Kerr’s past key to Ice Flyers’ future

First of two parts PENSACOLA, FLA – During its ECHL days, the city of Pensacola fell in love with the Ice Pilots, both on the ice and off. The relationship between the community and the franchise was better than a lot of marriages. Tim Kerr saw it first hand when he was the owner of the Ice Pilots from 2003-2005. The passion that Kerr experienced stuck in his head – and his heart – long enough to

propel him into bringing hockey back to the Panhandle in the form of the SPHL Pensacola Ice Flyers. So far, Kerr’s return has been a successful one both on and off the ice. “It was a great learning experience on the business side of hockey. I came into a situation where the team was pretty much in dire straits and I was fortunate enough to turn it around and get it going,” Kerr said in an interview during the Ice Flyers’ home opening weekend. “I sold it in 2005 and now I’m back here in 2009 in the SPHL. It has been a lot of fun to get back into the game and back around these young men here who still have that dream of moving up and its been a lot of fun.” In 2003, Pensacola was a thriving city along Florida’s Panhandle. Bolstered by military installations in the area, times were good and the Ice Pilots found support both financially through corporate sponsorships and emotionally through the thousands of people who spent their money buying season tickets. Things changed during the summer of 2004 when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. In the time since, the region has faced a slow rebuilding and more recently the national economic slowdown that has decimated so many minor league sports. Despite the challenges, Kerr knew that if it was done right, the city could once again become a hockey hotbed. “Its been a little different. Pensacola has a great little fan base of die hard hockey fans that continued and basically that’s part of the reason we have hockey back here because they wanted it so bad,” he said. “The economy has been a tough thing for minor league sports. Its tough in a good economy and certainly in the economy we’re in it’s a challenge. We’re working hard and the people here have stepped up to do what they can do and we’re hoping that the economy gets better and better and we can keep hockey here for a long time.” Balancing his prior experience in Pensacola with an eye toward the present economic conditions, Kerr knew that the city could only handle so much in the way of business and personal spending. After looking around, he saw that even though it might be considered a drop in level, the SPHL was the perfect situation to revive hockey in. “The first time around was a learning experience for me being in the hockey business rather than the playing side so doing this project this time obviously I had a lot more information going in. We’ve been able to build a good plan and the SPHL (business) model is a great model,” Kerr said. “It’s a model that is a lot better than the other minor league hockey (leagues) for success at a minor level. I’m really excited to be involved in the SPHL and there’s going to be some expansion and all the teams seem to be on solid ground – the seven teams we have. The ownership groups all want to work together and try to make it to where all of the teams are successful. Its been a great experience that way and really a refreshing experience.” So what exactly was it about the SPHL business plan that drew Kerr’s attention? There were several things that the hockey player turned real estate magnate liked, especially when it came to expenses. “In the ECHL, operating expenses are around $1.9 million dollars to $1.950 million for an average where in the SPHL we’re like $1.250 million and that comes from the travel where we’re not spending a lot of time on the road so your per diem, your travel costs which are astronomical today with the price of gas and the economy,” he said. “We have more weekend games which in any sport you draw better on a Friday or Saturday than you do on a Sunday through Thursday so the model is a lot better and it’s still good, affordable entertainment for families.” Another bright spot for Kerr was the eagerness of the players “Also, the kids at this level, although I didn’t have a problem with the kids at the ECHL level, these kids are a year or two younger. They didn’t get maybe the exposure in the ECHL, getting some contracts out of college or junior hockey. These kids here are definitely playing not for the cash, what with our salary cap being a lot  lower, but for the love of the game and hoping they can develop a little bit to get to the next level. It’s been really refreshing.” Once Kerr decided to bring hockey back as part of the SPHL, he needed to get the one thing that he needed most – a lease with the Pensacola Civic Center that would be beneficial to the team, the city and Escambia County.  After several months of discussion with the county and SMG, the building’s operations company, an agreement was reached setting in motion the whirlwind of work needed to put a team on the ice. As painful as it may have looked to the fans and outsiders, Kerr was happy with the discussions and of course the outcome. “It’s a whole process and when I was brought back in to try to put hockey back here, it all started with having a lease with the building. There was a lot of press and talk that hockey couldn’t make it here and I was fortunate enough to get in front of the commissioners and talk about the way hockey was here when I was here for the two years,” he said. “We were a good partner in the community and did well and they (commissioners) came on board. SMG, who manages the building here, has been great to work with. The relationship is great right now and everybody’s working toward the same goal of being successful. Its been a great experience.” With a lease in hand, Kerr set about building his staff. The first major announcement was the hiring of Todd Gordon as the team’s first head coach. Like Kerr, Gordon had a history in the ECHL and in Pensacola so the choice was a natural one. Thing was, neither of the two had much background knowledge of the style of play in the SPHL. “Getting into this in Pensacola and the SPHL, I had never seen an SPHL game. One of my big concerns or what I was anxious to see what the difference was in the levels (ECHL vs. SPHL),” Kerr said. “I was very surprised and encouraged that other than I think in the ECHL your top players are a little better, but speed-wise and stuff its not real noticeable for myself and I think for the average fan and certainly the fans down south here in Pensacola I don’t believe they can see a difference in that aspect so in that way it was very refreshing for me. I think the top players are a little better in the ECHL than here but I think there is a little more parity in the players throughout this league.” In Kerr’s mind, he and Gordon had something of an advantage – as did the other two expansion teams – in that they had a clean roster sheet with which to work. No loyalties to play to. No promises from last year to honor. It was the perfect opportunity to create a team from the ground up. “It’s a learning curve. We came in as an expansion team and basically when we had training camp, we were starting from scratch. This whole process of this team, we didn’t have a pen to start with. It’s been good,” he said. “Rather than having players protected from the year before, everybody came in with the same opportunity and we’ve ended up with a very young team – I believe we ended up with 13 or 14 rookies – and its been a lot of fun. We’ve had a nice start and we’re certainly I’m sure going to have our ups and downs and have a lot of tweaking to do through the year but Todd did a wonderful job in getting the players we have here and hopefully we can continue to build on that.” Coming next: Fitting into the hole left by the Ice Pilots… Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com