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Now in his 11th year with the Philadelphia Flyers, Chief Operating Officer Shawn Tilger has played a key role in the club’s continued status as one of the NHL’s leaders in sales, marketing and community efforts. He’s recently added another responsibility with parent company Comcast Spectacor, being named governor of its new National Lacrosse League franchise, the Wings. With the Flyers on the verge of a Stanley Cup playoff spot, Tilger has been keeping busy.
The more people that are positive about sports in the city, that means more people are listening to sports radio, reading the newspaper, watching sports on television or tuning in on social media. It gives us all an opportunity to grow.
Shawn Tilger
Chief Operating Officer, Philadelphia Flyers
On Philadelphia’s recent sporting success: I get the question a lot asking if there’s been a negative impact on us with the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, Villanova going to the Final Four [and winning the NCAA championship] and the Sixers making the playoffs and being on this run. I look at it differently. To me, all tides rise together.
On providing season-ticket holders more perks: Gate is 70 percent of our revenue, so we’ve decided to allocate the resources to match that. There’s the gifts, the discounts and the other things that are all pretty common amongst the industry, but you have to go further and add value to why they shouldn’t be going to the secondary market on a game-by-game basis, and why they need to be part of this community. It’s things like helping to build relationships with the season-ticket holders next to them through special events. We’re fortunate that the Flyers have a history of success and there is a lot on the ice to be excited about, but we’re looking at ways to do more for tenured season-ticket holders and making them feel special.
On hosting a Stadium Series outdoor game next year versus the Penguins: We want to create a celebration of hockey not only for that day, but for the surrounding days in the market. Our goal as an organization is to continue to bring the high-profile league events to the city, because inherently that gets more people interested in the sport, watching the broadcast, consuming the digital content, buying merchandise and so on.
On the Flyers’ shifting content strategy: We now have a digital focus for all of our efforts in terms of media and production. We’re looking to create multiplatform digital content that the patrons, no matter which demographic they’re in, can receive it no matter what platform they’re on. For kids, we’re using Snapchat and Instagram. To the older demographic, we’re doing more Facebook stuff. We have a team that is creating FlyersTV episodes now. It’s really all about content production that can drive fan engagement.
On launching the NLL franchise next year: There’s a lot of excitement for a sport that has a rich tradition here in this market. With it being owned and operated by us, I’m also excited for the opportunity it’s going to create for the people on our staff in terms of their growth and the ways it will supplement things we’re already doing, as well as the natural cross-pollination that comes with having two teams playing in the same building.
— Ian Thomas
