News Article: Ottawa Citizen - Marketing and Fan base

[Tuna99]

Anybody who thinks that the Sens are being run as best as they can be should read this:

Vinik’s vision

Here's a basic summary:

- Payed off team debt
- Hired very experienced sports executives
- Invested 60+ mil in stadium
- Bought/invested in downtown land around arena to increase revenue base
- Giving 10 mil to charity, distributed 50k at a time each game by local hero's

When he purchased the team, it was losing “quite a bit of money,” he said, a financial reality that was factored into the price he paid for the franchise. Now, Vinik says, the losses are in single digits of millions, progress with which he’s pleased.

“If we could break even, make a difference in the community and have a great hockey team all at the same time — I’ll sign up for that formula forever,” he said.

“Any business, or any endeavor, it comes down to the people. If you hire well and have people with integrity who are smart, who are thoughtful, and give them the resources, that’s the path to success for any franchise,” he said. “From my position, I try to provide leadership with just good values and treat people how I would like to be treated. Hire the best people you can, pay them well, give them 100 percent accountability and the best resources, and judge them accordingly.”

Vinik moves to Tampa with his
Family and is moving his business there. He is leading a multi billion reinvestment in Tampas center.

Melnyck you reading this - you wonder why the fans in Tampa love the team. They feel the owner shares their community values and is there making an impact. Not flying in every 6 months to insult the fans and throw some players or coaches under the bus.

Sell Poo-Jeans. You’re not welcome here anymore. No one believes in you. You have no respect in Ottawa. It’s over. Get out.

 

[branch]

From the Senators, via Social media

Marc-Olivier Poulin and Patrick Shipman, two of our employees who aim to establish business relations with the francophone community.

Mop: " my personal goal is to increase the sense of belonging of francophones to senators and to ensure that the team is natural to both English-speaking and French-speaking amateurs in the national capital region. " "

PS: " my dream is to celebrate a victory of the Stanley Cup with my community, in my native language. " "

***
Marc-Olivier Poulin and Patrick Shipman are two of our employees focused on building business relationships within the francophone community.

MOP: “My personal goal is to grow the sense of belonging of francophones towards the Ottawa Senators and ensure that the team is communicating naturally to our fans as much in French as in English.”

PS: “My dream is to celebrate a Stanley Cup win with my community, in my language.”

Wow this is groundbreaking. Something that should have been done 20 years ago. Can you tell me exactly what they have done so far? Or is this strictly a photo op, coming from marketing to make people believe there is some sort of outreach occurring?

 

[BatherSeason]

From the Senators, via Social media

Marc-Olivier Poulin and Patrick Shipman, two of our employees who aim to establish business relations with the francophone community.

Mop: " my personal goal is to increase the sense of belonging of francophones to senators and to ensure that the team is natural to both English-speaking and French-speaking amateurs in the national capital region. " "

PS: " my dream is to celebrate a victory of the Stanley Cup with my community, in my native language. " "

***
Marc-Olivier Poulin and Patrick Shipman are two of our employees focused on building business relationships within the francophone community.

MOP: “My personal goal is to grow the sense of belonging of francophones towards the Ottawa Senators and ensure that the team is communicating naturally to our fans as much in French as in English.”

PS: “My dream is to celebrate a Stanley Cup win with my community, in my language.”

What exactly have they done to grow the support for the Ottawa Senators in Quebec other than remove all of the Gatineau stops on the "Hometown Tour" at the start of the season, which probably had a negative impact?

I know Pat Shipman personally and he is definitely a great guy and a dedicated, hard working dude, but work ethic and desire don't mean anything when you are working for a Dictator .

PS Anyone hear from Nicolas Ruszkowski lately?? Has he crawled in the bunker with PD or has been banished with Mike Condon? For a guy who was so camera hungry early in the season, he sure has disappeared without a trace.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Wow this is groundbreaking. Something that should have been done 20 years ago. Can you tell me exactly what they have done so far? Or is this strictly a photo op, coming from marketing to make people believe there is some sort of outreach occurring?

Why do you automatically assume that they've never been courting fans on the Quebec side of the river, until now?

 

[branch]

Why do you automatically assume that they've never been courting fans on the Quebec side of the river, until now?

I'd wager if we have been courting fans on the Quebec side all along, we would not be struggling with dire attendance problems at this point. The Outaouais belongs to the CH.

 

[BatherSeason]

Why do you automatically assume that they've never been courting fans on the Quebec side of the river, until now?

I think we already had this debate months ago. They have never tried to break into the Gatineau market and its quite bizarre TBH.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

I'd wager if we have been courting fans on the Quebec side all along, we would not be struggling with dire attendance problems at this point. The Outaouais belongs to the CH.

Yes, Gatineau is probably mostly Hab fans.

Having a market which has large generational groups of Leaf and Hab fans, is one of the challenges to Ottawa market, that no other Canadian based team struggles with more than Ottawa does.

The difference between Hab fans, and Leaf fans, is that Leaf fans are only just Leaf fans, while Hab fans, from Quebec also follow Quebec born players, and would, imo, would be more likley to attend Sens games that Leaf fans.

I don't know what percentage of the average attendance at Sens games would be from the Quebec side, but I'd bet that number would go up, if the Senators played at an Arena at Lebreton Flats, rather than the current location, which is, on a good (traffic/weather) day is a minimum 45 minute drive by car from Central Gatineau.

It would be closer to 90 minutes using public transit from Central Gatineau, to get to the CTC.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

I think we already had this debate months ago. They have never tried to break into the Gatineau market and its quite bizarre TBH.

This is not true, and you know it.

The Sens used to host the rookie tournament in Hull, just as one example.

Can and should they do more? Yes.

Don't pretend that this is the very first foray into Quebec by the Senators marketing staff, as it's not.

94.5 Unique FM broadcasts the French-language coverage of the Senators games, as well as pre- and post-game shows.

 

[NorthCoast]

Why do you automatically assume that they've never been courting fans on the Quebec side of the river, until now?

What is personally disappointing is again the lack of investment into the problem. Are a couple of sales reps with little to no marketing experience going to make the difference.

I get that the budget is tight. And I don't doubt that these guys will give it their all, but is there really nobody in the region or that can be poached from Montreal that has a background of success marketing entertainment properties to francophone customers. Ins't this a business situation where you have to spend money to make money. There is only so much that can realistically be done by only trying to solve problems using the internal budget/staff alone.

"Hire great people. I’ve definitely adopted a model of business dealings, which is hire great people, treat them as partners, not employees. Let them do their job, don’t meddle, and hold them accountable. Over the last 15 years, as I shut down my money management organization, gotten involved in more different businesses and obviously owning the Lightning, I think I’ve adopted that methodology of doing things" - Jeff Vinik.

Hey, sometimes people rise to the occasion and yes, everybody has to start somewhere...but common. If you someone put up a chart showing the combined years of experience of the sens business side execs vs any other successful NHL team and the gap would be so glaring that you might wonder how we sell tickets at all.

 

[BatherSeason]

This is not true, and you know it.

The Sens used to host the rookie tournament in Hull, just as one example.

Can and should they do more? Yes.

Don't pretend that this is the very first foray into Quebec by the Senators marketing staff, as it's not.

94.5 Unique FM broadcasts the French-language coverage of the Senators games, as well as pre- and post-game shows.

I am really not pretending to do anything other than illustrate that this organization under Eugene Melnyk seems to have basically forgotten that the Quebec side of the river actually exists, other than the stops on the Hometown Tour, which were scrapped this season. To make up for it, they had a open practice at the Guertin this year. Baby steps I guess. As for training camp, wasn't that like 20 years ago?

Not even sure why this is a point you are choosing to argue here, this isn't an argument you will win. Melnyk seems to wanna stay away from Gatineau as much as he wants to stay away from Russians.

 

[hawthy]

In 5 short seasons, the REDBLACKS have been more successful at penetrating the 819 than the Sens have in, what, approaching 30-years....

 

[slamigo]

Lebreton = more Francophone fans.
Most Francophones live in the East end of the city (Orleans, etc) and in Gatineau. Having the team out in Kanata really kills a lot of the engagement that can be done in those communities.
Having a downtown arena will create a surge in the Francophone fan base for the Sens. They may be Habs fans, but they will also cheer for a 1b team if it's local and has french speaking players on the roster.

 

[Tuna99]

Lebreton = more Francophone fans.
Most Francophones live in the East end of the city (Orleans, etc) and in Gatineau. Having the team out in Kanata really kills a lot of the engagement that can be done in those communities.
Having a downtown arena will create a surge in the Francophone fan base for the Sens. They may be Habs fans, but they will also cheer for a 1b team if it's local and has french speaking players on the roster.

The majority of fans are fairweather anyways and will go to a game as a party, office event or playoffs/ big games. And that's okay, if Ottawa can increase its casual fan base by two hundred thousand people that really helps at the gate and building future fans.

 

[BatherSeason]

Lebreton = more Francophone fans.
Most Francophones live in the East end of the city (Orleans, etc) and in Gatineau. Having the team out in Kanata really kills a lot of the engagement that can be done in those communities.
Having a downtown arena will create a surge in the Francophone fan base for the Sens. They may be Habs fans, but they will also cheer for a 1b team if it's local and has french speaking players on the roster.

While I tend to agree with this, I feel like Eugene Melnyk and Pierre Dorion have done so much damage that this isn't just a "if you build it they will come" scenario anymore. It may have been 2 years ago, but I truly believe that the organization has dug themselves such a hole that the marketing work they will need to do to rebuild the brand is gonna have to be big and expensive. Instead of decreasing their presence in Gatineau, which is what they have been doing throughout the Melnyk regime, they should already begin the work, but only Eugene knows best I guess.

 

[JD1]

I'd wager if we have been courting fans on the Quebec side all along, we would not be struggling with dire attendance problems at this point. The Outaouais belongs to the CH.

I'd wager if the Senators business plan was based on solid attendance numbers from the north side of the river they'd be in deeper troubles than they are now

Its just something else to bitch about

 

[branch]

I'd wager if the Senators business plan was based on solid attendance numbers from the north side of the river they'd be in deeper troubles than they are now

Its just something else to ***** about

So you're saying if they had a customer base that included large portions of the Outaouais, they'd be in a worse spot attendance-wise? Right.

 

[stempniaksen]

Not sure there's a more hate-able guy than Ruzskwski out there (other than EM himself). Can't even begin to express how happy I am he's no longer shaming the fanbase and has gone back into his hole. It's entirely possible he's doing a good job (I don't think he is, but that's besides the point) but he fits right in with the rest of the Sens front office as being terrible in front of a microphone. These guys are all tripping over themselves to be the dumbest person in the room.

 

[branch]

Not sure there's a more hate-able guy than Ruzskwski out there (other than EM himself). Can't even begin to express how happy I am he's no longer shaming the fanbase and has gone back into his hole. It's entirely possible he's doing a good job (I don't think he is, but that's besides the point) but he fits right in with the rest of the Sens front office as being terrible in front of a microphone. These guys are all tripping over themselves to be the dumbest person in the room.

Yeah Ruszowski is a dismissive, complicit greaseball. Hopefully his stint working as EM's lap dog will sewer his reputation in the future.

 

[JD1]

Man you guys really got your bitch on today.

Would a heavy push on the other side of the river matter? Really? It's been 26 years. If there was any significant opportunity on the other side of the river it would have shown itself by now.

It's just something else to complain about.

A downtown arena will have a positive impact on attendance in the same way it will have a positive impact in people from orleans..,but the team isnt having to convince people from orleans to be Sens fans

 

[JD1]

So you're saying if they had a customer base that included large portions of the Outaouais, they'd be in a worse spot attendance-wise? Right.

No. Try again young man. Thats not what i said at all

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I mean its easy to shit on the Sens org. because its a pretty poorly run organization.

 

[branch]

No. Try again young man. Thats not what i said at all

Yeah you actually did.

"...solid attendance numbers from the north side of the river they'd be in deeper troubles than they are now"

That's what that means. Anyways I don't even care about them not marketing in Quebec. I know it will never happen. I simply just pointed out they are about 25 years too late.

 

[BatherSeason]

Man you guys really got your ***** on today.

Would a heavy push on the other side of the river matter? Really? It's been 26 years. If there was any significant opportunity on the other side of the river it would have shown itself by now.

It's just something else to complain about.

A downtown arena will have a positive impact on attendance in the same way it will have a positive impact in people from orleans..,but the team isnt having to convince people from orleans to be Sens fans

So, lets just not do it then. Lets not even try to grow our business and attract new customers, heck, we haven't tried it in 26 years, no sense trying it now, even though we are basically bleeding money and have to hand out thousands of free tickets a night. Smart business plan.

 

[slamigo]

Man you guys really got your ***** on today.

Would a heavy push on the other side of the river matter? Really? It's been 26 years. If there was any significant opportunity on the other side of the river it would have shown itself by now.

It's just something else to complain about.

A downtown arena will have a positive impact on attendance in the same way it will have a positive impact in people from orleans..,but the team isnt having to convince people from orleans to be Sens fans

A lot of people I work with live in Gatineau and they don't consider going to Sens games simply because it's in Kanata. It's horrible for folks living in Alymer. Most are Habs fans but would love to go to NHL games and cheer for the Sens as an alternative. But it's just too far.

My main point being: even Habs fans will come out to Sens games if it's downtown. It's just so convenient and would still be a fun night out. If I moved to NY, I would go watch the Rangers. Ottawa would still be my team, but I would still like to go see NHL games.

 

[JD1]

A lot of people I work with live in Gatineau and they don't consider going to Sens games simply because it's in Kanata. It's horrible for folks living in Alymer. Most are Habs fans but would love to go to NHL games and cheer for the Sens as an alternative. But it's just too far.

My main point being: even Habs fans will come out to Sens games if it's downtown. It's just so convenient and would still be a fun night out. If I moved to NY, I would go watch the Rangers. Ottawa would still be my team, but I would still like to go see NHL games.

I agree you'll get more from Gatineau if it's downtown. You'll get more showing up to see Crosby or Ovechkin or some other star. But the opportunity to convert fans is quite limited