Eagles rack up goals on, off ice

LOVELAND – They shoot. They score.

On the ice, at the box office and in company boardrooms, the Colorado Eagles hockey team scored big time in its second season.

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Winning the Central Hockey League’s championship prize – the President’s Cup – tells only part of one of the brightest success stories in the history of minor-league hockey.

The team consistently sold out the Budweiser Event Center’s 5,289 seats during its 40 home games, including the regular season and the playoffs.

The team makes 4,400 season ticket seats available and the waiting list is 700 long. To encourage continued support, the Eagles are keeping ticket prices level for the second consecutive year.

The team also drew revenue from more than 100 local corporate sponsors, a year-by-year television deal with the Altitude network and a two-year radio deal with Regent Communications, which broadcasts games on FM station 99.9 The Point.

“I think in the first year, we were new and (the sponsors) took a chance with us,´ said Ralph Backstrom, president and owner of the Colorado Eagles.

“I think after year No. 1 we proved to them that the hockey was really good hockey. I think the sponsorships came really quickly this year based on what we did last year,” he said.

The Eagles have 106 corporate sponsors with sponsorship amounts ranging from $1,000 to $113,000 per season. In return, sponsor names are splashed on dasher boards, on the ice, on banners around the event center and on big-screen, Jumbotron commercials.

“Our sponsorships are in the seven figures,” Backstrom said, declining to be more specific.

“We like the fact that the small businessman can become part of the Eagles corporate sponsorships. We cater to all Northern Coloradans and we have joined with the smaller businesses all the way up to the national businesses.”

Space limits

Backstrom said business interest has been so strong that the only limitation on sponsorships is the inventory of space on which to advertise.

“We only have so many dasher boards, we only have so many on-ice logos and we have only so many promotion times during the course of a two-and-a-half hour hockey game,” he said. “There is only so much you can do, and we don’t want to turn this into a circus.”

Backstrom declined to comment on the team’s total take for the championship season, but Brent Thiessen, the Eagles’ vice president of corporate partners, estimated that corporate sponsorship makes up 30 percent of total revenue.

The Colorado Eagles team is “at or near the top of the revenue range for teams in the league,´ said Steve Cherwonak, vice president of communications for the Central Hockey League. Annual revenue for teams in the league for the 2003-2004 season ranged between $1 million and $4 million, he said. Revenue from the latest season has yet to be announced.

When the ownership group gathers later this month for its annual meeting, investors will learn about the team’s approximate 20 percent increase in revenue from the first to the second year.

The Colorado Eagles “have been wildly successful, and they have surpassed even optimistic expectations,” Cherwonak said. “They have excelled in virtually all the league ranges.”

The range for operating costs for a team in the CHL is from $1.3 million to $3 million, depending on the location of the team, the amount of travel, the facility costs and the size of the staff.

Big returns

Local businesses that have chosen to advertise with the Eagles say they are seeing a positive impact.

“We run a commercial during the two intermissions of the game and we have a dasher board,´ said Jeff Demaske, owner of Greeley-based Journey Homes and J&J Construction. “We also sponsored the Zooper stars,” he said, referring to the inflatable animal figures that appear on the ice between periods.

Demaske said it is hard to track the success of the marketing, but he knows people say they recognize the name or logo from games. Demaske is a member of the investment group behind the Eagles, be he said he enjoys the product regardless.

“There is no question that the team is now recognizable in the area,” he said.

Jerry Bryant, president and CEO of Colorado Community Bank, also has been a supporter of the Eagles from the beginning. The bank is the official bank of the Colorado Eagles and offers a special Eagles one-year certificate of deposit with an interest rate that increases with each Eagles win.

“The CD has been a huge success and now has millions in it,” he said. “We will offer it again this fall because people loved it so much.”

League stars

The Central Hockey League consists of 17 teams scattered throughout Texas, Louisiana and the southeastern United States. The league is known for its rough style of play and for the agressiveness of its players. In such a feisty league, the Eagles had quite a challenge clinching the President’s Cup.

Not only did the Eagles win the on-ice championship, but the team also received “Franchise of the Year” honors at the annual CHL conference held in late May.

While the Eagles have raised the bar of success for the CHL, the league is losing two teams this year and another is going on a one-year hiatus.

The Topeka Tarantulas and the San Angelo Saints are hanging up their skates for good while the New Mexico Scorpions wait for a new arena to be built.

Despite the closure of these teams, the future looks bright for the CHL as the Youngstown (Ohio) Steelhounds and another team from Texas – to be identified later in June – will hit the ice this year.