Ice Flyers Record Boost In Attendance Leads To Windfall For Area Charities
By Bill Vilona
Ice Flyers Correspondent
The Ice Flyers past season of record-setting attendance turned into a financial windfall for the team’s charitable contributions in the Pensacola area.
A total of $218,718 was donated to various non-profit organizations who were partners with the Ice Flyers. The money surpassed team expectations and became another proud element of a season where the Ice Flyers consistently attracted large crowds at the Pensacola Bay Center.
“I’m going to talk to a couple different teams, but honestly I believe this amount of money is among the highest any team in our league has contributed to the local community,” said Harris, whose team attracted 130,024 fans to the Pensacola Bay Center for a 4,644 per-game average that were both franchise record totals.
Both numbers were the second-highest last season in the SPHL.
“It was just another contributor to just how amazing this past season was for us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the success we wanted on the ice,” said Ice Flyers owner, Greg Harris, referring to the team’s first-round playoff loss. “But everything else fell into place and we really took some giant steps forward and we were really able to do a lot of amazing things and help a lot of local non-profit organizations.”
The Ice Flyers utilized the Bay Center video boards and sound system to create an increased fan experience with each play stoppage and between period intermission included various entertainment elements.
“We’re now able to make this a multidimensional experience,” Harris said. “The credit goes to our staff. We have phenomenal people creating new ideas, new ways to increase our fan experience. And it’s not just the video, or the music, or the contests, or player interviews, or the between periods entertainment, but it’s everything together in a multi-dimensional way that sets us apart.”
This week, Harris and the Ice Flyers hosted the annual Southern Professional Hockey League meetings at the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach. It is the third consecutive year the SPHL has held its summer meetings in Pensacola.
The meetings included the owners of the 10 teams, plus each team’s alternative governor on the board of governors, along with the league’s vendor partners and families. Many of the owners, alternate governors, bring their families for vacation at Pensacola Beach.
During the meetings, there are built-in times for the group to visit various attractions, take a boating excursion and have meals at various restaurants in the area.
“It’s a good number of people coming to Pensacola and helping put more money back into our community,” Harris said. “We use these meetings to share ideas, formulate promotion opportunities and talk about things that can help everyone in our league.
“We always share ideas and that is one of the amazing parts of our league in that we are pretty open with each other and helping each other out. There are definitely some things we pick up on from other teams and vice versa.”
One of the elements the Ice Flyers embraced the past season was their increased impact in the Pensacola area with non-profit organizations.
The Ice Flyers joined with seven partner charities: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, USO Northwest Florida, Gulf Coast Kids House, Ronald McDonald House, Canine Companions, Rally Foundation Gulf Coast and Autism Pensacola.
In addition, in-game raffles, merchandise booths, plus the nightly “Chuck-A-Puck” contest and “50-50 Raffle” helped raise money for other local charities.
“So much of the credit has to go to our fans, our Ice Flyer Nation,” Harris said. “Everyone bought into it and help contribute and supported our charities. Everything came together and now it’s the repeat factor.
“Now, as we look ahead to next season, it’s all about taking a look at what we have done and how do we do it bigger and better? You never want to be satisfied. So we will be looking at how we can increase and improve on what we’re doing.”
The past season, the Ice Flyers sales and marketing staff made inroads with various groups and communities as far as Panama City and the Mobile area in getting new fans at Ice Flyers games.
That was part of the element the led to record attendance and charitable contributions.
“It’s not easy to do,” he said. “You’ve got to do it smart and you have to have the right strategy and backing and the right concepts for fund raising and donating. Everything came together for us. And it’s something we are definitely continuing to do now as we head into another season.”
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