What can Springfield learn from Hershey Pennsylvania?  Have you ever been to Hershey?  Close your eyes and think about  the trip.  Even if you never have been, I’m certain you heard about  about those lamp posts shaped like candy kisses…Like  a life size game of candy land, that image will stay with you the rest of your life.

Back to Springfield.  My friend Todd Demers and I were having lunch yesterday,  and we started brainstorming about how we could create that Hershey feel in Springfield.  As we brainstormed, two things quickly surfaced.

(A)- Springfield should be known worldwide as the city of Basketball.

(B)- There is no easy way to get from The Basketball Hall of Fame to the downtown–Rt 91 is basically the Western Mass Berlin wall.

Using the premise that little things leave the most lasting impressions, we came up with the following–(1)-All the light polls downtown  should be shaped like basketballs–Expensive? Yes.  But with sponsors, and maybe a reach out to the NBA,  not out of the question. (2)- The PVTA sets up a half hour schedule that goes from the Basketball Hall of Fame to all areas of interest downtown–(Including all the hotels)–You know that you could  go out of your hotel room at the Hilton,  and get anywhere in the city–Every half hour.

We call  this new service…Wait for it… The Springfield Pick and Roll.  A basketball term that describes exactly what we are doing–Picking people up and rolling them through the city.  The word of mouth alone would make this successful..And every media outlet would jump on the story.

Crazy?  Yea, but crazy enough to work.  Picture the original board meeting in Hershey about the light posts—“You want to put Hershey kisses where?”