newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JOE FAVORITO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

ON N.J. SPORTS MARKETING

The name Federal Hockey League, brings back great memories for fans of the sport. Not for its play on the ice, but because the FHL was the mythical league of the Charlestown Chiefs in the cult favorite film "Slapshot," starring Paul Newman. The Federal League was a last stop in the minors for a rough and tumble gang of players led by Newman's character Reg Dunlap, the Hansen Brothers (who have parlayed the film into a public appearance tour that still goes on) and a host of other "naer do wells" struggling to hang on in a town (which was actually Johnstown, Pa.) in an ever-changing society. It remains today among one of the most popular sports films of all time.

Real life sometimes does imitate art, and a few years ago a bunch of entrepreneurs took the Federal League name and began an independent venture trying to serve communities with minor league hockey in the northeast. The Federal League has looked to provide a chance for hockey players who have fell through the professional system cracks, while providing a quality compliment of winter entertainment for sports fans who probably enjoy the cost-effective summer of minor league baseball as well. The franchises play in outposts ranging from the Thousand Islands of upstate New York to Danbury, Connecticut to Brooklyn of all places, to various degrees of success.

Whereas minor league baseball strives to find crowds of several thousand to enjoy the outdoors, minor league hockey looks to fill small buildings at this level with 1,000-2,000 fan looking to catch a glimpse of a star and play with a mascot on a cold winter night. It is a tougher sell than its baseball counterpart, with a smaller audience size and the challenges of getting people to go out on cold winter nights. Still, with its challenges the FHL has pressed on, dropping some franchises, adding others, and using Danbury and their Whalers as the model, drawing several thousand people a game and building a community for sport where there was not one before. It is a huge struggle to make money at that level of hockey, but it is a great starting point.

So into this mix comes the hockey rich area of Northern Jersey, and a very quiet announcement that the FHL will bring a team to Wayne, the New Jersey Outlaws, starting in the fall. The approval was part of an FHL press release this past week (the furst announcement actually came in May), and some information can be found on the website for the team's home, the sparkling new and thriving Capital One Ice Vault. The dual rink lists seating for 600, and it sits in an area where hockey is doing very well on the grassroots level, many of whom also support the increased marketing efforts of the Devils. The management team includes several people familiar with sports marketing, but the teams website was not functioning Thursday, so little else is known at this point.

So can minor league hockey make it in North Jersey? There are a number of challenges. First, the size of the arena immediately puts a cap on income, and even at a decent price, 600 seats is going to be tough to lead to profitability. Although the area is hickey-savvy and hockey-rich, it is still the New York area, and trying to cut through the clutter to find a cost efficient way to get the word out is going to be tough. Despite the best efforts, the minor league baseball teams, of which there are many, have had the same problem, with fans left to choose from Newark, Somerset, Montclair and now Rockland, all to varying degrees of success or failure over time. Minor league hickey at this level has also been tried in other parts of the region and has never succeeded, due to lack of funding, marketing or expertise, and despite their increased efforts, even the Devils have never really found the huge niche in New Jersey many expected.

The key for the Outlaws will be cost-contained fun, and the stories that can be told by the players and coaches being a part of the fabric of hockey. The Aviators in Brooklyn had some success getting exposure with the complex they play in, some of their grassroots effort and the unique background of some of their players, and the Outlaws will need to do the same. They will need to sell cost-effective sponsorships at a decent rate with lots of added community value to local and regional businesses. They will have to invest some money in a social media and digital outreach plan, one that makes sense and that can get the story of the team outside its small hockey community. It will also have to pull from a young labor pool looking to get a taste of sports business for the first time.