Making Better Choices
"The ownership of our teams has evolved since our start," says Treliving.
Their model has improved, but also their ability to provide in-depth solutions and packages has become a new hallmark of the business side of the CHL and its parent, Global Entertainment.
While they would love to take credit for being visionaries, Treliving says that developing these new operations has been a process of evolution and need.
"It was by need that we first ran into the facilities side. Long term, we're in some old buildings, and we have to look at what's going to happen tomorrow. We found a number of markets that we thought would be good opportunities, but there's no facilities."
ICC sprang up as a way of generating that new facility, because, as Global CEO Rick Kozuback points out, "Years of experience in the business told us what we needed to be successful in a building. It was something that we can offer to both potential and current [CHL] owners as another way to improve the chances of success for their investment."
The Synergies of New
New venues are the name of the game. Just as in baseball, no one wants to visit a converted cow barn, the first home of the Ice Bats, if they can sit in a brand new facility with state-of-the-art seating, scoreboards, clean restrooms, good food choices, and easy-access, and well-lit parking.
Unlike the UHL or ECHL, partnering with Global in hockey means that they can apply their playbook to lobbying for a new arena.
"To continue to grow our business, there's more opportunities within the facility," said Treliving about the next logical steps in the growth of their sports business empire.
Global Entertainment Marketing Systems (GEMS) help book concerts and events, and leverage their multiple locations to keep the buildings on track and occupied so that they will meet their debt obligations and remain profit centers.
"So we looked again and we said 'What's another opportunity?'"
Tickets. GetTix provides a lower cost both to the consumer and a valuable service to the franchisee.
Another division of Global is coming on line to manage the facilities as well.
"There's only a certain amount of growth in the hockey business," observes CHL spokesperson Steve Cherwonak. "By expanding its reach, Global is able to maximize business opportunities around the entertainment that we create, and by creating new venues for additional entertainment like concerts and other regional special events."
The Multi-Sport Synergy or Snafu?
The advent of Arena Football2 and expansions and relocations by the NBA's D-League (formerly the NBDL) into some of the CHL's market would cause one to speculate whether Global will extend its reach into other sports.
Treliving and Kozuback are both clear about being delighted to see other tenants in their buildings, as long as it doesn't interfere with the primary activity of the building, hockey.
"Even though all kinds of events go in there, we want to make sure that the hockey team is looked after."
The reality of being bumped from buildings has been a perpetual problem for minor league hockey. The New Orleans Brass of the ECHL found themselves on the outs when NBA basketball returned to the city. This year, the long-term tenants of Tingley Coliseum, the New Mexico Scorpions, were bumped from the schedule when the State Fairgrounds caught wind of their plans to build a new facility in nearby Bernallilo and booked the NBA's new D-League team into their slots. They had to shutter for the year and wait for their new building.
While Global and the CHL both welcome new ways to fill their buildings, they also question whether the NBA's D-League teams or the arenafootball2 clubs will be around for the long-haul.
"It's all on a case-by-case basis," says Treliving, who explains that they aren't opposed to the idea of buildings going multi-sport, as long as you allow that all of the teams playing there have an opportunity to maximize their dates and be successful.
Limited Indoor Turf
One edge that the CHL pioneered was targeting more games to weekend play dates. This allows more families and casual fans to show up, and minimizes dead mid-week games. It also limits, though, available time when two or more clubs are fighting for the same weekends over a season.
Growing Hockey
They see themselves as growing the sport of hockey. There's no denying that teams in Fort Worth and Austin have given NHL clubs like the Dallas Stars a lift, because their regional product stimulates more interest in hockey as a whole. Their operation has done more to educate whole states of people to the sport than anything that the major broadcast networks and ESPN have done.
Part of the CHL mission has also been outreach. CHL teams do a lot of charity work and local hockey clinics to encourage kids to get excited about the sport. Kids who've never seen ice before now have the same access to the game that kids in the Northeast and Canada take for granted.
"You're going to build momentum by building it in regional markets," observes Treliving. "It plays a significant role in the landscape of the sport. We don't take enough time to point out the impact that minor league hockey has had on the sport. When you add up all of the people watching it across the country, it's significant numbers."
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