Lightning piles it on to sell seats

The Tampa Bay Lightning is continuing with some offbeat promotions of its NHL playoff games.

For the second year in a row, the team sent its mascot, ThunderBug, to the roof of the St. Pete Times Forum for a several-week stint — ending after the team’s second playoff game — to encourage playoff ticket purchases. And for the past several weeks, the team has dumped piles of Zamboni ice shavings almost daily on prominent street corners around the city, with a sign touting the box-office phone number for ticket sales. The promo has even caught the attention of the local media.

The team didn’t ask the city for permission to dump the “snow,” which takes about a day to melt, but it hasn’t received any grief, either. Businesses recently have begun requesting snow dumps near them, and the team’s flagship radio station, WDAE-AM, had a pile delivered to its Clear Channel headquarters in Tampa.

The Lightning drew 20,533 a game last year in five home playoff appearances; the team has averaged 19,815 after three games this year. Bill Wickett, senior vice president of communications, attributes the dip to fans “waiting for us to advance to the second round,” which the team has now done.