DAYTON, Ohio — Hockey fans may not have seen much change when they walked into the Ervin J. Nutter Center for the Dayton Bombers' first game of the 1998-99 season.
But behind the scenes, things changed substantially. Gone are Stephan Boutin and Mark Kumpel, last year's general manager and head coach. Gone also are Arnold Johnson and Bud Gingher, the former owners who sold the East Coast Hockey League franchise this summer.
This year, John Tull remains as general manager after taking the job halfway through last season, and Greg Ireland is now the head coach. And John Gagnon, owner of the ECHL's Mississippi Sea Wolves, became majority owner when he and 12 others bought the team from Johnson and Gingher.
Even though 1997-98 average game attendance jumped to 4,187, up from the 1996-97 average of 3,183 fans per game, the team faces financial difficulties, having lost about $500,000 the last two years.
Countering that trend is Gagnon's goal. Shortly before the season started Oct. 17, he talked with Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal correspondent John Niehaus.
SportsBusiness Journal: What is your background in hockey?
Gagnon: This is my third team. I used to own the Roanoke Express in Roanoke [Va.] for four years. This is my third year with the Mississippi Sea Wolves. I started both teams from scratch.
SBJ: Were you ever a player or coach?
Gagnon: No. My background is mostly in marketing and business. [Hockey] is a business, and if you put too much heart into it, then it becomes a toy and not a business anymore. I have a trucking company called CAT, which employs about 500 people and [offers] transportation services from warehousing to distribution and so on.
SBJ: Why did you buy the Dayton Bombers?
Gagnon: I had looked at it last year and the timing was wrong for me. I was very close to making a deal and basically because of priorities in my life I had to stay away for a year. When the opportunity was still here a year later, I took it. There's over 1 million people living in Dayton. Out of 30 teams in the ECHL, Dayton is the fourth or fifth biggest market. The problem with the Dayton Bombers was the image. People don't know the Bombers in Dayton. They may think it's a junior "A" team or a Pee-Wee team. But it's a professional hockey team. Pros are playing here, and when you think over the last five years over 100 players from this league made it to the NHL, that's the kind of caliber we have here. Our biggest [job] is to work on the image of the Bombers.
SBJ: How will you do that?
Gagnon: I have a two-year marketing plan where everything we do will be done professionally. We will be in the community all of the time. You will hear about us all of the time. Our players will be community-minded, taking part in charity, going into schools, basically every community event Dayton has.
SBJ: Is it difficult convincing players to do this?
Gagnon: No, not in this league. Most people would think so, but out of 20 players, you might have two or three that may have a problem with that. The average age of the players is about 22 years old, so they haven't been spoiled yet.
SBJ: What are some other details of this marketing plan?
Gagnon: We're going to advertise heavily in radio and newspaper and TV. ...Our competition here is the [Cincinnati] Bengals, the [Cincinnati] Reds, and people will compare us to those teams. So everything we have to do will be professionally done, including the event, the presentation of the game. We can't take any shortcuts.
SBJ: How much will the marketing plan cost to implement?
Gagnon: The first year, we have about $350,000 for that purpose. [The next year] will be about the same.
SBJ: What attendance goals have you set for the upcoming season?
Gagnon: Five thousand average. Even at 5,000, we'll about break even. If I can't put 5,000 people per game here with the schedule that we have — we have a lot of weekends this year compared to last year — I will be disappointed, and I'll blame it on myself. And next year I'm looking at 6,000, a 20 percent increase for the second year. The season tickets we have, we are 20 percent over last year. I think they only had 750 season tickets last year, and we have over 1,000 right now. We've done close to 1,200.
SBJ: Have you set any specific plans to boost attendance?
Gagnon: We have 25 nights out of 35 where we have great promotions, such as on opening night, where we're going to give out 2,000 T-shirt jerseys to kids coming in. That's pretty expensive, but it's a promotion people like. The goal with these promotions is to sell hockey. When people come here and they enjoy themselves and have fun and know hockey a little better, they'll come back and be a Dayton Bomber fan.
SBJ: What's the financial goal this year?
Gagnon: This year is break even. We really have some work to do. People are expecting a lot of the new owner, the new coach, new players, new [general manager], new front-office staff, new scoreboard. ...Have we changed a bit from last year from what people didn't like or appreciate? Will we be able to deliver what people expect? That's our biggest goal.
SBJ: Dayton is trying to acquire a Class A minor league baseball team for the 2000 season. Do you view minor league baseball as a potential competitor, or do you think it will be beneficial to your franchise?
Gagnon: It will be beneficial. People will get out more. I think people aren't used to going out for things like that. People going to baseball will not create competition, but a taste for sports.
