OWNERSHIP THRILLED WITH IOWA SUCCESS
Oct 6, 2016By Tom Witosky | Follow @toskyAHLWild
Craig Leipold has a simple message for Iowa Wild fans as the club begins its fourth season: We like it in Des Moines and we will make it even better.
“Honestly, I have difficulty believing that we are going into our fourth year already,” the owner of the NHL Minnesota Wild and its AHL franchise, said. “Time has passed so quickly. It means it is working quite well.”
In 2013, the Wild, then the Houston Aeros, left Texas abruptly after 12 seasons to set-up shop at Wells Fargo Arena. With little time to establish itself in that first season, the Iowa Wild’s front office adopted a long-term strategy to build a community of hockey fans in a place that many considered a hockey wasteland.
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Leipold and Todd Frederickson, president of the Iowa Wild, agreed the club has made significant strides in becoming a key winter-time entertainment option for central Iowans despite struggles on the ice.
“The decision to go from Houston to Des Moines has been spectacular on every front,” Leipold said, citing cost savings and the ability to place a higher priority on development of the AHL affiliate’s players.
“Financially, it is a better location because it is a smaller city than Houston,” Leipold said. “The Houston arena was incredibly expensive and travel was just difficult. Since deciding to move to Des Moines, our relationships with the folks at the arena and in the community are as good as we hoped it would be. “
Off the ice, the Iowa Wild has placed substantial emphasis on sinking roots as deeply as possible by providing support to local charities, developing partnership programs emphasizing reading and floor hockey with local school districts and becoming active within the corporate community.
Frederickson said those efforts have led:
· To the donation last year of more than $200,000 to local charities in money contributions or ticket discounts.
· To 150 Des Moines area schools establishing floor hockey programs and a goal of having the program in 200 of the 260 schools within a 50-mile radius of Des Moines.
· To a 20 percent increase in corporate sponsorship dollars compared to corporate sponsorships for the 2015-16 season.
· Steady attendance that has kept the Iowa franchise in top half of the 30 AHL franchises despite last place finishes in its first three years.
“Obviously we would love to have more wins over the first few years than we have had,” Frederick said. “But from the standpoint of integrating ourselves into the community, the staff has done a tremendous job from everything to getting our mascot Crash out and about to raising money for local charities. It truly has been tremendous.”
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Frederickson said the 2016-17 season, which begins Oct. 14, marks a continued effort to find ways to bring Iowans to the rink, particularly those who remain unfamiliar with the sport. He said that effort is essential to growing the Wild’s hockey community.
“Most people understand what the Wild is now, but there is still some apprehension because they aren’t hockey fans,” he said. “It is up to us to get more folks involved, particularly younger ones.”
To that end, Frederickson said that nearly all 38 home games will feature a promotion including all Tuesday evening games where children will eat free and beer and drink special offers on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
In addition, the club has decided to add three on-ice suites that will be sold to groups and individuals. The suites will be on the north end of the rink and will offer social food and drink prices that will be included in an overall price beginning at $45 per person.
“It will be a cool seat in a cool location on the glass,” Frederickson said.
He also said that plans are in the works for the club to sponsor possibly as many as three post-game concerts similar to the appearance last season of country western singer Cam that attracted more than 12,000 fans. “Those are still in the works, but we are hopeful we might be able to offer a concert series to go along with three games,” Frederickson said.
With growing fan interest in the Iowa Wild, Leipold acknowledged that an improvement in the team’s performance on the ice is a high priority. He said that the club’s decision to keep a number of its young players in college or in Europe over the last several years has created problems for the Iowa club ability to succeed on the ice.
“We are not satisfied at all with the results of the teams,” Leipold said. “This year and next year you are going to see our first round, second round and third round picks in Des Moines. Those players who have historically not gone to Iowa will be there the next couple of years. “
Leipold said that Iowa’s role in development of players has become a higher priority simply because of Des Moines proximity to St. Paul.
“In Houston, it was a lot of out of sight and out of mind,” he said. “Now our development staff and scouts can get there in three or four hours. That is making a difference already with the players who we have brought up. They are transitioning so much more easily now.”
He also said that the time has arrived for Iowa players to begin to experience the pressure of competing for a Calder Cup playoff spot as well as playing in the playoffs.
“It is very important that as players develop, they experience winning,” he said. “We want them to come out of a program that is accustomed to winning, accustomed to the playoffs. They understand the stress and tension of winning and playing playoff hockey. The fact that we haven’t been in playoffs is something that we are unhappy about and that we are addressing.
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Leipold said that fans saw the importance the Minnesota front office puts on Iowa last season when John Torchetti was interim head coach after the firing of former coach Mike Yeo. Torchetti had been Iowa’s head coach for much of the 2014-15 season as well as more than half of the 2015-16 season.
“The fact that we thought Torch was the best coaching option in our entire system, including all of our assistant coaches showed clearly that we thought he was the second best coach in our system,” Leipold said. “That should be speak highly of the priority that we put on Des Moines.”
Leipold said Torchetti, now an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, would have gotten the Minnesota head coaching job if Bruce Boudreau had not become available. In Iowa, Derek Lalonde has become the head coach.
“The fact that we went to Torch and pulled him up from there was significant. He got us into the playoffs and if we hadn’t had a coach like Bruce Boudreau available we would have gone with John Torchetti,” he said.
Now entering its fourth season, club officials acknowledged they will be entering into negotiations to extend the current five-year lease with Wells Fargo Arena sometime during the season. Leipold declined to speak specifically about the lease negotiations, but sounded very optimistic about the future.
“I am not anticipating any issues with it,” he said. “We are happy with our home in Des Moines and would like to stay there. “