Sheffield woes

It’s been a long summer as always; the lifting of Lord Stanley’s cup always signifies the start of the lull that is inevitably filled with lots of rumour and much longing for the puck to hit the ice in early September. Every few summers, however, we get something else to keep us occupied. No not the Olympics. No not the World Cup either. This summer it was again time for another edition of ‘Steelers in meltdown’. Now before I go on I appreciate that a Panthers fanatic musing over the recent events in the steel city will probably not go down too well with many of the Sheffield faithful. I probably can’t do much to change that and neither can I pretend that I’m totally impartial but I ought to point out that in all of this there are a set of hockey fans who underneath their jerseys are the same as the rest of us that follow this great game. It is those fans I genuinely feel for. It is they who are being taken on an emotional rollercoaster over which they have no control. To alienate fans of this sport, a sport that needs all the fans it can get in this country, is nothing short of criminal.

So what on earth is going on in Sheffield? I’m not sure the full story will ever come out although a night in the pub with David Simms, Mike O’Connor and David Matsos would be a fascinating few hours to say the least (did I just ask David Simms to join me for a pint? I must be mellowing in my old age). One thing is absolutely clear and that is to say that Steelers are very much strapped to a bed in the intensive care ward. Bob Phillips, in an interview with Pro Hockey News, confirmed that the club’s income from over 60% of their home fixtures was not even enough to cover the rent of the arena. That’s got to be an indicator, one of many we’ve seen this off season, that this is not just about one bad season.

There are serious, deep rooted issues in Sheffield and their ability to see out the 2010/11 season is surely in massive doubt, not helped by the fact that the usual ‘start up’ coffers emanating from season ticket sales are drier than a cork leg. This is the time of the year when costs for a hockey club are at their very highest. Arenas want bond payments and players need flights, digs and kit. Merchandise needs buying in and the new season needs marketing to the masses. Where is Bob Phillips finding this money when he’s so stretched he has had to detach himself from the operating company which underpins the clubs operations to fend off claims to his cash from past events not wholly dissimilar to those which have ravaged the club this summer. Just this week it was confirmed that Steelers would start the season with only 10 imports. The club spin has this move down as new coach Ben Simon ‘assessing his stock’ once he sees the roster in action but I just cannot buy that. Dan Ceman hasn’t seen his side together yet, neither has Doug Christiansen, Corey Neilson, Gerard Adams, I don’t think I need to go on, you get my point. The pot is quite clearly dry and unless an awful lot of people who didn’t show their faces last season suddenly descend on Sheffield Arena with £16 each in their hands every Saturday night it’s not going to get much better.

The biggest alarm bells, the biggest questions, for me, are not about the here and now but about the journey which led to the mess Steelers are now in. As a proud fan of my team it is not, and has never been, easy to watch Sheffield rack up success after success but I say this not through bitterness or jealousy but through genuine inquisitiveness: what ultimate price will be paid for that success and the big, brash attitude that has often gone with it? Not all the Steelers’ success should be tarred with that brush. It is not fair to say their Championships have not been deserved; the underlying situation is far more complex.

On the face of it you can’t argue with many of their honours on the basis that they were the best side over the season, in a cup competition or at a play off weekend. What you can say, I believe, is that last season started to show that Sheffield have not just basked in their triumphs but that their almost perpetual success is the foundation on which the entire brand, club and business is built. It’s the approach to the first one of those three which loses them a lot of sympathy and possibly alienates some potential fans to boot. Their reliance on winning trophies to pull in fans is not something which has just happened; it was a marketing strategy the club chose from its very inception. They were bigger, better and, eventually, more successful than the rest. It’s very difficult not to draw the conclusion that 2009/10 saw what some may describe as a less than entertaining playing style collide head on with a severe lack of success and, as a result, what is left is the core of fans to whom winning is not everything and the style of hockey is not, yet, enough to see them turn their backs on their beloved club. And yes, these are the very same people I mentioned at the outset, the genuine hockey fans who really do not deserve this at all.

Where do the Sheffield Steelers go from here? I really don’t know. It seems certain that until the time comes for season tickets to go on sale for 2011/12 it will be Bob Phillips’ back pocket that funds the club. I genuinely am not convinced that arena hockey is viable in Sheffield at the present time. In the long term it absolutely is, the potential is there as it is, in my opinion, in many cities throughout the UK if the correct business plan is put in place by someone with the patience and business acumen to see it through. That’s how I see Steelers now and that’s how Bob Phillips should, in my opinion, see them. If that means a move to a smaller rink then so be it. It will annoy some fans no doubt but look at the downward trend in crowd numbers these past few years, enough are being annoyed enough to stay away as it is. Wherever they play they should be putting an awful lot of effort into building a fan base that are in it for the long haul, not just the glory times. Yes success will bring bigger crowds, that’s inevitable, but the bigger your core customer base the more stable your hockey club, that’s just simple, logical business.

One thing I would do, if it were my hockey club, is publish my business plan, or at least a flavour of it, for public consumption. Fans need reassuring and simply saying ‘we have a plan’ is not enough. If Bob Phillips can show that he has a robust and stable plan to make the club solid and self sufficient it will be the first step to winning back the support of the Sheffield public and the local businesses who right now are unlikely to touch them with a barge pole. Make no mistake the road will be a very long one. If he doesn’t do that it will continue to attract speculation that he has no long term plan. I don’t want to come across as what may be perceived as the typical Panthers fan, lauding our great crowds and stability, but what I will say is that we didn’t achieve that overnight, it wasn’t a quick win to attain this level of off ice strength and it certainly wasn’t achieved through belittling other clubs or selling dreams that could not be sustained year on year (although I admit, just one year it would be nice for the dream to be a reality in Nottingham!).

I hope Sheffield sort things out. Not because I subscribe to the belief that without them the EIHL is massively weakened, although it certainly is to some degree but ice hockey in the UK would live on without them, of that I have no doubt whatsoever. I hope they resolve their issues because there are a lot of genuine hockey fans that have already been lost and more will follow if they don’t rectify the multitude of issues driving them away.

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