Lease, NHL affiliation extensions provide stability for Falcons

Jan. 9, 2012

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

SPRINGFIELD — In what has been a regular theme for the Springfield Falcons, Minority Owner, President and General Manager Bruce Landon announced that for the foreseeable future, the franchise would not be going anywhere.

Landon negotiated two-year extensions on both the team’s lease of the MassMutual Center and their affiliation with the Columbus Blue Jackets, bringing added stability to a company mired in uncertainty in recent years. The extensions were announced on Jan. 5.

“Every year at this time of year with this franchise, speculation starts that maybe the team is leaving, the team’s going to be sold again or it’s going to be moved to another city or something,” Landon said. “[Majority Owner] Charlie [Pompea] and I thought it was important to make the announcement to let our fans know that we are going to give it our very, very best shot here to turn this thing around and get it going in the right direction so we don’t have to worry about these kinds of announcements or people don’t have to worry about it.

“We felt it stabilizes not only the lease for a couple of years, but also stabilizes the affiliation for a couple of years so we can put together a strategic plan both on the ice and off the ice,” he added.

The Falcons entered into an American Hockey League affiliation agreement with the Blue Jackets on March 25, 2010 and are now in their second season skating with Columbus farmhands.

“Columbus, despite our mediocre play this year, has been a wonderful partner. They spent more money coming out of the off-season than any other NHL team on their minor league team,” Landon said. “The unfortunate thing is they cannot control the injuries and we have had eight or nine regulars out of our lineup with bad injuries. But despite that, Columbus has continued to try and find other players for us to fill the holes to keep us as competitive as possible.”

Despite the new agreements, Landon continued to stress the need for Western Massachusetts hockey fans to support the team in order to ensure the long-term success of the franchise.

“The concern you always have is people take it for granted and say, ‘Well the team’s going to be there, therefore I don’t have to support them,’” he said. “The bottom line is we think by showing our stability and our commitment, the fans will engage us and show their commitment in return. [Running the team] is very, very expensive. This company continues to lose money and we have to right the ship here and the only way we can do that is get more bodies in the seats.”

Heading into the weekend of Jan. 6 and 7, the Falcons were second to last in the league in attendance, in front of only Albany, N.Y. An apathetic fan base is not solely to blame for the Falcons’ struggles at the gate this season. Sunday and mid-week games that typically draw fewer fans and the game on Oct. 29, 2011 during the Nor’easter that drew just 700 to The Nest due to the severe weather have skewed the numbers.

“We live and die by our prime dates. We’re not going to draw well on a mid-week game and we struggle on Sundays,” Landon said. “We had too many Sunday games the first half of the season, we had two of our mid-week games the first half of the season. We live and die by group sales as well and we can’t get groups to come in on those mid-weeks.

“Attendance has to get better in the second half of the season because we do have some better dates. Starting [the weekend of Jan. 6 and 7], we should start seeing a real uptick in attendance. If we don’t, then that sends the message loud and clear,” he continued.

The severe 2011 weather has also played a role in sluggish ticket sales.

“Another thing both Charlie and I are very aware of is that this area has been just devastated by bad weather with the [June 1, 2011] tornado and then with the horrible storm on Oct. 29,” Landon said. “It affected people for weeks because they were spending money on things that maybe they didn’t think they would be spending money on, so disposable income gets tight.”

Despite those factors, Landon said ticket revenue needs to improve and season ticket sales are the primary way to grow those figures.

“We have to build our season ticket base because if you have a good season ticket base, you can sort of weather those bad dates or weather those bad weather nights,” he said. “That’s something we need to improve by 300, 400, 500 [attendees]. We did increase our season tickets a little this year, but not nearly where it needs to get to and we will be aggressive in the off-season in order to get there.”

Landon added the team is also working on several promotions to increase gate entry. He said he hopes to build off of the success of an appearance by Boston Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton in December 2011 with more “sports celebrity” appearances. The team also has a full-team poster and autograph session scheduled for Jan. 15, and Red Sox night with Don Orsillo bobblehead dolls and Wally the Green Monster making an appearance on Jan. 21. Orsillo was the Falcons’ first play-by-play announcer.

A second Calder Cup Night to recognize past Springfield Calder Cup winners is coming up Feb. 4. The first took place on Dec. 4, 2011.

“We’ve got a lot of activity, but the bottom line is no matter what we’re doing or not doing, we have to get fans to engage this franchise and be happy that they have a franchise,” he said. “That’s the message Charlie’s trying to send out as well – we’re doing our part, we need you to do your part. Win or lose, we need you to do your part to show that you want this team here.”

With several players expected to return from injury in the second half of the season, Landon expects to do more winning than losing in the hopes of securing a playoff spot. However, given that heading into last weekend, the Falcons were in last place in the Eastern Conference, the work is cut out for them. On the positive side of things, just seven points separated the Falcons from eighth place, the final playoff spot.

“It’s very hard to make up ground in a hurry because of all the shootouts and overtime, so teams are always grabbing points,” Landon said. “You have to go on a winning streak. I can honestly say this, when if we had the team that we thought we were going to have coming out of training camp, we would have had a heck of a hockey club. We would have been challenging Connecticut for first place [in the Northeast Division]. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

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