Reign to hit the ice in Ontario
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05:00 PM PDT on Friday, April 4, 2008
Justin Kemp admits he has a difficult task ahead of him.
Kemp is executive vice president of business development for the Ontario Reign, the minor league hockey team that is scheduled to play its first home game Oct. 25.
From his fifth-floor office in the City National Bank building, 3633 Inland Empire Blvd., Kemp can see his team's future home, the 11,000-seat Citizens Business Bank Arena, which is being developed by AEG in Los Angeles and built by Turner Construction Co.
The arena, which will be owned by the city of Ontario, is under construction and scheduled to be finished in September.
Kemp's job is to make sure that people buy tickets to see the Reign, whose roster will feature former college players, free agents from other minor leagues and former National Hockey League draft picks.
An occasional player from the Kings' roster could play for the Reign on a rehabilitation assignment, Kemp said.
The Reign's coaching staff is expected to be hired by May and its roster will be in place by September. Kemp, who has a $250,000 advertising budget provided by the teams' investors, is working on several potential cable television deals to broadcast Reign games, but no agreement has been reached.
A Los Angeles native and a lifetime hockey fan, the 30-year-old Kemp knows his job won't be easy. Hockey is a cold weather sport, and Southern California is a hot-weather market.
The Reign's season will start after the football season has begun and baseball playoffs are beginning. When the weather does cool, the Reign will compete with the basketball season and the conclusion of football.
Kemp will try to sell a game that is unfamiliar to many residents who may have seen the sport only on television. A small puck, a large rink, action that is mostly too fast for the camera, and white ice that doesn't reflect well on a television screen are the main reasons the game doesn't televise well, Kemp said.
"That might be the best and worst thing about hockey ," he said. "It's great in person, but it loses a lot on television. There probably isn't any other game where the difference between the two is so strong, and that's something we have to overcome."
"All of those things definitely make the game a tough sell," said Kemp, whose father, Barry Kemp, is part owner of the Reign and for 10 years was the owner of the Long Beach Ice Dogs, which played in three different minor leagues.
"But the way I look at it, we aren't in the business of selling hockey, we're in the business of selling entertainment," the younger Kemp said. "We aren't competing with other sports teams, we're competing with the movies. It will cost a family of four about the same amount of money to go to one of our games as it will to go to a movie, and we think we're a more exciting form of entertainment."
So far, the Reign have sold about 800 season tickets. The team's goal is to sell 3,000 season tickets by the start of the season. The new arena will seat 9,500 for hockey.
Citizens Business Bank has sold about 175 club-level seats, all of which will be in play for every event held at the arena, said Sue Oxarart, arena spokeswoman.
"Most of those seats have been sold to business clients, and presumably a lot of them bought the tickets to use for hockey," Oxarart said. "We think they're going to be a great anchor tenant with players who are trying to get to the NHL. But we have to get the word out. You have to see hockey in person."
Eight minor professional hockey leagues operate in the United States, including the American, International, and mid-Atlantic hockey leagues.
The Reign will affiliate with the Los Angeles Kings - similar to a Double A baseball team, Kemp said - and will play in the ECHL, a 25-team league with 24 teams in the United States and one in Canada.
ECHL once stood for East Coast Hockey League, but when the league took over 10 teams from the defunct West Coast Hockey League, that name longer made sense. But league officials decided to keep the ECHL moniker because fans and corporate sponsors were familiar with it.
"That's our first marketing problem," Kemp said. "It doesn't make any sense, but you have to sell it to people anyway. The one thing we have going for us is our affiliation with the Kings. They've been playing since 1967, and being able to mention our connection with them gives us some credibility."
Since January 2007 Kemp has worked on marketing plans for the Reign and meeting with civic groups and forming corporate partnerships. The Reign has held a name-the-team contest and it will hold audience participation events during the two five-minute intermissions at each home game.
Kemp's job is to promote the team even if it's not winning.
"So you sell the fact that you have exciting entertainment inside a brand-new arena," he said.
The Arizona Sundogs in Prescott Valley, playing in the 4,800-seat Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, averaged 4,200 fans during the 2006-07 season, its first year in operation, said Shane Ferraro, public relations director.
"You have to get started early getting your name out in the community," Ferraro said.
