From the outside I can totally appreciate the failure of Ice Hockey in Newcastle is seen largely down to mismanagement, and yes I can’t disagree over the years that this has been a major factor in ice hockey failing to live up to it’s potential in the city. However there are other aspects that I have experienced first hand on why the area doesn’t boast a team in either the EIHL or EPL.

I started out as a Durham Wasps supporter, unfortunately only in the latter years when the club’s slow demise had commenced. During the summer of 1995, I thought the decision by Sir John Hall and Newcastle United to buy the Wasps was a bold and exciting move and the only one that would safe guard top level of ice hockey in the North East. Unfortunately Durham and Whitley were fast being left behind and it was inevitable that both would have ended up in the Northern Premier League (as Whitley did) the year the Superleague was formed.

The medium term blueprint was for Sir John to build a 9,000 seat arena adjacent to St. James Park and follow the success stories which at that time were the Sheffield Steelers and Manchester Storm. For the short term Sir John attempted to buy the Riverside Rink from the owner, Rex Brown, but sadly and unfortunately failed for varying reason’s. In hindsight if this had happened, I think today the Durham Wasps would still be around and I think they would have once again become a major player in British Ice Hockey due to the failure of the Superleague era.

Despite what you hear, Newcastle or Tyneside as a whole has never been a hockey area and never will be. There is a perception that in the glory years, Durham, Whitley, Billingham and Sunderland were boasting regular capacity crowds but the true reality is that the only team doing that regularly was actually Durham (prior to 1993). Since the 1960’s, Whitley for example have always struggled to attract crowds, they regularly had sell outs when Durham visited Hillheads in 1980’s and early 1990’s however if Ayr, Billingham, Solihull etc were in town you were looking at more around the 1,500 mark in a 3,000 seat building. Attendances during that era for certain games, even in Durham were drastically inflated for public perception purposes, I know that for sure as I have had it confirmed from the horses mouth so to speak. In my involvement in the sport over past fifteen years I have had the opportunity to become acquainted with people heavily involved in the sport in those days and while it was an exciting era for many of us, the reality is that a lot of the memories have been clouded by reminiscing rather than what was the norm, the majority of that time. Overall the powerhouse teams were as precarious financially as a lot of teams are today.

Another argument that is dragged up time and time again is that of why can’t the Newcastle teams tap into the “hockey fans” from the likes of Durham, Whitley, Sunderland and Billingham. When Sir John Hall bought the Wasps, in his bold move he alienated roughly sixty to seventy percent of the North East’s hockey fan base. The majority of Durham fans wanted the team to stay in the city and wouldn’t support a ‘Geordie’ Wasps team, Whitley fans weren’t going to support a Mackem team even it they had changed their name to Newcastle, Billingham was just too far away and Sunderland fans weren’t going to support the team in either Durham or Newcastle. Buying the Wasps rather than the Warriors, was like moving Sunderland AFC football club into Tyneside, Newcastle United being demoted to the Championship and expecting people to support a newly name Newcastle AFC. Looking back the area would have been in a much better position if Sir John had bought the Warriors, created a new Newcastle franchise or even better left the sport alone altogether.

I do agree with Ian regarding the Sporting Club era. The fundamental errors in Newcastle short ice hockey history were made during this period (1996 to 1998) when a lack of marketing direction and on ice performances set the precedent for the next fifteen years. I believe that any new franchise in a new hockey city has to be a success within it’s first two years if it’s to become a sustainable model – that is something Cobras failed on and thus caused the domino effect that we experienced over the years. We’ve had access to the accounts from the Cobras era and in respect the financial support shown to Ice Hockey, in today’s EIHL era the figures are staggering. The net wage expenditure alone for 1996/97 and 1997/98 was a staggering £1.5M and £1.2M respectively which when compared to last years £100k makes you realise how times have changed.

I have been involved in ice hockey since the Riverkings days so I have a very good insight into why there has been a lack of sustainability. It’s predominately down to mismanagement, lack of marketing, lack of clear direction, but the outside factors have had much more of an effect than meets the eye. It became apparent to me quickly that there is and always will be a lack of interest in ice hockey in Newcastle. Those that are interested or have been interested in the sport in the North East only know of the Durham Wasps and the Whitley Warriors. You can still speak to people around Tyneside today and the majority will have heard of the Whitley Warriors and very few of the Newcastle Vipers. There are a number of factors in this, a lack of marketing but also a lack of respect. Four years ago I organised a Whitley Warriors v Durham Wasps legends game which attracted an attendance of 2,500, where the same building’s Elite League tenants we’re only able to attract on average 600 supporters last season.

There are certain ‘hockey markets’ in the UK where hockey will always attract – Ayr, Durham, Fife and Nottingham. You could put new facilities into Ayr and Durham tomorrow and you would be pretty much guaranteed a successful franchise out of those areas. Neil Black and Gary Moran have done a superb job marketing and creating a superb hockey organisation in Nottingham, however if Newcastle had an arena like the NIC right in the middle of the city with the history the Panthers boast I think it would be a different story. A number of years ago the EIHL held a marketing work shop for teams to discuss what marketing initiatives worked for them and Newcastle were there. The Vipers management took away ideas that had been a major success for the likes of Coventry and Nottingham, followed them in detail with the assistance of the other clubs however they failed and were no where near as effective as they had been for the likes of the Blaze and Panthers.

The sporting market in Newcastle is very unique model and comparable to the likes of London, Manchester and Liverpool. Football is number one in Newcastle which has had a detrimental effect on any Newcastle ice hockey franchise. It’s different to your Nottingham’s, Sheffield’s, Coventry’s – in Newcastle the football club is the be all and end all of everything. During the Vipers era if a game clashed with a Newcastle United match it could wipe 30% to 40% off the club’s match night revenue, and when you consider that ticket sales could generate as little as £6k you can see how the model became unworkable.

The Vipers first season in the EIHL was a very successful one on the ice, finishing 2^nd and winning the playoff title. However off the ice it was disastrous losing circa £250k and that was with the lowest budget team the club iced between 2005 to 2008. Many fans have pointed out that they feel the club didn’t take advantage of the playoff success. From the 2006/07 season marketing initiatives increased and sponsorship increased significantly to the point where during the 2007/08 season the Vipers boasted the second highest sponsorship revenue in the whole EIHL. Things started to go down hill when arena rent started increasing, meaning the on ice product suffered, the lack of entertainment and success turned fans away and from there it was downward spiral. The old chestnut of less revenue + increased costs = poorer product every season. The club tried to manage that through PR, which backfired immensely through too much honesty and passion.

An example I think that sums up the situation perfectly in Newcastle was a couple of years ago the club tried an initiative with a local shopping centre which is based right in the city centre. The club had 10,000 leaflets printed off which provided a discount to an upcoming game, provided the next three months fixtures, the website address, Facebook page, Twitter account etc. To be eligible for this offer you had to provide your full name, address, telephone number, email address to allow the club to do ‘follow ups’ after those taking up the offer had been to a game. From the 10,000 vouchers handed out during the school’s half term during that October, only 38 out of 10,000 vouchers were used!

What does the future hold for ice hockey in the North East? Well the Metro Radio Arena is still there and the ice plant still installed. However I understand that it needs around £50k worth of investment to allow the ice to be down for an extended period of time. I personally wouldn’t have a bad word side to say against the MRA, they’re a business; their costs have increased considerably over the past five to six years they’ve had to pass that onto their tenants which has resulted in hockey being unsustainable in the building. Since the 2005/06 season, the rental costs for ice hockey in MRA have risen 600% which has resulted in professional hockey being unsustainable.

I recently attended a game in the renovated Billingham Forum. For those who are not followers of the ENL, ice hockey has returned to Billingham this season after a two year absence while the town’s rink was given a makeover. The Northern Stars who played out of the MRA for part of last season, merged with the Billingham Bombers to form the new look Billingham Stars. Right now the Stars are boasting attendances of around 500 to 700 depending on who they are playing. When you take into account that some EIHL clubs are playing in front of attendances of 600 to 800 a game you have to ask, should we go with a EIHL team costing around £6k a week + housing, car, equipment, flights, tax, work permits, ITC’s etc or go with an ENL team with very little overheads – while there is no substantial further interest for EIHL hockey it’s pointless hemorrhaging money to aim for an unsustainable level.

I believe that the future of hockey in the region will be in the ENL with the likes of Billingham and Whitley, probably eventually to be joined by teams in Durham and Gateshead. Every season there are suggestions of a new Northern Premier League coming into fruition but I personally don’t think that’s the way forward. ENL Division 1 in it’s current format with one of two imports in the north to match it’s counterparts in the south is the sustainable direction the North East should be looking towards. The North East isn’t a wealthy area and never will be, it currently has the highest unemployment figures in the whole UK meaning people just don’t have substantial disposable income to watch EIHL hockey week in week out. Whatever the future holds, I believe what has happened could benefit the sport in the area in the long term even if they immediate future looks bleak.