According to a post on LinkedIn about modern marketing, the following are classified as essential skills: time management, critical thinking, data analysis, technical skill, being able to cultivate curiosity, and business goal alignment.
That last one could be both the most important factor and single biggest outlier when you consider the case of the Stratford Fighting Irish Hockey Club.
Breaking down business goal alignment into smaller sub-categories, you’d find topics like how marketing affects profit and loss or differentiating between what’s working and what’s not all in an effort to gain insights that will help drive revenue.
The Irish are, put in oversimplified terms, a zero-sum entity; without a complete breakdown of their financial records, one would guess that the senior hockey team and founding member of the Western Ontario Super Hockey League would be break-even at best. It’s not inexpensive to operate a hockey club, and yet the Irish have become what Jamie Petrie wanted from the start - ingrained in the community.
Or, the Irish have become nearly ubiquitous in Stratford.
Their plan was never overly complicated but extremely involved. Petrie refuses to call the club’s financial backers ‘sponsors’ but rather partners in the Irish family. That opened the door for them to feel included in a new brand and its on-ice development, while allowing the team to gain that foothold within the city’s sports landscape as well as beyond.
“From Day 1, we’ve been saying that there is competition for sponsorship dollars, and that Stratford is big enough to support both us and the Warriors,” he said, referring to the junior team that also inhabits the William Allman Arena. “We do things 100 per cent differently than them - we treat our club like a minor pro team.”
Those early goals, he said, included the following concepts: being entrenched in the community, creating a brand that is identifiable, being competitive on the ice to help grow a dedicated fan base, and promoting themselves as more than just a hockey club.
So, are they entrenched? Go into any number of local businesses and you’ll see some kind of reference to them; Bentley's Inn is a major partner with the team and has that tie displayed prominently in their establishment, while Joe’s Diner, The Urban Barber and Domino’s Pizza all have close ties to the team. Domino’s has game-day promotions with the Irish with pizza give-aways, and they also provide for the team’s new ‘Best Seats In The House’ seating campaign.
Branding is slowly taking hold, as Petrie said there are more people being spotted around town wearing the team’s gear, and they also have a booth at home games to sell their swag. And those home games are starting to build a solid attendance, as he indicated an average of between 500-600 per regular season game and up to as many as 1,300 butts in seats at their final home playoff game.
In three seasons, the Irish have won one league title while making it as far as the league semi-finals in the other two years. It’s a different brand of hockey than Stratford is used to seeing, but it’s more than that.
“We promote a party,” Petrie said, plain and simple. “We have two bars inside the seating area of the rink, an in-game host, tacos in a bag … intermissions are full of events like chuck-a-puck, bowling, cart races. There’s always something going on in the crowd. And with our Best Seats program, our partners can have a VIP zone with up to 50 people in it and a dedicated section in the stands.”
He said it took less than four days to sell out the Best Seats for the upcoming season, living up to the idea that they wanted to do things differently. Every home game has a theme, but it’s going beyond that. Petrie points to the concerts, comedy shows and wrestling events the Irish have promoted as just some of the ways they’re partnering with Stratford. He said they’ve also recently partnered with the Stratford Kinsmen to work on them with projects, but it’s something that can’t happen without a solid base of volunteers to help get things done.
That’s not just limited to game-day staff or those helping with off-ice events. Anywhere from 3-15 people pitch in with brainstorming ideas on how to expand the team’s reach, including suggestions from partners as well.
Petrie and the club flood social media with game and event promotions, and he’s on local radio for two hits every Friday before a home game. He also said the team is planning an outdoor tailgate party to mark their home opener in October but details are still being worked out with the city.
So yes, the partnerships that have been formed greatly help keep the Irish going; Petrie said they never factor gate receipts into the yearly budget and it costs up to as much as $200,000 to run the operation. That’s a lot of comedy shows and body slams to help bridge that span, but it’s working.
How? The fact that they garnered a nomination for a Stratford and Area Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Award (Non-Profit/Charitable) indicates the ship is headed in the right direction. So while it may actually be less about business goal alignment, Petrie and the Irish are busy cultivating their own curiosity as they strive to continue growing.
“We need to be better and more forward thinking all the time,” he said. “I’m always looking for new ideas and ways to help us get to where we want to be.”
