Any city can be a hockey city - even Tampa, Florida

I’ve been preaching this for years in regards to Nashville. It’s all about knowing your audience and knowing what it will take to get them to the game. Our CEO Jeff Cogen says, “If we can get you to watch on TV we think we can get you to a game. If we can get you to one game, we think we can get you to three. If we can get you to three games, we think we can get you be a STH.” They’ve (finally) started marketing to Nashville right—emphasize the experience of the game, because the players and the rules are unfamiliar to the uninitiated. Emphasize that one guy (or in our case, two) whose character tells what we’re about—for Nashville its Weber and Rinne; for Tampa its Marty and Stamkos. And we’ve gone from 4 sellouts to 22 in one year. And never underestimate the power of word of mouth and the hockey community.

The other thing Nashville has done right is to welcome the bloggers with open arms. Mainstream media in Nashville tends to ignore us, so bloggers took over, and they are the best at spreading the love. You guys would know better how the Lightning work with bloggers, but from what I’ve seen its a great relationship. When you add in what seems like a really involved mainstream sports media (Erlendsson and Corcoran are two of my favorite Twitter follows) there, it appears to work.

Living in New York and being a Ranger fan all the rangers marketing is stemming around being in New York and being an Original 6 team. Most of the fans are either suits out for a business expense (who take up the good seats down low) and the generational fans whose families have had season tickets for decades. I’m not used to seeing a hockey town be built up from the ground up like the lightning have and like other places have.

On your note about the Islanders, you can also throw the devils in there. While the Devils have had success in recent history they still fail to draw in fans because of their proximity to the Rangers and because no one wants to go to Newark. There’s even the running joke that the only time the Devils can sell out is when they play the Rangers. The Isles and Devils are placed in an almost no win situation and will never establish a strong, unique fanbase because of their proximity to teams like Philly, the Rangers, Boston and even Pittsburgh

This is a fun, feel good writeup and damn you’re an awfully optimistic person, Cassie (you do always make me feel a little better about the world). However, I don’t believe all major U.S. cities be a hockey town, just like every city in Canada can’t support baseball/football.

I definitely agree with your analysis of the Atlanta situation (disinterested management team and poor marketing leading to failure), but certain cities (namely Phoenix) don’t have convenient excuses. The Coyotes have had star power, regular season success, and even the Great One coaching their team. Tampa may be a warm weather city, but we all know there are countless of Northeast/Northern Mid West transplants in the bay area more than happy to come out and support the team. The demographics in Arizona aren’t as forgiving (less familiarity with the sport to begin with, don’t have the money of northern Cali, or the pure population numbers like SoCal).

“I’ve seen that approach used in the US, but it just doesn’t work here. People need compelling storylines; they need to be drawn into going to a game because of all of the other entertainment options out there.”

Are you saying we Canadians have nothing better to do than sit around waiting for a hockey game?!?!

Well, you’re probably right.

Awesome article.

How many people make the trek to Athens every Saturday for UGA? I think that stadium holds 90,000. And they always have great turnout for the Chicken Bowl (R.I.P. Peach Bowl). But that just falls back on your general point of marketing. The journalism school is at UGA. So who’s always in the papers (I know many an Atlanta Tech fan upset about this)? Also, Atlanta professional teams have been a beacon of mismanagement in a dark sea of successful college teams. Seriously, the Falcons and Hawks? But they turn out for the Braves.

There are certainly some markets that can’t support an NHL team, for reasons of population or demographics, but Atlanta is not one of them, and people shouldn’t assume that Southern markets are going to be among them. As you mentioned, look at Tampa, Nashville, and Raleigh. Since moving here, I’ve seen more Canes stickers than NC State (not Duke or UNC, but you have to keep hopes reasonable). You just have to have ownership who knows how to run and sell a team.

After our conversation the other day, Cassie, I think I agree with your ultimate premise:

I genuinely believe that any place can be a hockey town – with the right kind of management, and the right type of marketing.

On Phoenix, they’ve had one of the most devoted fan base in the “non-traditional” hockey markets for quite some time. No where else south of Denver (with exception of Raleigh) do you see more support from the fans than in Phoenix. If the team is going to be unsuccessful and leave town, it’s not because of their fan base.

On the Islanders, for most of the 80s, they were a dominant team. Indeed, they won four Stanley Cups in a row. Unfortunately, a series of managment errors (yes, I’m looking at you, Mike Milbury) and malignant ownership situations have relegated the once-storied franchise to comedy-club levels.

Sure, one of these teams is going to be looking for new real estate soon, but they have a core issue in common: their management and leadership teams off the ice. That error was corrected recently here in Tampa; it wasn’t in Atlanta, and they’re paying the price this off-season.