Begininning with the letter "D"

Today’s word of the day is "decline" and can be described as: (1) a downward movement (2) a change in something to becoming smaller or lower.

What I would like to do in today’s blog entry is to close the book on my parents photo’s they provided me ( thanks Mom) but also to start to show how if any PR related methods currently being used by some of the franchise’s can be considered effective. I believe we can agree that effective would mean increased ticket sales.

Let’s start with the obvious (and I’m sure some of you are getting tired of hearing about) Tampa Bay Lightning. I’ll begin here because I have a few previously unreleased photos’ that were taken that can help emphasis my intent here. The Lightning’s main PR campaign this year is “Together We Will” which would imply people becoming involved. Which would imply more people showing up at games, right? From some of my past entry’s we have seen as my parents did first hand that this campaign may be in trouble.

Part of the together thing is that the Lightning PR team is trying to promote the game as a social gathering so that the Tampa area can become involved, excited and wants the team to succeed. They offer a onstage pre game jazz band, those dreaded cheerleaders greeting those fans that actually showed up and an outside open bar area (remember it was 80 + degrees the night my parents went) with big screen televisions everywhere for those that prefer a less colder climate than that inside. Has this increased attendance so far?

It is estimated that attendance on average is down by 2,000 per game (wasn’t great to begin with) compared to last year. It is also common knowledge that new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie don't have the money to operate the team successfully as the purchase was financed with a $105 million, three-year bullet loan, meaning in 2011 they will either have to pay the loan off or refinance it. As well, TV ratings have dropped 21%, the most of any NHL club this season and the owners are on their third coach and also fired Jay Feaster, a qualified general manager. Kind of looks like the “Together We Will” has turned out to be more like “Looks like we won’t after-all”.

In this situation of over loan extensions, poor management and a culture that is just not into the Lightning’s effective PR is almost impossible. While some of the ideas are good (with the exception of those cheerleaders) the painful movement downward will continue until small becomes none and lower becomes underground in the “decline” of this franchise and others in the US.

Begininning with the letter "A"

Today’s word of the day is “Attendance” and can be defined as: (1) the number of people that are present. (2) the frequency with which a person is present.

In today’s entry I would like to once again take a small look at my parent’s recent trip (via photo’s) to Florida and their attendance at a Tampa Bay Lightning game. While they weren’t the only ones there, my step-dad was surprised at the amount that was not. As mentioned in my last entry, my parents estimated that the St. Pete’s Forum was about half full with a lot of empty sections throughout the arena. How does this compare to other relocated or expansion teams in the NHL and what PR methods are they using to draw in the crowds? It seems that in Tampa, having undressed girls skate and cheer that either once dreamed of being in the Ice Capades or on a professional football field but clearly settled in life hasn’t worked, has anything?

The obvious choice to start with (but I won’t because we already know what happened) would be the Phoenix Coyotes. Lets just all agree, whatever PR methods were used to increase attendance failed and will likely remain that way until the team is relocated (again). Lets then move to the Atlanta Thrashers that joined the NHL in 1999 as an expansion team and compare that to the Calgary Flames that were actually a relocation team from Atlanta in 1980. So, Atlanta had a team then lost the team then got another team. See where I’m going here?

The Atlanta Thrashers play out of the Philips Arena which has a capacity for NHL games to hold about 18,500 people. The average attendance in the 2008 playing season was about 14,600. The home website offers all kinds of promotions for tickets with the average ticket price on the second level ranging from $62 to $84 US. One of the marketing things used on this site that caught my attention was the promotion of “4 tickets and 4 combo’s starting at $89”. This sounded great until I drilled in and realized that the tickets were at the very top of the arena (the players would look like ants) and there was all kinds of restrictions on the food you were allowed. I’m not sure this would turn out as enjoyable as the price sounds.

In comparison the Calgary Flames play out of the Pengrowth Saddledome which has a capacity to hold about 19,500 people. The average attendance in the same season was 19,289 which tell us things are going well in Calgary. Average ticket prices for the same section ranged from $49 to $66 CAN with many group promotions as well. What I didn’t see on the home website were the same marketing grabbers that the Atlanta Thrasher had to boost ticket sales. Clearly Calgary doesn’t need them because the city supports the team already.

The main point in this entry is if you can’t fill the seats you can’t have a successful franchise. How much sense did it make to put another NHL team in Atlanta when years before you moved one out? Did something change in the city’s culture towards the game of Hockey that indicated a franchise would then succeed when it hadn’t before? With leaving an average of 4,000 seats empty per game I would say not. Perhaps the NHL and Bettman should have looked at what was wrong in Atlanta before pretending that “attendance” didn’t really matter.

Begininning with the letter "R"

Today’s word of the day is “Re-apply” and can de described: (1) to again request or solicit something. (2) to transfer something that has been successful and use it elsewhere.

For today’s entry (first of the next three), I am going to once again reference my parent’s recent trip to Florida and their attendance and observations at a Tampa Bay Lightning NHL Hockey game. With that I hope to compare some of this franchise’s marketing techniques to that of others sports and how or if our Canadian counter parts would and do use these methods to draw attendance. The main reason I chose the word reapply was because I think at the end of this we will all be able to draw a fairly informative conclusion on the success or failure in what some of this NHL expansion team is doing to market the sport of Hockey.

First let’s look at one of the marketing tools used by the Lightning that clearly is a re-apply from another sport, cheerleaders. That’s right cheerleaders. They have them and use them to as an apparent draw for increased attendance and I guess sport promotion. Both my parents found this not only surprising but somewhat demining to the sport itself. The NFL has been promoting its franchises cheerleaders beginning with the craze of the Dallas squad in the mid seventies right through to today’s teams. All teams have those good looking young ladies carrying pompoms and cheering on their team along the sidelines. Is this a marketing success for the NFL? Absolutely, because it has become part of the whole experience in the sport of football in the US and if they were not there it would be noticed. That’s all part of effective marketing. While the cheerleaders may not necessarily draw additional attendance just to see them adds to the whole marketing package.

So, can you take a successful marketing tool from one sport and re-apply it to another? In the case of cheerleaders on skates, my parents thought not. While there was whole mascot thing (Canadian teams have those as well) who ran around from section to section promoting people to “Make some Noise” and clearly entertaining young children, the Lightning Cheerleaders they felt were “just wrong” and did not belong in a sport played in a colder environment to which they were clearly underdressed. To add to this was the embarrassment (my mom thought but my step-dad didn’t seem to mind) of having a few come onto the ice and push a shovel around to assist the Zamboni in its ice cleaning duties. That would kind of be like the cheerleaders of an NFL team assisting the punt kicker by holding the ball?

There are many ways that marketing tools and Public Relation campaigns can be re-thought and re-applied to be used for other products. The use of animals and hit songs is an example. Recent TELUS, Dawn and the ever famous Super Bowl Budweiser commercials all use animals in brand recognition. Some memorable songs in recent commercials like AT & T’s “Come Together” by the Beatles, Buicks “Dream On” by Aerosmith and Chevrolets use of “Like a Rock” by Bob Seger, all have re-applied a common marketing tool and been successful. So has the re-application from the NFL to the NHL in respect to cheerleaders helped the over-all attendance in the case of the Tampa Bay Lightning?

The St. Pete’s Forum where the Lightning play out of for home games can seat approximately 19,500 fans. My parents figured there were approximately half that present, meaning a lot of empty sections. They also noted that there were not as much fan wear, meaning fans wearing hockey jerseys, waving those huge #1 foam hands or even fan slamming (this is when fans yell at their own team after a bad play). They found the whole experience uneventful. Would we use that word after attending a Leaf, Senators or Canadian game where fans are famous for turning on their own team at a game but defending them the next day at the water cooler?

The whole cheerleading thing is just a small example of a Hockey market in those NHL expansion teams that haven’t yet figured out what to do with what Bettman and the NHL have given them and in many cases do not seem to want. While the Tampa Bay Lightning may be desperately trying to take a marketing success from another sport and “re-apply” it to their own, they may have first wanted to solicit advice from some of the Canadian markets were the implementation of cheerleaders at a game would be a popular as Jim Balsillie seems to the NHL and Bettman right now.

Begininning with the letter "G"

Today’s word of the day is my second part of the same word “Gimmick” and can be used to describe: (1) an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project or product. (2) a significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.

The reason for this two part entry on the same word was mainly to start the focus on the Public Relations part of my blog. That said it will still pertain to the same topic but I am now going to take the information that I provided in the first half of my entries and look at how the use of effective or ineffective Public Relations played a part in the eventual perception of Jim Balsillie, Gary Bettman and the NHL.

Recently my parents were on vacation in Florida and took the opportunity to attend a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. When I realized this I asked them to take a few pictures so that perhaps I could use them in this blog. What I found by viewing them and talking to both was that it was quite a different experience than if they had of gone to a Toronto Maple Leafs or an Ottawa Senators game. Remember, the Tampa Bay Lightning Franchise was one of the US expansion teams that Gary Bettman and the NHL wanted so badly. How has this worked out so far financially and how are they marketing the game to draw the support of this sport? My next few entries will discuss what I believe the pictures reflect. They haven’t.

Let’s first start of with how the sport itself has been marketed in an area that is known for its NFL and college football teams and last years World Series contenders baseball team. Understand in Florida all three could be happening at the same time if the Tampa Bay Rays (baseball) make it into the playoffs. If not (as it was this year) there are still multiple football choices which are huge draws in the US. In a two week span (the length of my parents vacation) they could have attended four various high level football games within a hour drive since both the NFL team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the South Florida College football team both play out of the same stadium.

So how is the game of hockey itself being marketed? Are the traditions of the sport and its true tests of physical and athletic ability being promoted? Is the area and the franchise really building a culture that appreciates the game for really what it is? From what my parents saw and heard from people at the game, the answer is not surprising. While the marketing of the team has improved by catchy phrases like “Together We Will” and last years “Seen Stamkos” (who just happens to be a fan favorite) the franchise itself has missed the mark on promoting the actual sport of hockey.


The face of the stadium (which over-all my parents were impressed by) may have been overhauled but not necessarily to reflect the game. Instead is that of the five best looking players on the team. It just so happens that those same five are also plastered on the programs, area billboards and even 300 Big Yellow Taxis that the franchise joined in partnership this year. A great job in brand exposure to get the names and faces (good looking ones anyways) of the team out into the public but is it effective and sustainable?

Has this stratagem of marketing the players of the game instead of the game itself really improved the over-all perception and understanding of it? Or is it just an obscured and not clearly evident representation of the NHL’s continual use of a “gimmick” to hide the real agenda here which if you haven’t figured out yet is…..money.