Steve Griggs is CEO of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a position he’s held since 2015 after Tod Leiweke — who Griggs went to Tampa with in 2010 — left the team to go to the NFL. Griggs has played a significant role in the Lightning’s evolution under owner Jeff Vinik from a problem franchise to one of the league’s most envied clubs. That evolution was on full display last month, as Tampa played host to the NHL All-Star Game.
You know you have a great culture and a great organization when there’s 200 full-time employees and 1,000 part-time employees creating a world-class fan experience, and working as hard as they can to make this an incredible All-Star Weekend.
Steve Griggs
Tampa Bay Lightning, CEO
On merging the Gasparilla Pirate Festival and the NHL All-Star Weekend: This was my first time [at Gasparilla] — I’m usually at the All-Star Game. I didn’t know what to expect. [NHL Chief Content Officer] Steve Mayer put this together, and put the [two events] together, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. There were some things we were concerned about but we embraced it. We embraced what it meant to the city, the pirates and the folks at Gasparilla, and they were wonderful to work with. … It all came together where it was symbiotic, and the ability to have the pirates and the players — it brought a whole new level of energy to the All-Star Game, sort of like what Nashville was able to do with country music for that ASG. It wasn’t just a skills competition and hockey game, it was all these different community events but then Gasparilla and the Stanley Cup on the pirate ship and the free concert on Friday.
GriggsTampa Bay Lightning
On if it’s still a question if Tampa is a hockey town: It’s not anymore. When you look at what we’ve done in the Stanley Cup playoffs the last couple of years, that we have a 15,000 season-ticket base, that we’ve sold out 130 games in a row in a 19,000-seat arena, that our TV ratings are at the highest they’ve ever been, and the merchandise and the grassroots support you see with the “Go Bolts” signs around — it’s become a hockey town. A lot of that goes back to what [owner] Jeff Vinik saw — a team that once had a strong fan base. But nothing has been more important to the city than Jeff Vinik in transforming not only the hockey team but the city, and I think people get behind that.
On sustaining success: A lot of teams sometimes only put their eggs in one basket, and that’s having a winning hockey team. I think the other key elements there are what you do in the community, and the fan experience that you provide, both in the arena from a game presentation point of view, but also ushers and our ticket takers and our staff and how they treat sponsors, our suite holders and our ticket buyers. That’s been a huge part of our success.
Obviously, the big, big component is community. The building is spectacular and Jeff has put close to $80 million of his own money into it to create that experience.
So, the product, the services, the fan experience and the community — those things help you sustain during those down seasons.
— Ian Thomas
