Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1547516
And, on this particular day, time for Majka, Batko and Hall to spend roughly three hours in a room filling whiteboards and oversized pads with ideas about how to put all of that into words. There were hundreds of them. Somewhere along the way, somebody came up with three: State of Hockey. "I honestly don't remember—I don't know if any one of us remembers—who said 'State of Hockey,'" Majka, the Wild's chief executive officer, said. "It was one of hundreds of ideas that we threw up on the page that day. "At the end of the day, when we looked through them a ll again, that one just rea lly stuck." A quarter-century later, it has done considerably more than stick. "State of Hockey" has become so intertwined with Minnesota hockey that it hardly feels like an advertising slogan anymore. It's on signs and merchandise and television broadcasts. Players grow up hearing it. Fans use it as shorthand for a culture that stretches from frozen outdoor rinks to packed high school arenas to college hockey and the NHL. The Wild own the trademark. Majka is perfectly happy if Minnesotans feel as if they own it. "We technically own the trademark, but we managed it in such a way that it belongs to the people of Minnesota. … We all built that brand together." SO MUCH MORE For the Wild, that execution has taken countless forms. There are the high school jerseys ringing the suite level of Grand Casino Arena, a visual reminder that the NHL team is only one piece of Minnesota's hockey community. To create the display, the Wild sent a prepaid shipping box to every high school coach in the state. All the coach had to do was put a jersey inside and send it back. There have been youth hockey teams selling programs at Wild games since Day One and keeping all of the proceeds. There was the memorable "This Is Our Ice" campaign, when Minnesotans brought water from ponds and lakes across the state to the arena. The water was cleaned and ultimately added to the Wild's ice. And there is Hockey Day Minnesota, created by the Wild and then-Fox Sports North, an annual celebration built around Russo's Rants Photos / Minnesota Wild, Jim Rosvold 28 M H J ON L I N E . C O M | N O V / D E C 2 0 2 6 P R E S E N T E D B Y In 2017, the Wild launched "This Is Our Ice," welcoming fans to contribute water from their favorite ponds, lakes and rinks across the state.