It was a small moment in the Toronto Maple Levis season, a footnote in late January NHL I barely noticed.
But when the captain commented how he felt disappointed in the home crowd to show him a little enthusiasm to fight in the early match, he started a lot of comments in the midst of the hockey world about the Leavs fan base.
Or, to be more specific, the lack of one in the seats.
“I wanted to get more energy from the crowd after that (fighting),” Auston Matthews said After losing 5-1 in front of the blue Columbus jackets, during which Ryan Reeves Levis brought down gloves with Matteo Olivier in the first period. “I thought it was a little calm, especially after two young men went like that.”
“He only recognizes what everyone knows,” Commentator Tsn Bryan Hayes later added. “This building on Wednesday night in January is never high.”
Hasn’s criticism of Scotiaabank ARNA is not new in Toronto, as ticket prices have long surpassed medium fans.
The atmosphere of the lukewarm game was raised by many hundreds of believers Which responded to our ownership poll last month. It was widely displayed again When we met the ticket holders season About increasing eye opening prices for packages next year.
Part of the issue in Toronto relates to the nature of sports attendance in general over the past twenty years. More and more tickets are purchased by companies as companies’ privileges, to the extent that sitting in the bottom often doubles as well as attending a working meeting in the main markets such as Toronto, New York and Vancouver.
The luxurious wings and expensive halls near the best viewership are to attract clients, who then help inflate revenues beyond what anyone could imagine in previous times.
However, even with this increasing trend in all sports, many organizations have started sinking millions of dollars in improving the atmosphere in their arenas. What has become known as the “Events Show Industry” has grown dramatically during that period. The effect has become particularly noticeable over the past decade or so in hockey, as the latest markets have pushed what is possible in the NHL game.
According to some in the presentation industry, Nashville Predators may have started everything when they set up the band stage over the entrance to Zamboni at Bridgestone Stadium, where it embraced its reputation in the musical city through the live shows integrated into the Gameday experience. Many other teams followed their example, between the outer areas of Tampa Bay Lightning and Tesla file; The Seattle Crack of the plane. And how Vigas’s golden knights have … well, there is a lot that happens in T-Mobile Arena.
The result? When you travel to unconventional markets these days, it is better to compare the square environment with some of the most venerable hockey cities on Earth.
It is a variation that made me wonder about the knowledge of working on the crowd – And whether, and perhaps the old NHL goalkeeper can learn something of the new.
When Las Vegas got the NHL expansion privilege in 2016, the golden knights who would be soon in the game experience invested. But they were not simply air in “Hockey People” for the roles.
Instead, President Kerry Bubouls, who came through Cleveland Cavaliers in the American Professional League, assigned two WWE employees to build their presentation team: Johnny Greco, who became Vice President Golden Knights and Experienced experience, and Andrew Abrams, who specialized in video production at the Arena level.
Graco and ABRAMS were working in NHL by – Greco with Columbus Blue and Abrams with St. Louis Blues – but their mission of the Golden Knights was very different. In Vigas, they were assigned to combine what they learned in both hockey and wrestling; Apply lessons on a unique market; And the creation of a new brand that will stand out in an old league.
“Everyone thought we would only have, like, missing everywhere,” added Greko. “You know,” Vigas – that’s what they will! “The matter was fine, there should be more thinking.
Initially, Abrams and Greco did not know whether they had a winning product to work with, given the unfortunate state of most expansion lists. Instead, Golden Knights continued to reach the Stanley Cup final in their first season of their presence.
“The offer was our first priority,” Abrams said, now, Vice President and CEO of the executive producer. “We had to make it good because if the team was not good, we still need people to come and have a good time, pay the ticket price and generate revenues. Fortunately, the team was good.”
The Golden Knights have published the amulet in the Middle Ages to stir the crowd since the beginning of the concession. (Ethan Miller / Getty Emus)
The initial version of the Innovation of Golden Knights included the publication of an actor wearing a Middle Ages, to deliver an exciting initial speeches on the ice while making a plot from a battle looming on the horizon against the opponent. The team has since added more layers to the game’s experience, including a group of drum players who can shoot the crowd even while playing; “Night Club” experience with DJ and a special festive bottle service in the second break; Until last season, 34 feet showed, The dragon that comes out smoke At the end of the ski circuit.
Abrams explained that the golden knights were inspired by many entertainment gardens, especially when it comes to the scale of some of their designs (see: dragon). And they are trying to change things, so even the ticket holders in the season do not know what they will see any specific night.
Until Wednesday in January, the NHL games in Vegas are never boring.
The approach to Golden Knights has won a boat load of appreciation, including the best comprehensive production prize in Idea 2023 conferenceThe Emmy Award for the Stanley Cup banner in the same year, and honoring The most popular NHL team to display the game Three times in the past four seasons.
Yes, some success is that everything happens in Las Vegas. But the other teams around the league have also noticed. And not only in the sun belt. For example, EDMONONON OILERS installed a band for a band – The Oilers Drum and Brass Crew – which launches the Rogers Place crowd during games, a new development for a Canadian market.
The batch needed to create the fans’ experience was so clear that Greco had branched to start its own company, Entertainment brilliance. He is now traveling in the world that helps sports privileges to push the work of its crowds to the next level, as it brought some of these golden knights and encourages the difference to direct that “possible energy” to something fun and real for everyone in the building. In one of the presentations it provides regularly, on “The Moment of the Ending Poor”, GRCO explains the right music, animation, lighting, and the visuals of the results and timing panel at a time when a goal is scored.
Greco said that more and more privileges are rewarded for the presentation of the presentation with executive titles and “a seat on the table”, after they realized how important the role is to build momentum with ticket owners.
Jenio said, By the launch of SHINE, he also worked as a great vice president of Madison Square Garden Company, who owns New York Knicks, Rangers, and Seattle Krakeen. “To be able to contact differently, to be able to hold conversations with Hocky Ops, as well as the brand people, then try to create something that plays and strikes all the feeling properly, which creates a home ice feature.”
But Greko acknowledged that the challenges facing the existing traditional privileges can be more clear than those who start again, for example, Vigas or Seattle.
He said, “It is a more difficult way.” “Some teams have leaders wandering in your offer and cannot tell you why they don’t like anything. But it’s like,” Oh, I don’t like it, don’t do it anymore, “maybe without a rhyme or reason.”
Due to the efforts of modern teams such as golden knights and kraken, some will never happen in the most firm NHL market.
In Toronto, Leafs invested in advanced video display technology, and there is an impressive ice show in Scotiabank Arena before games. But they are not about to put the equivalent of a giant dragon in the corner of the ski circuit.
One of the ideas that GRCO believes can enhance energy level in traditional markets: football -like supporters. A new wrist has already been added to Los Angeles Clubs games this season with “The Wall”, It has been tested in the NHL squares to a limited extent over the years in Nashville and Vancouver.
For Canucks, the group It is known as LarscheidesAnd starting 2016, they worked with the team to buy large sections of honest seats to seven or eight games in the season.
This is the Larscheides section of the lower bowl is very prominent. I really didn’t see this type of dizziness -like electrical atmosphere in A. #Canucks Game by pic.twitter.com/xdblj93xur
– Harman Dayal (@hagandayal2) April 20, 2022
Larscheiders has a 10-point behavior blog for the fans who buy section-“No. 2: Stand in the entire game and respond to what is happening on the ice”-and they received interest in the media to reach popular chants such as “Bruce, there!” (In honor of former coach Bruce Bodro) and Cheering the first goal of Elias Pettersson NHL.
Carlo Bodroge, the group’s co -creator, said that the motive behind the group’s start is to inject some life in the Rogers Square in Vancouver, which has become calm in recent years because of many seats that are sold to companies’ interests.
“The chanting of your home team while surrounding other fans with you – not on their phones or closing deals – in the same mentality, this is a really strong and different thing from other entertainment options,” said Boderoji. “It is a feeling of solidarity and collective joy.”
He explained that the challenge he faces in building a section of supporters includes the need to participate from the team, as buying a set of tickets where hundreds of fans can stand together not possible through Ticketmaster. This season, after the qualifiers last spring and with high ticket prices, Canucks did not prepare a section for Larscheides, which is a step Which has caused criticism in the market.
As the qualifiers and papers are approaching the first round collision with its opponent for a long time, Senate members in Ottawa, the energy is likely to capture organically in Toronto starting from the end of next week. You will find more tickets on their way to updated fans, and will bring post -season classes more emotion to a building that sometimes needs this season.
Whether the future brings something more, however, it is still an open question. At least, it is worth investing some additional time, money and thinking over the coming years.
(Alawite Image: Mark Plence / NHLI via Getty Images)
