Businesses Score Big From Chiefs’ Success Hockey Team’s Exploits Boost Demand For Everything From T-Shirts To Hot Dogs
When Spokane Chiefs forward Jason Podollan flicked the puck past the Kamloops goalie on April 16, more than 10,000 fans cheered and one corporate sponsor started scrambling.
Podollan’s goal was Spokane’s seventh of the game, which qualified ticket holders for a free pan pizza as part of a season-long promotion.
“We weren’t groaning,” said Scott Ballard, general manager for Spokane and North Idaho’s Pizza Huts. “But we called in nine area managers to our downtown stores to make sure we could serve our product.”
When the Chiefs hit seven with a sellout crowd on hand, as they have twice this year, Pizza Hut is on the line for up to $50,000 of pizza.
Pizza Hut isn’t the only business handling a lot more dough as a result of the Chiefs’ record-breaking regular season and exciting playoff run.
From T-shirt hawkers to big corporations, businesses and advertisers have jumped on the Chiefs’ bandwagon as they head toward the Super Bowl of junior hockey, The Memorial Cup.
Sports shops can’t keep enough Chiefs T-shirts and paraphernalia in stock. Advertisers scramble to fill up spots on Chiefs telecasts. Bars and restaurants near the Arena get a boost with each additional playoff game.
The Chiefs players helped engineer probably one of the best marketing gimmicks ever, said David Pier, vice president of Brett Sports & Entertainment, Chiefs owner Bobby Brett’s sports company.
The team, rated as the best junior hockey club on the continent, lost the first three games to the Portland Winter Hawks, the club’s first-round playoff opponent.
Left for dead, the Chiefs roared back to take the next three games, setting up a deciding game seven in the Arena.
“It nearly ripped our hearts out,” Pier said. “But it got people interested. We went from being the favorite to being the underdog, and everybody likes to root for the underdog.”
Game seven sold out in hours, and Pier had an inspiration. He called Jim Koonce, creative services director for KXLY television.
They reached an agreement to put the game on KXLY-Extra. The decision was an instant hit with sports fans and advertisers alike.
“I’ve been wanting to get sports on our cable channel for a long time,” Koonce said. “Dave and I sat down the day before the game and basically made a handshake agreement.”
The station deployed its staff to sell commercial time on the broadcast at three or four times the regular price. “We sold out the game in about three hours,” Koonce said.
Sales of Chiefs merchandise have soared as well.
“The last few days, 90 percent of our business has been Chiefs,” said Steve Williamson of Crosby Sportswear, a T-shirt printing and graphics shop on Northwest Boulevard in Spokane. “We put some Chiefs gear in the window and sales have been very strong.”
Sweatshirts and T-shirts with a new Chiefs slogan, “Get in the Game,” are rushing out the door, Williamson said. His shop also produces Chiefs T-shirts and sweatshirts for the team’s pro shop, and the club has placed big orders recently.
“Most businesses usually want to reduce inventory as the season ends,” he said. “But they’ve been asking for more.”
At Pro Jersey sports, sweatshirts with the Western Hockey League Western Division title logo are the hot item, said salesperson Miranda Laws. Sales of Chiefs gear has been double the usual rate, she said.
The team’s own pro shop in the Arena has seen an increase of about 70 percent over last year, Pier said.
The Chiefs started gaining ground as an advertising vehicle before the playoff run. Club officials say the popularity has as much to do with the new Arena as the team’s strong goaltending and hard forechecking.
The Chiefs won the Memorial Cup in 1991, but that playoff run wasn’t as lucrative as this year’s. The Boone Street Barn, the Chiefs’ home until this year, could only seat about 5,000 and had a leaky roof.
The new Spokane Arena holds about 10,500 for hockey and enjoys modern amenities like cupholders and a big video replay screen.
“We think we’ve got the best facility in the league,” Pier said, even though teams in Portland and Seattle play in larger venues.
The Arena has become “THE place to be on Saturday nights when the Chiefs are playing,” said Todd Doolittle, who does public relations for the team and chipped in color commentary for the KXLY broadcasts.
Some of the Chiefs frenzy may fade for businesses and advertisers when the team returns to a more modest record. In junior hockey, roster turnover becomes an annual ritual. That means next year’s team could repeat as West Division champions or struggle to make the playoffs.
The Chiefs, and other sports teams, try to smooth the ups and downs by establishing long-term relationships with key sponsors.
Pepsi-Cola is one such sponsor. Spending thousands of dollars for signs in the Arena and making a 10-year commitment there isn’t about selling more pop during playoff runs, said Brian McDonald, market development manager for the Spokane office of the soft-drink bottler.
“We see this as a rare opportunity where we can be involved in the community,” McDonald said. “Win or lose, we’re going to be behind the Chiefs and the Arena because these guys on the ice and in the office give 110 percent, and that’s different from the professional sports in bigger cities.”
Chiefs hockey is still about taking the family to see a great game, McDonald said. Professional sports, marred by strikes, big salaries and controversies, don’t seem as appealing as the Chiefs, he said.
“Players still have their heart in the game here,” he said. “That line gets kind of blurred with some of the professional teams.”
While businesses from pizza joints to insurance companies have benefited from this success, no one is counting more money than Brett Sports & Entertainment.
With up to 10 playoff home games depending on the outcome of the series with the Eastern Division champions from Brandon, Manitoba, both the Chiefs and the Arena stand to make good.
Multiply average ticket prices of about $10 a seat by an average of 9,400 fans for each of up to 10 playoff games and you get close to $1 million of gross ticket revenue.
The Chiefs get the lion’s share of ticket sales, 18 percent of the beer, pop and hot dogs sold at games, and 30 percent of the parking revenue.
The Arena itself splits its profits from the season with the city of Spokane and with the public facilities district that runs the Arena, said Kevin Twohig, general manager.
Pier likes the Chiefs’ growth potential. Cramped in the former Coliseum last year, the club had a season ticket base of around 1,800. That number’s now at 3,700 and climbing, with an emphasis on group sales.
But, like the team’s fans, most businesses associated with the Chiefs are just enjoying the present.
“This season’s really been a phenomenon that pulled people together,” said Williamson of Crosby’s in Spokane. “It’s created a lot of new hockey fans in Spokane. Things have just taken off.”
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