Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 4, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Public funds will boost Worcester's sports scene The Worcester Bravehearts ranked seventh nationally in attendance among collegiate- league baseball teams this year, at 2,356 people per game. The Worcester Railers say they've sold more season tickets to the upcoming season than the Worcester Sharks did in their final year of play. The city is actively courting the Pawtucket Red Sox to move to Worcester, with nearly 100 area business leaders signing a letter supporting the effort. When polled online, the majority of WBJ readers felt the city and/or state government should use public funds to entice teams like the PawSox to Worcester. F L A S H P O L L Given Worcester's strong attendance with other sports teams, should the public offer subsidies to draw the Pawtucket Red Sox to a new ballpark here? Yes. It's worth city and state funding to bring entertainment and notoriety to the city. 47% Yes. Yet subsidies should come only from the state because the team will draw from all over. COMMENTS: "If it is done right with the mixture of business and entertainment close to a form of transportation, it should work." "I'd like to see a team such as the Pawtucket Red Sox in Worcester, but only if it doesn't hurt the Bravehearts attendance. Also this can be something where interest will be so high that Pawtucket will eventually come up with the money and/or land to keep the team where they are. This sounds like the Patriots plans to build a stadium in Connecticut and ending up staying in Massachusetts." "The Paw Sox should come to Worcester because it makes good financial sense for them, not because they get a tax break or other subsidy." 4% Yes. Yet only the city should pay because it's hosting the team and benefiting from tax revenue. No. There shouldn't be any public funds spent on a new park for the team. 41% 8% DCU Center office. "And how do you prove that to someone before you've dropped a puck?" Positive early returns The proactive outreach effort, includ- ing sponsorships and business partner- ships, is working. The team, has sold nearly 1,500 season tickets so far, beat- ing what the Sharks sold in their final year, and has sold more corporate advertising and sponsorships than any- one else in its league, Myers said. Rucker was awarded the new fran- chise by its league – the ECHL – in early 2016, convincing the commis- sioner of the ECHL, Brian McKenna, he had what the league was looking for: a long-term commitment and community involvement from owner- ship in a growing market with good demographics. "We've been very impressed," McKenna said. When the Railers came to announce their $250,000 partnership with the EcoTarium, the museum's president, Joe Cox, said children ran up to see Trax, instantly recognizing the team mascot. "They hadn't even played a single game yet," Cox said. "It's amazing just what a huge impact they've had in such a short period of time." Worcester, a sports town? Worcester has an up-and-down his- tory with minor-league sports, and the Railers will start play as city lead- ers court the Pawtucket Red Sox to move here into a proposed new ball- park. The Worcester Tornadoes had an eight-year run in minor-league base- ball until the team was folded in 2012 because the owner wasn't paying league bills. The Worcester Bravehearts have had more success in their four seasons, and this year ranked seventh nationally among col- legiate-league teams in attendance. Worcester got its first modern hockey team in 1994 when Roy Boe bought the Springfield Indians and moved the team east. By the end of the 2004-'05 season, the St. Louis Blues – the IceCats' NHL parent club – bought the team and moved it to Peoria, Ill. In 2006, the San Jose Sharks moved their AHL affiliate from Cleveland to Worcester, before leaving in 2015 as the AHL shifted five teams to the West Coast to be closer to their parent clubs. Two other cities – Manchester, N.H. and Norfolk, Va. – experienced this one-step drop in the hockey hierarchy from the AHL to the ECHL and haven't fared well. The Manchester Monarchs, regularly in the top half of AHL attendance, had an 18-percent drop the first season, and then another 23 percent in the next. The Norfolk Admirals saw a 37-percent drop in their first ECHL season last year. ECHL teams regularly play to 57 percent of their arenas' capacity and hardly a season or two goes by with- out a team moving, giving up owner- ship or suspending operations. "I promise it's not going to happen here," Railer President Myers said confidently. Being part of the community The Railers are different, focusing much more on off-ice involvement, Myers said. Few, if any, minor league teams have a related public sports facility or a branded restaurant like the Railers do. "The real thing for me was the inte- gration into the community," said Rucker. Rucker comes to Worcester without the experience of owning a team but has had success in several businesses. Rucker, who has a bachelor's in inter- national relations from Tufts University, owns and runs three com- panies: NFS Leasing, which leases medical, construction, computer and other equipment; Fulcrum FxT, an asset management company; and Porzia Properties, which owns retail spaces in Massachusetts and other eastern states. Like Boe, the IceCats owner, Rucker is an out-of-towner without a strong connection with the city, but he's had strong inroads to the com- munity since the Railers were announced almost two years ago. "If it was just a business opportuni- ty, it wasn't of as much interest to me because I could do that anywhere in the country," Rucker said. After all this time, with the first puck-drop just over a month away, Rucker admits to getting more excit- ed. For once, trips to Worcester will be for pleasure again, and not so much business. "I hope that I'll give myself an opportunity to relish that opportunity because it's been a long road," he said. "I'd like to be able to come to the games and be a fan." Source: HockeyTech (Sharks), Hockeydb.com (IceCats) Worcester hockey attendance In their nine seasons from 2006 to 2015, the Worcester Sharks landed in the bottom third of the AHL in attendance each year. In their 11 seasons from 1994 to 2005, the Worcester IceCats started slow, peaked after a few years, and had sagging attendance in the final few years. W 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 1994-'95 '95-'96 '96-'97 '97-'98 '98-'99 '99-'00 '00-'01 '01-'02 '02-'03 '03-04 '04-'05 '05-'06 '06-'07 '07-'08 '08-'09 '09-'10 '10-'11 '11-'12 '12-'13 '13-'14 '14-'15 Average attendance

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