Bruins business report

By Eric J. Welsh, The Progress

September 28, 2007

The 2006-07 season was about as good as could be expected for an expansion team on the ice.

But how did the team do off the ice? Did it meet its business goals?

Team president and Bruins co-owner Daryl Porter is the man who oversees the dollars-and-cents side of the WHL team and he says the Bruins exceeded expectations in their inaugural season.

“We exceeded all three of our business objectives,” Porter noted. “We wanted to integrate into the community and become Chilliwack’s team. We did that. We wanted to draw 4,000 fans per game and we averaged 4,500. And we wanted to create stability. We went three for three.”

The crowd numbers were particularly impressive to Porter. He knew the team would come out of the gate
with strong attendance as locals bought tickets to see the new team.

This season, he has set 4,500 as the goal this year and he believes averaging that number again would be a
success. The long-term goal is to get the season-ticket base to 4,000 and the team currently sits around 3,000.

“We only made the playoffs by four points and I guarantee if we’d averaged 3,500 fans per game we wouldn’t have qualified,” Porter observed. “There are times during the season when the players are drained
and they’re playing three games in three nights and they’ve got to gut it out. It’s the fans and the buzz
in the building that gets the guys through.”

Prospera Centre was a perfect venue for the Bruins. Porter said the arena was functional in every
aspect.The building is aesthetically pleasing. The ice was good and the staff who worked Bruins games did
their jobs well.

“They were excellent,” Porter said. “Some people complained about ICM Security. But we introduced alcohol into the building without any incidents, so clearly they did a good job.”

Those who couldn’t make it to Prospera Centre on game nights were able to catch Bruins broadcasts over the internet, or on 88.1 FM, which is primarily a road reports and weather station. The arrangement wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the alternative.

“We had to overcome the complete lack of a radio partner,” Porter noted. “We had to create a radio broadcast ourselves and that’s unheard of. We bought our own equipment and literally created our own feed. The alternative was to not be on the radio at all.”

The Bruins have taken strong steps to fix that problem.  In the continuing absence of a local radio partner,
the team is beefing up its internet presence, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of streamed
audio.

“All of our research indicates that most people are listening on the internet anyways,” Porter observed.
“If everyone is on their computers then we’ve got to find ways to make that interesting and entertaining. We’re certainly not behind the curve when it comes to internet broadcasting.”

Nevertheless, Porter considers radio an important component of Chilliwack’s continued off-ice success. The CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) is currently accepting bids from parties interested in placing a new FM station in the Valley. Porter has been nudging that process along since the
Bruins came into existence, and he has broadcasting deals already in place with two original CRTC applicants.

“In both scenarios we would be pretty important anchors for the station and I’m pretty comfortable that one of them will win,” Porter said. “They’ve shown the most interest from day one in the marketplace and we will back them completely.”

Porter regrets being unable to reach an agreement with an existing local station, such as Star FM. “They’re owned by Rogers,” Porter said. “They’re a big corporate conglomerate based in Toronto and they have
a template they won’t break. They won’t broadcast our games because they don’t broadcast any games. And in fact, if you listen to their station, other than the morning show, there’s no local content. It’s all piped
in from elsewhere.”

Porter said he is 100 per cent confident a radio station will be up and running in time for the 2008-09 season.

“With radio we get a 365-days-a-year marketing partner, something we can’t create by ourselves,” Porter said. “The broadcast itself is only one part of the picture.”

The team has reached a marketing agreement with Vancouver-based radio stations J.R. Country and Team
1040. “Team 1040’s website has streaming links to certain teams and they’re adding us,” Porter explained. “And we’re buying advertising from them and J.R. Country.”

When Porter looks at the Chilliwack market he sees the potential for nearly unlimited growth.  “Just take a walk through Prospera Centre and you’ll see how strong the corporate support was in year one,” Porter said. “And it’s now at the point where we’ve got businesses who are interested and we’re saying no.

The advertising won’t get any bigger because we want to hold the value for our existing sponsors.” Porter’s crystal ball predicts a day when Chilliwack’s population tops 100,000 and the town has a local television station. That’s when things will really take off.

“We’ve had numerous offers since we’ve been here to sell this team,” Porter admitted. “But no one on the
ownership group is even remotely tempted to take it. You’re going to see this ownership group together for
at least the next 10 years, and probably beyond.”