Gulf coast trip all business for Kerr

ORLANDO, Fla. – Normally, a trip to the Gulf Coast in July is filled with sun, sand, water and fun. When you own two minor league hockey teams in the region, however, summer visits are not always for entertainment.
That was the case last week when Tim Kerr, chairman of the SPHL Board of Governors and owner of the Pensacola Ice Flyers and the Mississippi Surge, headed south to deal with business in both cities. The resulting decisions that came about were met with cheers in one (Pensacola) and jeers in the other (Biloxi).
“It was an action packed week but we got a lot of things in order there,” Kerr said. “By the end of the week, it ended up being a very positive week.”
Kerr’s first stop was in Pensacola where he needed to put out a fire that threatened to consume the Ice Flyers. At the center of it all was the building the team calls home, the Pensacola Civic Center. More specifically, the finances of the building and the hockey franchise’s role in them were being questioned by local officials.
For some time now, the Pensacola Civic Center has been on the negative end of financial statements. Because of that, the Escambia County (FL) commissioners have had to authorize additional monies being taken from the coffers of the Tourism Development Council (TDC), the group that oversees the marketing and promotion of the area, to cover the PCC‘s losses. The most recent subsidies to the PCC have come to the tune of $1.9 million dollars each year.
In an attempt to figure out the problems and come up with a way to make the PCC profitable, the county turned to Chicago-based C.H. Johnson Consulting to analyze all of the data and make reccomendations. It was some of the findings contained within the report that Kerr found upsetting.
“It kind of came out with the hockey issue which was creating the problem, Kerr said. “There was a lot of stuff in the report that I personally don’t agree with and I don’t understand how they got to some things.”
According to published figures, the hockey operation was budgeted to post a $200,000 direct loss to the building with $172,000 already having occurred. The PCC also hosted recreational ice events and when the revenue from those events was added in, the loss dropped to $46,000. However, the consulting firm factored in lost revenue from events that were turned away (by the count of building management company SMG, four events were turned down this year), the report determined that having ice in the building was responsible for $1 million of the $1.9 million subsidy that had to be diverted from the TDC.
To make matters worse, the report insinuated that the Ice Flyers had not lived up to their end of the bargain when it came to season ticket sales. In fact, the report stated that the team was in violation of their current lease because not enough had been sold to satisfy the agreement.
Kerr said that a lack of communications during the compilation of the figures for the report led to the differential between the team reported average attendance of 3,015 and the just under 1,700 that the report used to determine the alleged lease violation.
“This is where the problem is. During this process, I was never asked to give them an accounting of how we do our numbers. For an example, there are season ticket numbers and we have our corporate accounts that people when they buy a dasher board they get four tickets. Those tickets were not put in there. They were kept in my corporate side,” he said. “Obviously there’s no way for them to have those numbers because there’s no way to pick them (corporate tickets) up through Ticketmaster.”
Kerr expressed his frustration with other numbers included in the report such as the use of 41 home games to base the figures around. He also was not pleased with what he saw as a misrepresentation of date flexibility in the current lease.
“In the report they’re doing estimations of how we did. They’re using 41 dates. We only played 28 home games and we’ve only had one playoff game in both years unfortunately. We’re 29 dates and they’re throwing the number 41,“ Kerr said. “They’re using language that because hockey’s there they couldn’t get any weekend dates. In my current lease, they have the ability to move any date they want. There was a lot of misinterpretation.”
The consultant boiled everything down to five reccomendations with one being to eliminate the team based on the alleged lease violation. A second idea was to keep the team but renegotiate the lease, which had two years left on it, down to a one year term but with guarantees that Kerr and the Ice Flyers would pay for any losses directly attributed to the ice and the team. That renegotiation, at the suggestion of the consultant, would had to have been completed by September 1st otherwise the current lease would be voided and no new lease worked on.
Kerr went down to Pensacola and met individually with the commissioners to explain his side of the situation prior to a final vote last Thursday. The commissioners eventually voted 4-1 to wait until next summer to renegotiate the lease, giving the Ice Flyers time to increase revenue and ticket sales, something that Kerr readily admits he and his staff could do much better at.
“We’ve worked hard as a franchise and know we need to do better. Nobody knows (that) more than I do. I’m the guy signing the checks,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to work through that and get on solid ground for next year. At the end of the day, there’s enough commissioners that really want hockey to stay in Pensacola. We as a team have to sell more tickets so that the revenues are up in the building and do whatever it takes to keep hockey there. There’s certainly a passion for hockey in Pensacola. I’d certainly hate to see all the time and effort to get it back there wasted for it not to be there because there would be no ice for minor hockey, figure skating, men’s hockey and public skating. They would all be gone.”
Kerr was also quick to say that the team’s relationship with SMG is quite good despite the public perception that the management company is not a fan of ice hockey. He even went so far as to absolve SMG from having a big part in the misrepresentations in the consultant’s report.
“We actually have a very good working relationship with SMG. We have not had any problems whatsoever,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t just put it (report) on SMG. I think there were a lot of assumptions of where these numbers were that weren’t factual. Part of the process of renegotiating a new deal for the following season after this one is to work with it.”
With the Ice Flyers situation squared away, Kerr moved on to his second team, the Mississippi Surge. As Chairman of the Board of Governors, Kerr had stepped in this past March when the Surge’s ownership group, which included Walby, was ready to throw in the towel and fold the franchise over financial difficulties. Despite success on the ice, the turnstyles were not ringing loudly, creating a negative cash flow. Kerr helped keep the team afloat through its run to the President’s Cup title and later bought the team outright.
“Literally with two or three weeks left in the season, the ownership of the Mississippi team said they were all done and that they weren’t going to be able to put any more money in. It was a situation where they were going to fold. I, being kind of involved with them a little bit trying to help them over the (past) couple of years, being the chairman of the league and having a team in Pensacola, (I think) having a team in Mississippi is an integral part of our league especially in growing down the road with (bringing in) other teams,” Kerr said. “I don’t know if I’m the smartest guy in the world to take that challenge but I went in there and funded the team to finish the year and to move forward.”
Kerr said that his goal with buying the Surge was to install a business model similar to the one in Pensacola since in his estimation, the markets are somewhat similar. The hope was that a new plan of action would move the Surge franchise in a positive direction with the help of people he felt would be on board from the start.
“In doing that (installing a new business model), I want to have people that I feel comfortable with in how we do things. Obviously there have been a couple of changes there and there certainly could be more down the road also,” he said. “I obviously believe that Mississippi has a community and fans that want to keep hockey on the Gulf Coast. It’s my job to put a model in place to make that happen. That’s basically the challenge in front of me.”
He said that from the outset of his involvement, he saw an operation that was not functioning at a level that would allow the f

ranchise to prosper. It also didn’t fit his own personal concept of a successful plan. As general manager and head coach, Walby had the task of running both the business and the on-ice sides of the franchise.
Kerr did not want to comment on the specifics of why he felt Walby did not fit into the long term picture. He did however praise him for what he did on the ice and what he meant to both the ECHL SeaWolves and SPHL Surge franchises.
“Steffon has done a great job in coaching. He’s had some success and he’s been a part of franchises for a long time,” he said.
Kerr has already begun to make good on his promise of putting a positive business model in place. He hired long time minor league broadcaster and media liason Steve McCall as the new V.P. of Communications. McCall comes from the CHL’s Tulsa Oilers where he held a similar position and won high praise for his work in getting the Oilers name out in the community.
The next item of business for Kerr will be to find a new coach. He said the process is ongoing but that he wants to move quickly in order to allow the new hire to recruit players prior to training camp in October. He did indicate that his coach would just be asked to participate when necessary in business matters and not carry the weight of a dual role.
“Obviously I’m looking for a young coach that would be excited to coach at this level, that has the ability to recruit and is willing to be a part of an organization that can be successful both on and off the ice,” he said. “I’m looking for a coach that will handle the hockey operations side and also be involved where asked on the business side. I’m looking for a coach, not a G.M.”
Surge fans have not been quick to accept Kerr’s decision with regards to releasing Walby. Some have threatened to not renew their season tickets. Kerr said he understands their frustration, even going so far as to say that under the circumstances they have a right to be angry. He hopes that over time, the fans will see that the moves made during these dog days of summer will in the long run assure them of being able to see hockey in their own backyard well into the future.
“There’s certainly no guarantees to anything that we do. I’ve basically committed to the people of Mississippi that I’m going to do my best to put this franchise where it can survive and hockey can stay on the coast,” he said. “That’s my challenge. That’s my promise. Am I going to make mistakes? We all make mistakes. I’m doing the best I can to make the changes that I feel I need to do to keep hockey on the coast for many years to come. That obviously is a big project and one that is not going to be an easy one.”
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com