Part 1 of 2
ORLANDO, FLA – Professional sports affiliation ladders in general are all about preparing players to move up them on the way to everyone’s intended goal – the big leagues. But there is a second side to the agreements, namely the business end which, at the end of the day, is just as if not more important than the on-field or on-ice product.
When the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Orlando Solar Bears agreed to become partners recently, all eyes were on how the Lightning could help the Solar Bears with players. Behind the scenes, however, there was just as much excitement with how the newly minted union would benefit both organizations and hockey among the palm trees and sun along Interstate 4 in Central Florida.
“The biggest reason is that it just makes complete sense from a business perspective and a hockey perspective. We’re what, sixty miles away [from Tampa]. I know from my house in Winter Garden it takes and hour and five minutes with no traffic,” Solar Bears President Chris Heller said during an interview as Orlando opened its training camp on Monday. “From a business perspective, the whole objective in our minds is to build our fan base, build our season ticket base and grow hockey in Central Florida and what better way to do that than to partner with Tampa, who has done it so well behind the community in Tampa. [The] growth in Tampa in hockey and street hockey over the last however many years has been tremendous and we’re hoping to copy some of that, get some help from Tampa and just be able to grow the sport which will then grow our fan base as well.”
Heller’s excitement, and that of the Solar Bears organization, was echoed by members of the Lightning front office when last Thursday Tampa took on the Florida Panthers in an NHL preseason game at the Amway Center. An announced crowd of 10,781 – many wearing either Lightning or Solar Bears jerseys – whooped and hollered from start to finish, bringing a wide smile to the face of Tampa CEO Steve Griggs.
“You look out here and there’s ten, eleven thousand people here to watch a hockey game. Working it at the grass roots level, working it at the ECHL level, the NHL level, just the ability to grow the game. Add Fox Sports (Lightning television partner) into the mix here and when you look at where this game is going with the millennials and the younger Gen Z’s, it really is the game of the future for young people,” Griggs said. “I think being partnered with the [Orlando] Magic (owners of the Solar Bears) and the Lightning is a perfect mix.”
Griggs has a perspective that few can have of the affiliation. At one time, he worked for RDV Sports – the parent company of both the Magic and the Solar Bears – during which the process of the building of the Amway Center came to fruition. He knows both the Orlando and Tampa markets – and the fans who populate both – quite well and how Orlando has blossomed into a hockey city along with Tampa.
“I was just down seeing all my friends that I used to play at six in the morning with. The RDV Sportsplex is just a great place for hockey. You can see the young kids growing. There wasn’t the Solar Bears back here when I was working here so there was that gap of call it pro hockey from the IHL team to the ECHL team,” Griggs said. “We knew there were a lot of new hockey players and fans here. You look out there now and you see that a lot of Lightning fans live here in Orlando. You can see them with all their jerseys and merchandise on so we knew that we were coming into a market that already enjoyed Lightning hockey.”
Under owner Jeff Vinik, the Lightning have grown their brand through their “Lightning Made Hockey” and “Build the Thunder” programs into one that is recognized worldwide. Heller, who is a hockey parent himself, said that the presence of the Lightning has been felt already in the Orlando community, adding that the NHL preseason game brought even more attention to the Solar Bears and the Lightning organizations.
“I think we’ve seen it already. Two or three weeks ago, their hockey community team came up to Orange County for a week and donated sticks and balls to start street hockey programs in schools throughout Orange County,” Heller noted. “Then we held the preseason game between the Lightning and the Panthers. We had almost 11,000 tickets out for the game. The crowd was engaged. If anything, it allowed fans that may have not seen hockey at the Amway Center before to see it and know more about it. In the end, it’s going to improve relationships here in the city and expand our base.”
Arguably the best known community programs that both teams participate in are youth and high school hockey leagues. Both organizations are proud of how their leagues have grown in size and scope over time and see it as a common ground to work on.
“I think it’s something that will continue to grow. The more we grow the game at the lower levels with young kids then they grow and become high school hockey players and we can grow it at the high school level,” Griggs said. “We’ve actually grown it by six junior varsity hockey teams already down in Tampa and then we have the varsity teams. How do we do that here is probably something that we’ll look at doing in the future.”
Heller said that the Solar Bears are very willing to work with the Lightning on expanding the high school program beyond its current size in the Orlando area.
“We’d like to expand it as much as we can,” Heller said. “Whatever way we can jump in and help expand that would be great. Five to ten years from now, I’d love to be able to sit here and tell you that there are twelve to eighteen schools involved in high school hockey instead of four to six which is where we’re at now. Whatever we can do to help expand that we will do and certainly we’ll be relying on Tampa’s expertise to see how they’ve done that over the years.”
Both Griggs and Heller talked about how the teams are working together on doing cross-promotion in each other’s buildings as a way to increase awareness of the new affiliation. The Solar Bears are already planning to have a Lightning-themed night on January 5th to celebrate the relationship as well as trying to reboot the team’s celebrity classic hockey game with former Tampa players participating.
“It’s going to be themed around the Tampa Bay Lightning. They’re on the road out west that night so we’re hoping to have some Tampa personalities up here that day throughout the game,” Heller said. “We’re looking to bring back the celebrity classic that we’ve done in the past and the hope is to maybe get an former Tampa player or two to come up and play in that. The more the Lightning are mentioned up here, the better for them and the better for us to grow the sport and the more the Solar Bears are mentioned in Tampa, the better for us and better for them.”
In the end, the joining of the Tampa Bay Lightning with the Orlando Solar Bears and the Orlando Magic, looks to be one that although it took a while to happen, is one that will be good for everyone, especially hockey fans.
“We’re (Tampa) a world class organization and we know the Magic are a world class organization,” Griggs said. “When you put the Solar Bears into the mix too and our ability to attract partners and relationships, I think everything is world class and it comes together in one.”
Next: The on-ice side
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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