The Road to Lewiston, Part 4

In the final installment, A look at the summer leading up to the drop of the first puck in MAINEiacs hockey history and the tough road of the franchises first year in Lewiston. For those who missed out on the first three installments, please read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3…

By the summer of 2003, the Central Maine Civic Center was a beehive of activity. What inside was once gray, deteriating and generally quiet in previous summers turned into a fresh coat of white, blue and orange paint, numerous improvements and the noise of saws, hammers & drills. A parade of contractors worked from the ceiling to the floor in preparation for opening night, and along with that, came anxiety. Despite the amount of effort being put into the renovation, the project was falling behind timeline for completion in time for opening night. Along with that, building managment was showing signs that it might not be prepared enough to produce the show.

“As we got closer to the season, we started getting a little concerned of the progress of the renovations as they were going,” recalled Matt McKnight. “They were getting a little bit behind schedule. We also started to see that how big of junior hockey for the facility and how it was runned, it looked like they may have bitten off a little more than they could chew in the sense that there had never been any experience in this facility of what it takes to operate it for major junior hockey by putting in 2 to 3000 people per game over 35 nights, it takes a lot of work and staff. The staffing just wasn’t there, nor the expertise.”

The first MAINEiacs Training camp opened in August, 2003 with roughly only half of the seats in the building. Everywhere in the arena, one could see the hardships that the building had to work through in order to get the doors open and be a fully functional and operational facility. Dirt on the floors from where holes and trenches were dug were commonplace. Standing water from leaks and repairs were another. The corridors were blocked off in parts as upgrades happened in locker rooms and restroom facilities. The smell of fresh paint fumes and sawdust filled the air. One could sense with some doubt that with the season kicking off in five weeks time if the arena would be ready on time.

“We had a conversation with the city and they came in and took a look around and they were getting worried because with how things were progressing was having a drastic affect on our opportunity to be successful,” said McKnight.

McKnight points out that the partnership between the arena, the city and the team all went hand-in-hand with one another. “If we weren’t successful, we would end up having to look elsewhere and the city would lose their investment,” he noted.

It was at that point that the city of Lewiston began negotiations with then building owner Roger Theriault about purchasing the the facilty in order to make sure that the renovations of the building would be completed that were negotiated in the MAINEiacs original lease agreement. From that point on, the tide turned and moved in a different direction. “It slowly went uphill from there, to the point where we are at now where I think we’ve got one of the greatest little junior hockey rinks in the league,” McKnight says.

The early days for those that attended MAINEiacs hockey were an adventure in many regards, and McKnight is certainly appreciative to those that made the effort during that first season. “We were asking so much of our fans. It’s one thing to say, yup, come spend your $13 to watch a hockey game, but when you have to say, OK, come park on the lower parking lot, walk up to the back, go into a trailer, stand in line for 20 minutes in the pooring rain, buy a ticket, go back out, come back in the (main) doors, watch the dirt before you walk over to your seat, stand in line for 20 minutes for a beer that is all foam.” McKnight notes half jokingly, but that was essentially the reality for many. “There were just so many things that working against us in making the experience of coming a hockey game.” he added.

That no doubt had an effect on attendance those first few games. “It was souring the taste in people’s mouths,” McKnight mentions. That said, the game on the ice ultimately is what got people hooked at the start. “We were lucky that people seemed to enjoy the product when they were here, but all the ancillary activities were taking away from it, which shouldn’t be. Everything else at a hockey game is supposed to add to the atmosphere, ours unfortunately was taking away (from that experience).”

If it wasn’t the beer, the nearly impossible concession lines that plugged up movement in the front end of the building at every intermission, or the equally ridiculous lines to the restroom facilities, add to that double tickets being printed, seat sections mismarked or the lack of identification altogether, the challenges of that first season for fans that made the attempt are nothing but a bad memory in the past at this point.

When the change in ownership went from private to public, the renovations, although behind at the time of transfer, soon came to completion. “We still had some issues to work through while the next set of renovations were going through, but I think people saw more of the light at the end of the tunnel. Things were happening at a much quicker pace,” said McKnight. 

As a result of the completed improvements to the facility, the fans noticed the changes and it turned into better attendance for season two.  ”There was a different atmosphere as you walked into the building. We went from 600 season tickets from our first year. We were active from basically October thru February, I had everyone that I had come in contact with acting as a remote sales person trying to sell tickets, and it was a tough sell. In the second season under new ownership, we went up to 1200 season tickets just overnight. There is certainly an aspect of the direction that the facility was going that was a big help in that.” said McKnight. 

With the major renovations completed and more minor projects coming towards their end for the benefit of those that attend, the largest obstacle over the past couple of seasons is getting more people hooked on junior hockey. “The biggest thing that we have facing us that we have to overcome is our ability to attract the casual fan. That is our number one issue that we have to find ways to overcome. For the size of this market, our season ticket base realistically is where it should be. Sure, I’d love to have 2500, it’d be great. But for the size of this market we have a pretty good penetration of around 1800 season tickets. The corporate support that we get, it’s right on line, it’s actually a little better than what a marker of this size should be producing. There is no complaints there. The other revenue streams that we have from concessions to merchandise, all those things are in line for where they should be. Even our group sales are doing well. What we don’t have is the casual fan, the walk-up ticket sales of where they should be.” McKnight notes.

The formula McKnight uses to figure casual fan percentages is the same from other venues around the league. “Generally, if you look at pretty much every team in this league, if you look at what their season ticket base is, there average attendance is pretty much double. So if you’ve got 1500 season tickets, they are going to average 3000 over the course of the season. Now of that 3000, you might have 300 in group sales and 1200 in a walk-up. We have 1800 season tickets, (we do) 200 in group sales which pushes up to 2000 and our casual fan base is around 500, we get the average of 2500. That is where our big missing component is, is our average casual fan. It’s one of the hardest things to actually target and fix the problem.”

With the new promotions “Last Fan Standing”, the “Sunday Family Fun Pack”, reaching out to various schools, various adult & youth programs as well as corporations, that coupled with team performance and increased media coverage should lead to bigger crowds as the season progresses.

Where are they now?

In the past couple of weeks I have received numerous emails inquiring on the whereabouts of our former players in the professional ranks and otherwise. Here is a list of what I know about. If know something that is omitted from the list, please email me at offthepost@lewistonhockey.com and let me know. This is what I know about:

Alexandre Picard, Syracuse Crunch (AHL); Alex Bourret, Chicago Wolves (AHL); Mathieu Aubin and Jaroslav Halak, Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL); Jonathan Paiement, Texas Wildcatters (ECHL); Sheldon Wenzel and Bobby Gates, Memphis RiverKings (Central Hockey League); Maxime Mathieu, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (Central Hockey League); Brandon Roach, Acadia University (NS); Travis Mealy, UPEI; Francis Trudel & Karl Fournier, U de Moncton; Gabriel Balasescu, University of Quebec Trois-Rivieres; Vladislav Balaz, HK Dukla Trencin (Slovakia).

Good Read:

Former Laval Voisin Vincent Damphousse was featured recently on NHL Alumni.com. Check out Part One and Part Two of an interview done by writer Chris Loman.

Three Moose Jaw Players Hurt

In a scary incident early Sunday morning, three Moose Jaw players were hurt, one seriously in an accident as the players were on their way back to their billet homes. The Warriors had just returned home from a trip to Red Deer, when the accident occured around 7 AM local time. LW Garrett Robinson was seriously injured when a truck collided with the car that Robinson was in. Robinson was taken to a Regina hospital where he had emergency surgery for head and brain trauma and remains in critical condition this morning. Robinson was a passenger in the vehicle that included teammates G Joey Perricone and F Carter Smith. Alcohol is presumed to be factor in the crash.

As always, news, rumours, questions, and comments appreciated. offthepost@lewistonhockey.com