Features

The view from the office

Friday, 18th April 2008

With the 2007-2008 season now over and the off-season upon us, Richard Allan caught up with Andy Costigan to see how the Phoenix office is gearing up for the forthcoming 2008-2009 season.

Richard Allan: Two weeks ago we were reporting that we'd sold in excess of 100 season tickets for next season. How are the sales doing now?

Andy Costigan: The Early Bird Season Ticket Sales are coming in nicely and we're close now to the two hundred mark. At this rate, we should surpass the total number of season tickets sold last season by some considerable margin and that is great for the club. And we think the supporters must appreciate the overall price reductions we've managed to make in terms of buying early. We were always keen to reward the supporters who have stuck with us, but it's also pleasing to find so many new Season Ticket purchasers too.

RA: Of the season tickets already sold, are we getting a clearer overview of where are supporters are coming from to get to our games?

AC: The demographics of the season tickets sold so far make for extremely interesting reading. I carried out a brief review the other day and it surprised me. The single biggest postal code area represented in the Season Ticket sales to date is Oldham, closely followed by Stockport and then Bury. But looking through the full list, it was even more exciting to see just how far and wide the appeal of the Phoenix is reaching. Using The Ice Dome as the epicentre of our 'territory, ' the furthest west (so far) we've received a Season Ticket application from is Ellesmere Port on the Wirral and the furthest east is Mossley. If we look to the north, we've got applications from Preston and Blackburn, and from the south, five already from Stoke-on-Trent and one from Leek, which is also in Staffordshire. We've had numerous from Bolton, Warrington, Wigan, Hyde, Ashton, Rochdale, just about everywhere within a 20-30 mile radius of Altrincham - it's quite staggering really.

RA: I take it this kind of analysis will hope us with planning for our advertising and marketing?

AC: Spot on Richard, the first thing I did after studying the geography of the ST applications to date was to get on the 'phone and e-mail to all the local radio stations. In discussions with News and Sports editors, we've asked how we can get more exposure for the Phoenix with them given that we can prove that we have supporters in their catchment area and who may be listeners to their stations - the response has been very encouraging in that nobody has said No to using the press releases that we issue. We're very fortunate to have a great radio partner in Imagine FM, but for supporters who tune into Silk FM, Key 103, WISH FM, Tower FM, Rock FM, Century FM, Smooth FM, XFM, Wire FM, BBC Radio Manchester, Radio City, and Revolution FM... if you don't hear our news on those stations, let us know and we'll try to find out why.

RA: Towards the end of the season, we started to see some familiar faces in the crowd from the old days of the Storm at the MEN. Is it a boost to the club to see Mancunian hockey fans coming back and getting behind the Phoenix?

AC: Those heady, heady days of five-figure crowds in the MEN Arena may be behind us, but in answer to your question Richard, yes, it is very pleasing to see former Storm supporters coming out to watch the Phoenix. For six or seven years, the Storm was a huge part of many peoples lives and whilst the Ice Dome isn't the MEN, it's the sport and the nights entertainment that people pay to watch, not to look around an auditorium. Hockey is a sport that you either take or leave in my opinion, there aren't too many casual hockey fans... and if former Storm fans are missing their hockey, well they've only got to come along once or twice and we're confident that the atmosphere in the Dome will grip them.

RA: So far our announced roster for the new season consists of Tony Hand, who is currently away coaching with the GB International Team. How long after his return can we expect some news on player signings?

AC: Ah Richard, I knew you wouldn't be long before you posed such a question. Tony Hand is busy right now with the GB programme and it's only fair to the national programme that he gives that his full attention at this time. But, I can assure Phoenix fans that he and I speak almost daily and he is receiving as many e-mails from players and agents as am I, and it won't be too long before we'll make our early announcements. Tony returns home this weekend, and then next week, we'll get really busy pursuing the early irons we've got in a couple of fires.

RA: We've already had it confirmed that sniper Joe Tallari won't be rejoining us next season, as he's heading to Italy. Is that a major blow for the team?

AC: Without a doubt, Joe will be a hard act to replace and a hard act to follow for anyone we look to recruit as the sniper. It is a blow for us, but at the same time, we take it as a back-handed compliment that one of our players made such an impact that clubs with bigger budgets in stronger leads moved so quickly to try to lure him away. It's also a blow for the Elite League as Joe was certainly a key figure in the Elite League last season. If he had to go, we're just glad he hasn't gone to one of our own rivals.

RA: At the Man Of Ice awards, Joe fared well as did Brett Clouthier who received the Hard As Ice award and dared the other enforcers to "come get it" from him. Does this mean that there's a good chance we'll be seeing Brett in the EIHL again this coming season?

AC: There you go again, trying to put words in my mouth (laughs). Clootch is a tremendously popular player and in the role that he plays, he's one of if not the best that this country has ever seen. That's not to highlight just his pugilistic skills, because he can play a bit too. But as the enforcer, policeman, hard-man - whatever label you put on him, Clootch is up there. I'm sure there are other teams who would be interested in him, but then again so are we and he openly admitted on many occasions that he likes Manchester. Let's put it this way... if Brett wants to return to the UK for a third season, we'll be in the mix for his signature.

RA:. The Play-Off weekend saw the annual grinding of the Rumour Mill, with plenty of tales of potential player transfers doing the rounds. Were there any rumours that brought a smile to you face over the weekend?

AC: Probably the funniest I heard was for a Charity Boxing Match at next years playoffs... with Panthers GM Gary Moran putting up the dukes to take on Steelers Dave Simms... but Simmsey insisting that he do the commentary on the bout for Sky. Seriously, the worst kept secret was Steve Thornton joining Belfast despite an alleged second year still on his contract in Basingstoke. John Craighead, the former Panther who was over visiting friends for the Finals, got some Nottingham fans stirred up that he was about to come in and replace Mike Ellis... with the sacked Jim Shepherd as his potential Number Two... honestly, some people must have been at the wacky-baccy !!

RA: The last game of the season was the play-off game against Sheffield, where we sold out the ice dome. Are we hopeful to replicate the feat this coming season?

AC: We'd love to sell out every week, and with a supporters base like the one we've got, it should be possible. As I said earlier, we've got supporters coming from right across the north-west region and if every regular supporter could bring a friend who has never been before, we believe we could sell out every week. Our supporters don't give themselves enough credit... They are our biggest and best form of advertising. Look at it like this... if you go out for a meal and the food is good, do you recommend that restaurant to your friends... of course you do. If you go to the cinema and see a great film or the theatre and see a great play, do you pass on the word to family and friends encouraging them to go and watch... of course you do. So that's all we're asking the supporters to do... if you all enjoyed that last game against the Sheffield... the packed house... the noise and the passion... the thrills and spills... the goals, the hits, the saves, ten tell your family and friends about the Phoenix experience.

I'll tell you another thing too... people talk about ice hockey being a family sport... my little demographic study is proving that. I roughly broke the Season Ticket applications into three groups - Adults, Children and Concessions. I could have gone into age bands, but that's for a bigger sample than the one I first used. My first study was across 140 Season Ticket applications okay... now get ready... Of the Adult applications the split between male and female was... an exact 50% male, 50% female. That alone surprised me, I was expecting it to be around 65% male. Next was the Children, aged 5 to 16 remember... and the split this time was 55% male to 45% female... again something of a surprise as I was expecting a slightly stronger leaning towards the male gender. And lastly the Concessions, now this included in the initial study OAPs, Students and registered Disabled, and the split again was 55% to 45% only this time leaning the way of the ladies. Overall, our split by gender is almost exactly 50% male and 50% female and I was very surprised at these initial findings. Rest assured, I'll be carrying out further in-depth studies of our Season Ticket applications on a weekly basis. I would stress that his study was only of Season Ticket applications and makes no allowance for the walk-up supporters who prefer to pay at the door on game nights. That said, with the now steady flow of Season Ticket applications coming in each day, it looks as though more and more people want the security of knowing their seat is reserved each week. We had a good response to the idea of Three Game ticket packages for Games 1,2,& 27, and also to our idea for booking the three games for individual visiting teams... and I would seriously recommend to those Phoenix supporters who aren't getting Season Tickets, that they strongly consider the various Three-Game package options so as to avoid Box Office queues at the start of the season and on specific visiting team nights. This season will see us able to take more and more ticket bookings at the office as we did for the Sheffield playoff game as it proved very successful and a quicker way to actually allow supporters access to the Ice Dome on game nights.

We're looking at possibly having two or maybe four pre-season games - that could depend upon exactly when the squad assembles in Manchester, and we're also talking to a couple of clubs about possible challenge type games throughout the season, fixture scheduling permitting. We're currently re-working our corporate advertising and sponsorship strategies and hope to launch these by the end of the month with all new literature to put before potential corporate partners and we're very hopeful that all or most of last years will be back with us again for 2008-09. And we're always open to ideas or leads from supporters as to who might be a good company to approach with a view to getting on board with the Phoenix... if supporters think they can help, they need only drop me an e-mail and I’ll happily follow it up!

Andy Costigan can be e-mailed at acostigan@manchesterphoenix.co.uk and was interviewed on Thursday 17th April 2008