Right To Reply...Reader's Edition. Plus a link or two.

Just to follow up on the "PR People must Die" epic-my single most commented-upon post with the princely total of four, by the way...a link/idea or two which are related..

Dan at Four Point Four Seconds laments the missed opportunities of EIHL playoff weekend...

Becky's reply to "PR People Must Die (read it in full by clicking on the comments tab below the post) contains this interesting statistic: a rough breakdown of season-ticket holders at the Phoenix which shows that families are not the biggest audience by a long way. In fact, she works out (taking u16's and 20-50 year olds as the groups most representative of a "family" that only a quarter of the audience can be considered that way, with 41% being in their late teens or (if we take half of the 20-30 age group as unmarrieds without children, nearly half of the crowd being in the 16-25 age group. Which begs the question, as Becky asks "why the obssession with families?" Doubtless someone will claim that the Phoenix are atypical, but let's be honest, if you go round the rinks of the UK nowadays, the phrase "wow, this crowd is full of families sat together" never enters your head. The only thing I can think of is that families are targeted mainly because they're the ones that have the most "pester power", and clubs find it better economically to have a thousand families who will spend 50 quid a season (often much more) on merchandise than 2000 young people who may only spend a tenner each.

Remember, these are not figures I've made up, but official figures used by the Manchester Phoenix in order to show their sponsors. So-the question is-why are clubs concentrating on a quarter of their market rather than nearly half-especially when those families are arguably going to come anyway?

Merchandise Mayhem: It has been said that I'm willing to criticise, but not come up with ideas. Well, OK then...leaving the in-game atmosphere/music etc well alone-here's a brief blueprint for the EIHL clubs:

Fan events are great-but they don't get newbies in. Advertising does that. As Dan says on Four Point Four Seconds, make your team a permanent presence. Forget the odd "Club x supports Council Initiative Y" PR's, laudable though they may be. They give a positive image but don't make people wonder "wow, what's that?". Posters on bus shelters or in town centres do, or. memorably, the huge picture of Johnathan Phillips which used to be draped over the side of the WNIR with "Home of Devils Hockey" or some such underneath it. Stands at season's beginning in the City Center, stalls at markets or fairs (eg Coventry's Godiva Festival) , and even people handing out free tickets in the City Centre-that works. Tie-ups with other local sports (you plug us, we'll plug you". Ticket deals with them. Deals at places where young people go-clubs and the like. Yes, it may mean that there's a little less champagne at the end of season do, but boy, do they work...and there's enough passionate people out there to staff the stands.
Radio ads. Expensive but they work-and don't just use city stations, use regional ones. Speculate to accumulate....

Then there's the shirts. Make them mean something-if you want more than just a home and away kit forget "Christmas" shirts or "Halloween" shirts. Retro (alternate) shirts are the way to go-you simply put in a league rule that you wear them (home and away) for half the games. games, home and away. You don't even have to have both teams wearing at the same time as long as the colours don't clash. All the teams in the EIHL have enough history to appeal to the nostalgia of longtime fans and the pockets of new ones, simply because the shirts are different. Then there's the extra money from those who have it to burn at the shirt auctions-as well as giving more people to own a (well-worn) gamer of their favourite player...

Basingstoke: Beavers design
Belfast: (possibly the dodgiest, but the first-season shirt, maybe)
Cardiff: (Rhapsody in Red)
Coventry: Solihull Blaze-all you need is to remove the "Coventry" from above the dragon. Imagine Adam Calder in this beauty.
Edinburgh: Murrayfield Racers. Enough said...
Hull: Humberside Seahawks. Kingston Jets. Hull Thunder. One of the most storied teams in British hockey? Spoilt for choice there...
Manchester: Return of the Storm!
Nottingham: 60 years? There's a shirt in there somewhere....
Newcastle: Cobras. Riverkings, Jesters. Even (dare I mention it) the Durham Wasps...tell me THOSE shirts wouldn't sell in the North East.
Sheffield: Jody Lehman wearing this? Squint and Nathan Gillies could be Ken Priestlay...

There you go-you combine nostalgia AND a nod to the past-and it means that some of the great teams in British hockey will return to the ice-at least in shirt form. It works in the NHL, so why not here?

We will return to on-ice matters soon...I promise..:)