Henrik Samuelsson and Tyler Gaudet got personal this week in Portland’s Old Port. With smiles and the fresh-faced look of men who are only 20 and 21 years old, they greeted strangers and handed out schedules for Portland Pirates games. The hockey team opens its season Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena.
Samuelsson and Gaudet are centers for a franchise that has taken a back seat to the Portland Sea Dogs and Maine Red Claws. Thursday, the two players full of promise were inviting people to buy a ticket and watch them and their team play. After the Pirates’ self-imposed exile to Lewiston last season and the out-of-sight, out-of-mind debacle that created, there’s a mission to rebuild the team’s relationship with fans.
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Even if that means shaking the hand of one person at a time.
“We want people to know why we’re hockey players,” said Brad Church, 37, once one of the most popular of the Portland Pirates players and now the minor league team’s chief operating officer. “We’ve played this game since we were little kids. We love this game. People need to know that.”
It’s a fresh approach for a sports franchise that nearly wore out its welcome in Portland. Ron Cain is the new majority owner and team CEO. Church is the familiar face in a new position of responsibility. Brian Corcoran and his Portland-based Shamrock Sports and Entertainment Agency are new partners with the team.
The Cross Insurance Arena is the former Cumberland County Civic Center and newly renovated. The food and adult beverage concessions are said to be tasty and appealing, which would be new. The vibe inside the building also will be new says Corcoran, who keeps introducing the word “fun” into conversations.
Yes, Pirates fans have heard variations of these themes before.
“I think the skepticism is warranted,” said Church. He counted off the frequent disputes over the lease with the Cumberland County commissioners, the arena landlords. He mentioned Brian Petrovek’s threats to move the franchise to Albany or Glens Falls in New York.
Left unsaid was the acrimonious wrangling over last year’s lease negotiations with Petrovek, the team’s former managing owner, making good on his threat to play all the Pirates home games at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. The Colisee was full of old-time character and short on amenities and convenience for the Pirates’ primary fan base in Cumberland County. Attendance hovered above 2,000, last in the American Hockey League. This particular business model crashed.
Late Friday afternoon, Corcoran said nearly 5,000 tickets had been sold for Saturday’s home opener with the Providence Bruins. Typically, the game’s walk-up ticket sales are better than 20 percent of total tickets sold. With capacity seating for hockey games at about 6,700, the game could approach a sellout.
Neither Church nor Corcoran had hard numbers for season-tickets sold. Cain was tending to business out of state. “I can tell you we have double-digit growth over 2012-2013,” said Corcoran. That season was the last full season played in Portland with an average attendance of about 4,450. The Pirates averaged more than 5,500 in their first four seasons, beginning in 1994. Cain has said an average crowd of more than 4,000 is necessary for the franchise to have business stability.
“It won’t happen overnight,” said Corcoran. “We’re taking strides.” He grew up in Old Orchard Beach and remembers his father taking him to Maine Mariners games in the late 1970s when that hockey team was the only pro franchise in Maine. The players of that time became local celebrities. Fans didn’t need to see a Mariners’ sweater to recognize them.
After the Mariners moved to Providence, pro hockey’s absence was felt over a long winter. Tom Ebright moved his Baltimore Skipjacks to Portland in 1993 and hockey fans fell in love all over again. Ebright was a successful businessman and the biggest cheerleader for his team. When the Pirates won the Calder Cup in 1994, it seemed everyone was along for the wild and fun ride.
“We want to bring back that fun and that pride everyone felt,” said Corcoran. He talks a good game, and Samuelsson and Gaudet and mascot Salty Pete’s mission to the Old Port was a start. Church got permission from Pirates coach Ray Edwards to talk to the team this week. Church asked the players to buy in: sell themselves, sell the team, share their personal stories and get involved. He didn’t pass around a sign-up sheet.
“Three players approached me afterward,” Church said. “Andrew Campbell said he worked in his past city with a Boys & Girls Club and wanted to do that again. Mark Visentin asked me how he could help out in a children’s hospital. Mike McKenna is a goaltender and asked about pledging money for every save he made. He’d take money out of his own pocket, ask someone to match it, and donate it to a local charity.
“I couldn’t have felt any better. Some of these guys have only been in their apartments for two, three days, they’re just getting to know the area, but they get it.”
Church, a Washington Capitals’ No. 1 draft pick in 1995, gets it. He left Manitoba to play in Portland. “This team is part of my life. This is my home. I wouldn’t have met my wife if I hadn’t played here. I wouldn’t have had my kids. I was a 19-year-old hockey player who turned COO of the same team. I’ve been fortunate to do something I love since I was 2 years old.
“That’s why I’m optimistic we’re going to make this work. We’re getting a new start. It’s not going to be easy but we’re going to make this team important again to people in Maine.”
You’ve heard that before. This time the optimism may be contagious.
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