As I've said before, we are an equal opportunities blog, and don't just cover the Steelers. I like to think we look around the league and welcome all-comers to the site.
Well we've certainly covered that with this. General UK hockey media good egg Chris Ellis was kind enough to give us some time to discuss his work with the EIHL and Ice Hockey UK, as well as his views on our beautiful game.
Frozen Steel: Were you a hockey fan before you became a media guy, or were you a media guy who found hockey?
Chris Ellis: I was brought up watching football (Nottingham Forest) and cricket (Nottinghamshire). My Mum and Dad met on a coach going to a Forest away game, so I was never going to be anything else but a Forest fan. We had season tickets for Forest for the winter and then Notts cricket in the summer.
In the early to mid-90s, we went to the odd Panthers game. It would be a rare thing but I loved it. Tickets were harder to get in those days but I seem to remember going a couple of times as my Dad got tickets through his work. It was not until the 1999-2000 season - the last in the old rink - that I started to go quite regularly with friends. At the back end of that season we went every week. We could only get tickets in the end blocks, I don't think the seats even faced the rink, but I loved the atmosphere. I looked at the option of getting a season ticket for the new building.
Meanwhile, I had been working for BBC Radio Nottingham for a while by then, starting by making tea and answering phones and then covering Nottingham Basketball Club for a while. I had a spell away working for BBC Radio Stoke, but returned to Nottingham and was starting to freelance for variety of media outlets, including covering Nottinghamshire (cricket) for the BBC when the main reporter at the time (Robin Chipperfield) was unavailable.
Colin Fray was covering Panthers but, with Martin Fisher moving on, Colin was going to cover Forest regularly, so they needed someone to cover the Panthers. So, as luck would have it, the summer I considered buying a season ticket, I got asked to be BBC Radio Nottingham's reporter on the Panthers. I started covering Panthers for the BBC in 2000-2001 and it continued from there. My family started to come regularly and they bought season tickets in the end - and still have them to this day. I met my girlfriend through hockey - and her and her family are Panthers season-ticket holders too.
Our little daughter Lucy (nearly three now) adores the ice hockey. She sits with me at Panthers games and does the dances. She also insists on watching hockey at home. She often goes "Daddy, Panthers" which means she wants to see a re-run of Jordan Fox's playoff winner the year Panthers won the treble, or she says "ice hockey fighting Daddy" and that means she wants to see the Coventry/Nottingham bench clearance brawl again! She loves it!
So, to sum it up, I would say I was a casual hockey fan, turning into a massive hockey fan, when I got a fantastic opportunity to cover the Panthers for Radio Nottingham.
FSB: How did the jobs with the Panthers, the EIHL and Team GB come about?
CE: I think some people think I have actually worked for the Panthers but this is not true. I covered them for BBC Radio Nottingham and went to nearly every home and away game for over 10 years. Of course, I have helped them out with some things and they in turn have helped me, but I have never technically worked for them.
I made mention in the answer above about how I got into working for the BBC. I covered Panthers from the 2000-01 season up until the 2009-10 season for Radio Nottingham. The media for playoffs finals weekend had been organised for a while by the excellent Andy Costigan from Manchester, but he moved abroad. In that 2009-10 season, Eamon Convery and Andy French asked if I would take Andy Costigan's role and organise the media for playoff finals weekend, as I knew the rink. There was also an All-Star game that year if I remember, and I helped the EIHL with some press releases to promote that, so that's how my first involvement with the Elite League started.
At the end of that season (09-10), there was an opportunity to do a bit more PR and media work for the Elite League and become media officer on a very part-time basis. It would not be much but I saw it as an opportunity. I wanted to combine my BBC role and Elite League role, but the manager at Radio Nottingham said it would be a conflict of interest if I did both roles, so I had a decision to make. It was a decision which took me all summer to make and I changed my mind about 100 times.
I loved covering the Panthers, especially getting the chance to commentate on the big games. I will never forget the pride I felt at being able to commentate on Kim Ahlroos's overtime winner in the 2004 Challenge Cup final in Sheffield - probably still my favourite moment covering the Panthers, closely followed by the 2007 playoff win over Cardiff on penalty shots - that was real drama! I knew if I took this work with the Elite League, I would not be able to do that, nor the excitement of near day-to-day involvement of covering an ice hockey club. But, at the same time, working with the League to promote the sport I love was exciting, it sounded a great challenge. I eventually made the decision to do the work for the League and stop covering Panthers for Radio Nottingham and the press officer role with the League went from there.
That same summer, the opportunity came up to work as rinkside reporter for the live Sky Sports games and also some voiceover work for the highlights. It was funny timing as one door closed (BBC), another one opened and I started to work with Televideo on the live games, led by talented and excellent producers James Mitchell and Danielle Scivill. They were both great to work for and we had some great fun, with Simmsey, Strachs and Anna being the regular team travelling around the country. One of the best experiences was being rinkside between the benches for three successive playoff finals and for two of them, having Paul Adey alongside me. It was great to stand with such a knowledgeable and experienced coach and talk about a game of hockey.
After being in the Elite League media role for a year, I was asked - again by Eamon Convery and Andy French - if I would also work with Ice Hockey UK and get the message out about GB. It was at first to cover the U20s and U18s, as well as GB Women. In the early days, Simmsey covered the GB Men, but then when he was unable to cover the Men any more, that role was added to my list and I basically became Team GB/Ice Hockey UK media officer.
FSB: What exactly does your job entail? Is it a full time thing?
CE: Covering ice hockey the media in the UK is not a full-time job for anyone and it certainly isn't for me. There just is not the money. That's one of the things I love about people involved in the media in ice hockey. Lets be honest, it is not just the media people though, there are volunteers at every club who do it for the love of the game. The great thing about people in ice hockey media is there is so much passion. My good friend Seth Bennett started covering ice hockey around about the same time as me, just a bit before I think. He did it for Radio Sheffield and I did it for Radio Nottingham and neither of us barely got paid a penny. But it wasn't about that and never has been. I was so proud to see him fulfil his dream and commentate at the Olympics in Sochi.
My ice hockey jobs are still nowhere near a full-time job. My day job, as it were, is a freelance journalist. I am editor of a monthly community newspaper which prints three different editions to 50,000 homes in Nottingham (www.nottinghamlocalnews.com). I also regularly still work for the BBC in a different area these days and that's as a sub editor for the Sport Online department, based out of Birmingham. Basically, I sub copy written by regional sports journalists for the BBC Sport website and then publish it to the website itself. That's only part of the job as often it entails writing match reports on a variety of sports, including football, cricket, rugby union and rugby league.
Being press officer for both Elite League and IHUK covers a lot of areas really. Some of it is more obvious - writing press releases, tweeting, updating the websites and so on. British ice hockey relies a lot on the great support it gets from the local media related to a specific club. It is where we get the most column inches or air-time. I keep in regular contact with the local ice hockey reporters, many of who I knew anyway from years of working in the media.
Cracking the national newspapers is much harder, but we do get stories in more regularly than people think. Peter Oakes is a massive supporter of British ice hockey and is a great contact for me to get stories in the national media. On many occasions I will be in touch with reporters a day or so before a big press release is about to come out to tell them to expect one and save room for it. I would then send it to them the afternoon before with a 6am next-day embargo. That way, the newspapers/radio/TV/websites can all have the story at the same time and we get massive exposure for a certain story.
Obviously, the Elite League role involves the weekly podcast and the IHUK involves features for IHUK TV and radio features, especially during tournaments. Then come playoff time there's a programme to edit and collate. Again, it is where British ice hockey shows how good it is. I rely on dozens of photographers and writers to submit work for free, but year on year this happens and the quality is excellent. There are too many people to name but I am grateful to them all time after time. More recently I have become involved in some off the off-ice organisation of playoff weekend and it is something I really enjoy, so my role is very varied.
There are additional roles to my IHUK job also and this has been extended when this country has hosted World Championship tournaments. I have been involved in two directly now in Dumfries (U20s and U18s) and these were fantastic to be a part of - and be the media officer for the event. The added bonus of the Stanley Cup in December made that tournament busy and certainly added an extra vibe.
Throw into the mix, the appearance of Liam Stewart on the ice and his mum Rachel Hunter in the stands, that made for a manic week. We actually had photographers just focusing their lenses on Rachel and that was another situation that needed managing and dealing with correctly. In fact, the whole Liam Stewart situation did from start to finish. Yes, he has famous parents but it was important to stress when it came to hockey he was one of the boys, just like every other member of the squad. We had to make sure he was treated no differently. Some media wanted that story because of who he was, but it would be unfair on the young lad and his team-mates. He got put forward after his debut and then again when he scored, but never did we bow to a request to interview him because someone wanted a Liam Stewart family scoop.
FSB: Are you privy to EIHL meetings, such as the upcoming fixture meeting?
CE: I have only been to two Elite League board meetings, so I am not really privy to these things first hand. There is no real need for me to go to be honest, but I am in regular contact with the League's directors and they will be straight in touch with me if an announcement is needed to be made.
FSB: Why do you think hockey isn't bigger in the UK?
CE: The million dollar question! First and foremost, there just aren't the rinks in the UK to make it a massive sport. Look at the major cities in the UK without rinks. If you want to play, it is a tough sport to take up. It's costly, if you want to train at a young age the hours are usually unsociable.
It is not like football where you can put jumpers on the grass on the park as goalposts, a ball and away you go. The whole country talks about football. It's our national sport, it is talked about in every workplace and school every day. Ice hockey isn't and never will be. There will never be an ice rink in every city and town, but I think what ice hockey has here is very special. We are never going to be like Canada with an ice rink on what seems like every corner, but we have a loyal fanbase which is growing. Rugby League has shown you do not need to have a nationwide following to be a success, but they will never be a mainstream UK sport either.
Ice hockey and television is another tough one too. Again, we are not mainstream where we get millions of pounds like Premier League football, nor are we small and so niche that we can give our coverage away for free year after year. I am sure people do not realise that the League has, in the past, paid to get television coverage - that shows how committed they are. Clubs have attendances to protect but they also need the coverage of the sport on television, so it is a hard balancing act and there will never be a perfect answer. Some believe weekly live TV exposure helps grow the game, some believe it affects their crowds. There is no simple answer, but I believe we need weekly coverage of some sort, whether it be live or highlights - and the League has had this for a number of years now.
FSB: What do you feel can be done to make it bigger?
CE: TV coverage helps I am sure but, to me, the biggest factor which can make the sport bigger is the clubs themselves. Every club needs to use every marketing trick in the book to sell their club to the people in their town or city. I know many clubs have excellent PR and marketing initiatives, while others should probably do more to promote their club.
I can only speak first hand really for Nottingham as that is the city I live in and I know what the club do to promote themselves - and they leave no stone unturned. Massive banners on city centre hotels, banners at busy crossroads in the city, leafleting on matchdays at Forest and Notts County. I know from speaking with other GMs and staff, and reading club websites, other clubs have their own great ideas too. This is what the sport needs to grow and you can see signs of that across the 10 Elite League clubs.
FSB: As a hockey fan, and a Panthers guy, how excited are you for the CHL?
CE: The CHL is massively exciting. When I heard the Elite League might have a team in the CHL, I was thrilled. Of course, I expected to be Belfast and that was exciting enough, but now it is Nottingham it is great that three CHL games will be on my doorstep. Through my media officer role with IHUK and the Elite League, I have already had a lot of dealings with staff at the CHL and it has opened my eyes to how big this tournament it is. It opens so many doors for British ice hockey across Europe and beyond. Andy French went to the draw in Minsk and said the name on everyone's lips was the UK and everyone was thrilled and intrigued that a team from the UK was playing in the tournament. No matter what the results, this will really put UK ice hockey on the map.
I know people have questioned whether it should be Nottingham, or really should be someone else. But I really think everyone should get behind Nottingham now and show to the rest of Europe how important ice hockey is to the UK. The planning going into this tournament in immense. It is going to be huge and we should be proud we have a team in it.
Our huge thanks go out to Chris, who took a few basic questions and ran with them to make them a cracking read. He is one of the good guys in the UK game. Get him followed on Twitter @ChrisEllyEllis.
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