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minor life, on 03 August 2010 - 12:48 PM, said:
Kwey I think you are on to something. Think about it, Tier III is self sufficient for the most part while A level pro needs cash. If you could sell advertising and tickets that included both teams, you have a ton of added value there for the business comsumer as well as fans. Twice as many games for not twice the cost, twice the foot traffic in theory for around the same cost in advertising. Thats a model for business that could really work.
Personally I dont believe Tier II as it is operated now can sustain itself in traditional markets. The NOJHL is Tier II and they are charging $1700 a season plus billet to offset costs. Still Tier II yet close to 50K of your budget is covered by those player fees. That is something that could make sense in the US. The NAHL is a rich mans toy for the most part, you see parents buying teams and getting rid of them once their kids are done. Even a city like Traverse City cant support the NAHL without sold out buildings every night. BTW, I was in TC and they are expanding seating courtesy of the Red Wings and adding locker rooms. If they dont fill those seats all year it wouldnt be too far fetched to think an AAHL team could go in there one day, with a Tier III program that has lots of local players......That is something that TC would be all over.
Personally I dont believe Tier II as it is operated now can sustain itself in traditional markets. The NOJHL is Tier II and they are charging $1700 a season plus billet to offset costs. Still Tier II yet close to 50K of your budget is covered by those player fees. That is something that could make sense in the US. The NAHL is a rich mans toy for the most part, you see parents buying teams and getting rid of them once their kids are done. Even a city like Traverse City cant support the NAHL without sold out buildings every night. BTW, I was in TC and they are expanding seating courtesy of the Red Wings and adding locker rooms. If they dont fill those seats all year it wouldnt be too far fetched to think an AAHL team could go in there one day, with a Tier III program that has lots of local players......That is something that TC would be all over.
I really like the possibilities of a combined model, for so many reasons. Fans will get more excited about professional hockey than they will Tier II or Tier III hockey, so that is a bonus, but Tier III is self-sufficient on the fees players pay. I wouldn't want to see it where the Tier III kids were paying to sustain the pro team, though. But, you can get more discount on equipment by buying that much more in bulk (and nearly everything else in overhead). You can also have the front office work for both teams. You could also have some coaching staff overlap, such as you'd have one goalie coach that works with the pro goalies and the junior goalies. This is how it's done in Europe (as minor life knows). You have the club, and it may have a high level pro team, a lower level pro team, a junior team, and then everything down to what we call house league mites. Well, the club will hire one or two goalie coaches, and he or they will work with everyone in the association (why do you think Europe is producing so many great goalies?). The pro coaches could help some with the junior practices and vice versa. Then there are the combined advertising potential, combined ticket package potential. I mean, say your season tickets for the AAHL are $200. Well, maybe you have a mega season ticket package of $250 for all AAHL and junior games, etc. Getting fans to spend any extra money on the Tier III program is a huge bonus.
The other thing you can also possibly do is just operate outside of the college hockey track. What do I mean? It'd be like Europe, where you might see a 17- or 18-year-old playing for the pro team. Any German player of any consequence has done this. But he (back to the Americans on this hypothetical track) loses eligibility!? Who cares? You can go to college at the same time you play Low-A hockey. It's done in Europe often. How do you think the teams from Europe for the World University Games have so many players who play some level of pro hockey? They attend the university at the same time (and not even necessarily as many hours as the CIS guys representing Canada or the ACHA guys representing USA). If you're on track for a full Division 1 college scholarship, or even half scholarship, you probably don't take this route. But, if you're looking like you might top out in the NAHL and end up in Division 3 or a lesser D1 school, you take a hard look at this track.
There are a lot of reasons why this can potentially make sense, if your venue is willing to work with you (or your venue has two ice sheets or your market does). I bring this up because if the AAHL ever plays in small all-purpose arenas, the arena is going to want some open dates for concerts and what not, so the junior team may need to play at another rink from time to time. (The totem pole would be AAHL team, concerts, other events, junior team). Now, if you're the Revolution or the Blizzard and own your arena... (the Blizzard will want to keep their arena open a little bit for Grand Haven high school hockey, though, too).
The possibilities excite me, though. Although I'd love to see a lot more lead time for these new AAHL teams, if Danville does indeed operate an AAHL team and an NJHL team like Battle Creek will be doing, this makes things very interesting indeed.
The number of Midwest markets where this could go over is immense. If the NAHL ever collapsed, you could move into a number of markets. Traverse City for one, as minor life mentions.
This post has been edited by kwey24: 03 August 2010 - 12:22 PM
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