There was a bumper crowd in the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday as the Steelers downed the Nottingham Panthers.
Reportedly over 7,000 saw the Steelers win 3-2, which bodes well for the size of the crowd on Boxing Day. However, it was definitely the result of a focussed campaign by the club to get people in the building.
While it wasn't pumped up as much as previous Steelers/Panthers games have been, there was still a concious effort to get people in. There was a week's worth of build up in the Star. The new digital ad board (which looks superb) was launched, and both Look North and Calendar (the latter of which was a great feature) had coverage on the Friday night, alerting people to the Saturday game.
My question is, why can't we do this every week?
On the inside of the hockey bubble, games against Hull and Dundee aren't the easiest to fill an arena for. However, to the casual take it or leave it punter, they can mean just the same as a Nottingham game. Make as big a fuss about those games as the "big ones", and people will come to see them. Hull games in particular - just bill them as a Yorkshire derby and people will come through the door.
Take tomorrow's game against Cardiff. We're told Friday night hockey isn't too popular, so surely more of an effort needs to be made to get people in. Tell the back story of G in Cardiff, how under new ownership they're resurgent and, being the form team in the league at the minute, could be one of our biggest challengers for the title. Make something seem important and people will be more inclined to come watch it.
This season, there's no reason why every game can't seem important. Even games against the Caps can have a narrative, with them turning themselves around and becoming quite an outfit. It's all about the marketing of games. It might seem forced and excessive to those of us inside the bubble, but on the outside, advertising and promotion could make the difference between us signing someone of Mike Forney's ilk, or Andrew Sharp.
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