ALS PROMOTION TOPS LONG LIST OF THINGS TO COME
Nov 13, 2014By Tom Witosky
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“Hockey lives here.”
When Todd Fredrickson, the president of the Iowa Wild hockey club, heard that line suggested as the American Hockey League club’s new marketing tagline, he approved it immediately.
“It resonated on so many levels,” Fredrickson said in a recent interview. “It says we are here and here to stay.”
The Wild has entered its second season in Des Moines after a successful inaugural year during which the club finished 10th in attendance in the AHL despite difficulties on the ice. Frederickson said the team’s success with fans is likely to grow as the club continues to work at becoming a deeply rooted professional sports franchise in central Iowa.
Part of the effort has been to become a contributor to civic projects and causes that need the support of the community. One organization, for example, is the ALS Association Iowa Chapter, which will have a special fundraising night this weekend that includes an auction of Wild camouflage sweaters to be worn Friday and Saturday against Oklahoma City.
Sarah Lettow, development manager for ALS Association Iowa Chapter, said that the partnership with Wild has been “absolutely awesome” in helping to raise money for the non-profit, but also to spread the awareness of the disease.
“They have a great fan base and we know they are helping spread the word about disease and the efforts we are making to help deal with it,” Lettow said.
Frederickson said there are other signs that central Iowans – hard-core hockey fans and occasional fans alike -- are beginning to embrace the Wild as a permanent part of the community’s quality of life.
They include:
· A tripling of the number of corporate sponsors from less than 50 last season to more than 150 this season including several powerful new sponsors such as the Hy-Vee grocery chain. Corporate sponsorships not only increase a club’s revenue, but involvement with those sponsors increases the club’s credibility in the community.
· A significant increase in the number of promotional nights and giveaway nights for the 2014-15 season. The club has 28 promotional games that range from the Pink in the Rink night presented by Mercy Medical Center on Feb. 14, 2015 to support the fight against breast cancer to the Hy-Vee sponsored School Day game held Nov. 6 with more than 2,000 students from area schools watching the Wild take on the Rockford IceHogs.
· An 82 percent renewal rate of season tickets and new season ticket sales that topped the total number of season ticket sales last year.
Frederickson said a recent visit by Minnesota Wild executives including Craig Leipold, who owns the NHL Wild and the AHL Wild, to Des Moines went well.
“They just said keep doing what you are doing,” Fredrickson reported. “They were extremely happy with the way things are shaping-up here in Iowa and believe the fan support is terrific. They couldn’t be happier with their decision to relocate the franchise in Des Moines.”
Fredrickson said Wild executives were particularly pleased to discover there was a strong following of hockey in central Iowa and particularly for the Wild.
“We thought there would be gravitation toward the Minnesota Wild brand and thought it would provide a built-in fan base for that brand,” he said. “We were more than pleasantly surprised that there is a big following of Minnesota Wild hockey down here and generally a big following for hockey.”
The biggest accomplishment, according to Frederickson, was landing such a large number of corporate sponsors during the off-season. Before last season, club officials ran into skeptical businesses many of whom were already in the middle of their budget years and unable to consider providing support to the Wild.
“There also were those who just didn’t think it would work because of what happened before and there were some who actually got burned by the previous clubs,” he said.
What changed, Frederickson said, was proving the Wild brand was both professional and permanent.
“Our efforts in the community attracted a lot of attention. It showed we are an Iowa team, a Des Moines property and that we have a lot of people who come out to our games,” he said.
Commitment to the community was key, he added. With Wild players making regular visits to children in area hospitals to the Wild’s promotion of a school reading program and sponsorship of a floor hockey program for 60 area schools, the message got out that the club intended to be a contributor to the community.
“We hope to attract 10,000 children this fall into the reading program,” Fredrickson said. “We had 11,000 all last year. We had 60 schools in the floor hockey program, our goal this year 100.”
Such efforts don’t go unnoticed.
Lettow, the ALS Iowa chapter official, said the club is helping to raise money by providing discounted tickets that will be sold at retail, providing the proceeds from sale of the nightly chuck-a-puck promotion as well as auctioning off the camouflage jerseys after the game on Saturday night.
She added that this year’s night will be shared with the Iowa Wild’s honoring of military veterans on Saturday night by wearing camouflage jerseys and distributing Wild camo hats.
Lettow said the association has made a special priority of providing support to military veterans who become afflicted with ALS and their families. Studies have shown that military veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS than those who have not served, Lettow said.
Fredrickson said those efforts are important to central Iowa community leaders.
“We had heard that this was a very community based market and that has proven to be absolutely true,” Fredrickson said. “It is all about connecting into the community because everyone does know everyone else here. “
And, Fredrickson said, there is more work to do.
“After one year, I think we have made excellent progress but I also know there is more work that has to be done,” he said. “We have just made a good start.”
Over the next several months, the Wild will be promoting a variety of efforts to help area non-profit groups raise money for their causes.
Those promotions include:
--On Nov. 14 and 15, Wild players will wear camouflage jerseys while playing against Oklahoma City. After Saturday night’s match, the sweaters will be auctioned off with proceeds going to ALS Association Iowa Chapter.
--On Jan. 31, the Wild will be participating in the American Heart Association Day when they will provide more details on a special promotion designed to boost donations to help in the battle against heart disease. Fredrickson, whose son, William, underwent successful open heart surgery in 2012 at the age of seven days, said the club will be sponsoring a special warm-up jersey auction in individual fans or companies can obtain a customized warm-up worn by a Wild player with a donation of $750 to the heart association. Those donors will then be encouraged to set-up a page on the Wild’s Heart Walk page where they can list those walking against heart disease in June . That money can then be used to make the donation to the association and the original donor can recoup the initial $750 and get the warm-up.
-- On March 22, the Wild will holds its first Agriculture Appreciation Night with the first 5,000 fans receiving Iowa Wild cowbells.