soapbox and also filling in when
others were on holiday, in making sure that articles still got produced and
released.
Fourthly, thank you to everyone that has been a part of the
Soapbox, for being part of our most popular articles ever produced on the blog.
Having the wide range of opinions over the years has made for terrific reading
and has been a huge part of the blogs success.
Fifthly, thank you to David Simms and the Sheffield
Steelers, for allowing us to have the opportunity and time to work with you all
more directly, especially in the last two seasons. It has been a pleasure to
have built a more direct working relationship with you all and we hope that is
something we can continue to develop going forward, despite the closure of
Frozen Steel. If you ever need a favour or a helping hand with something that
needs producing, please, just ask us.\par
Sixthly, thank you to Richard Renshaw, for helping us design
and create near enough all of our headers, footers and the like, for the blog
and Twitter accounts. His work helped add a more professional look to
everything we did.\par
Seventhly, thank you to our fellow bloggers and podcasters
from around the league, for your initial advice, continued support and equally
your continued promotion. We truly have been one big family around the league
and getting to know you, and work with you, has been a blast every step of the
way.\par
Lastly, and most importantly, thank you to ALL OF YOU. Whether
you have only ever read one article or read them all, listened to a few
podcasts or none at all, your support, feedback, discussions, debates, advice,
EVERYTHING, over the years has helped us improve what we did and also helped
some of us grow as people as well. We will be eternally grateful for all that
you have given us.\par
We do ask one final favour of you though. Take care of each
other, look out for one another, support our fellow bloggers and podcasters,
but most importantly this...
"Stop making us listen to Sweet bloody Caroline!"
With our heartfelt thanks and our best wishes for the future,
Alan, Mark and Fergus
