Missing fans concern Gaglardi

From The Daily News of Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007 . . .

As Tom Gaglardi prepares to take over the Kamloops Blazers, he wants to
solve the mystery of the missing fans.
“That’s my biggest focus right now,” the Vancouver businessman said Tuesday
on the eve of a WHL board of governors’ meeting in Calgary at which River
City Hockey Inc., the five-man group headed by Gaglardi, is expected to be
approved as the team’s new owner.
“The hockey team is the hockey team. I’m not going to go and coach the
team,” Gaglardi said. “I’m going to try to work on stuff I can work on right
away, and that’s going back and figuring out why 600 or 700 fewer people
over the last eight years are watching Blazers games.”
The Blazers, who were badly outplayed in losing 4-2 to the visiting Calgary
Hitmen on Monday night, are 3-3-0-0 and tied for sixth place in the 10-team
Western Conference.
Through five home games, Kamloops is averaging 4,500 fans, down 335 fans per
game from the same time last season. Over 36 games last season, the Blazers
averaged 4,787 fans, down 95 fans per game from 2005-06.
The franchise has twice averaged more than 5,400 fans — drawing 5,474 per
game in 1998-99, a season in which it reached the WHL final, and 2001-02,
when it averaged 5,407.
“In nine years,” Gaglardi said, “we’re off 600 or 700 fans a game. I can’t
think of anything more exciting to do than go watch a Blazers game. Why
can’t we have 5,500 fans there?”
At this point, Gaglardi isn’t able to answer that question. But he aims to
find one before too long.
Once approval comes, he said, the time for watching will be over.
“Once we get in a position where we can (act),” he said, “I’m going to spend
some time in other guys’ buildings and talk to other owners and find out
what the best operators are doing . . . start gaining some intelligence.”
Gaglardi heads up Northland Properties, which owns, among other things,
Sandman Hotels, Inns and Suites, Denny’s restaurants, Moxie’s Classic Grill,
and the Shark Club Bar and Grill.
He said that RCH will be looking into every aspect of the Blazers operation
as it pertains to servicing the fans.
“It’s just service. It’s not difficult,” he explained. “I do this for a
living. I look after people. I run hospitality businesses. This isn’t rocket
science.
“We’ve got 600 or 700 less fans coming to the games. You ask yourself, ‘Why
is that?’ We have to find out why that is.
“We need to go find the people who used to buy tickets from us and find out
what happened to them. Because I guarantee that everyone of them has a story
why they’re not buying.”
As a potential owner, Gaglardi got his first look at the Blazers earlier
this season. He wasn’t overly enthralled with the experience.
“I was there for the first two home games and I have some ideas,” he said.
“It’s just everything. When you walk in the door, our volunteers are wearing
15-year-old vests . . . I don’t know. I just don’t think it’s as exciting as
it needs to be. The food and beverage offering needs to be looked at.
“Certain things we can change quicker than other things. We have no control
over the food and beverages at this stage. But we need to look at everything
a fan experiences when they walk onto the property.”
One thing he understands is that the theory about winning hockey filling the
seats is just that, a theory.
“This b.s. about win and they come . . . last season the club won 40 games
and attendance fell again,” Gaglardi pointed out. “So it’s not just about
winning; of course, no one wants to watch a loser.
“But, obviously, the value and the service the Blazers have been offering
their fans isn’t enough.”
On this day, though, the conversation kept coming back to those “600 or 700
fans.”
“We need to go find out where those 600 or 700 fans went,” Gaglardi said.
“Is it that they died and we haven’t got new people coming? . . . We want to
know about the 600 or 700 people. Who are they?
“We’re talking about selling hockey to Kamloops. We have to get back into
the community and find out who’s not coming who should be coming.
“We’re going to find 600 people. I don’t know what it’s going to take but I
believe that we will.”
Even if he has to call on Lieut. Horatio Caine for help.