BY BARBARA PINCKNEY
One Saturday night in mid-January, Dan
Burke and his wife decided to have dinner
in downtown Glens Falls before heading over
to the civic center to watch the Adirondack
Flames play hockey.
“We were running late, and we went into
four restaurants before we could find a seat,”
said Burke, president of the Adirondack
Civic Center Coalition, which operates the
arena.
Packed restaurants on game nights are
just one example of the way in which hockey
benefits the Glens Falls region. Retailers,
hotels, rental properties, charitable organizations
and other entities also are affected.
One study, conducted a few years ago, put
the financial impact of hockey at about $6
million a year.
“I would say it is probably an $8 [million]
to $10 million economic factor now,” said
Ed Bartholomew, president of the Warren
County Economic Development Corp.
“Maybe higher.”
But the impact of hockey is not just
financial. Glens Falls has been a “hockey
town” for more than three decades, since the
Adirondack Red Wings were formed in the
1979. Having a professional team is a source
of civic pride, and adds to the quality of life.
“It is part of the DNA of the city,” said
Brian Petrovek, president of the Adirondack
Flames.
In fact, Glens Falls is such a hockey town
that observers say it may not matter if the
resident team is the Flames, of the AHL,
or the new ECHL team, the Adirondack
Thunder, that will take over next season,
after the Flames move to Stockton, Calif.
The community is still likely to support the
new team, and the new team–which also
will be owned by the Calgary Flames–will support the community.
“This town for the past seven years has
had a team in here that said they were
leaving,” Burke said. “The Phantoms were
leaving for six years and when the Flames
came in they said they were leaving. And
people showed up. They came out to support
it. Ticket sales were good. We were in the
middle of the pack in the league in terms of
average attendance.”
Petrovek said an average of 2,700 people
attend each Flames home game at the civic
center. As there are 38 home games in a season,
that means more than 100,000 tickets
sold, as well as concessions and souvenirs
that add to the local tax base. There will be
36 home games with the new ECHL team.
The new team will have ample time to
build a fan base, because Calgary has signed
a three-year contract with no opt-outs, as anchor tenant at the civic center. It has the
option of staying another two years.
“And that is really positive,” Bartholomew
said. “It provides great stability.”
In many ways, a professional hockey team
is a small business. Petrovek said the Flames
have an annual operating budget of about $3
million. The team is active for about nine
months of the year, and during that time has
22 players, plus about 8 coaches and other
support staff, in residence.
“So the hockey product itself is around
30 individuals who are making a pretty good
wage,” Petrovek said. “You get young, successful
individuals with some affluence who
are adding to the economy. They are renting
apartments, they are spending money in
restaurants, they are going shopping.”
On game nights, an additional 40 to 50
people are employed in various capacities,
such as concession sales and security, in
the civic center.
“You roll all that up, it has a pretty good
economic formula attached to it,” Petrovek
said.
But as Burke’s effort to find a seat in a
downtown restaurant shows, a hockey team’s
impact goes beyond that of a small business
making widgets. The nearly 3,000 people
who come downtown on those 38 nights often
want dinner before the game, and perhaps a
beer with friends after the game. That traffic
is vital to the city’s establishments.
“I don’t know, but my guess is that you
might see a restaurant or two go out of
business without those hockey nights there
to bring people to downtown,” Burke said.
He said this was one of the arguments the
coalition used in its proposal to buy the civic
center and keep it a sports and entertainment
venue.
These ripples are seen even outside downtown
Glens Falls.
“I was in a restaurant up in Queensbury
and they say they can tell when there’s hockey nights because they get a wave of
people coming in just before or on the way
home,” Burke said. “And I’ve seen it. You are
sitting there and you see a table of eight or
10 people, and you figure if that is happening
in four or five restaurants that’s pretty good.
It all adds up.”
Area hotels also benefit, as visiting
teams and their fans need a place to stay.
Bartholomew said most visiting teams stay
downtown, spending up to two nights per
visit at the Queensbury Hotel.
Like most businesses, professional hockey
teams also do their part for the local nonprofit
community. Petrovek said philanthropy
is a big part of the culture of the Calgary
organization, and required of both players
and staff. The team has focused most of its
fundraising efforts on three area organizations–
Glens Falls Hospital, including its
Amanda’s House residence for the patients’
families; the Double H Ranch; and the Tri-
County United Way.
“We are in the midst of a campaign to
raise money for Amanda’s House,” Petrovek
said. “[We are also] just about to launch a
school assembly program with Glens Falls
Hospital to address elementary and middle
school students with positive lifestyle messaging–
diet, exercise, etc.–as part of the
hospital’s Good Moves program.”
Bartholomew, who was mayor when the
Red Wings began playing here, said having
professional hockey in town has also gotten
kids moving in another way.
“There was very little youth hockey here
in 1978, and very little high school hockey
in the area,” he said. “Since then our hockey
programs have basically quadrupled in
terms of membership and interest. There
are a number of high schools with hockey
and the youth hockey programs for boys and
girls have expanded tremendously. So that is
another positive offshoot of having hockey
in our community.”
Photo Courtesy Adirondack Flames