Page 30 - BusinessWest February 20, 2023

Nathan Costa,
President, Springfield
Thunderbirds
He’s Netting Wins in the Community, Regardless of the Score on the Ice
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
hen the Springfield Thunderbirds shut down the 2020-21 season in the midst of a rag- ing pandemic, Nate Costa understood the impact — and the longer-term risk.
“It was an awful period because I had to lay off half of my staff, and the staff that stayed with me were on reduced hours,” he recalled. “And we really didn’t know what we were facing.”
That was the initial impact — which also included serious revenue losses. The longer-term risk had to do with momentum — more accurately, a complete halt to it.
“COVID affected our business like few others. You need people to get together to come to sporting events, to have success in this business. So COVID was
a scary thing,” Costa continued. “And we weren’t sure how long it was going to take to have people come back together again.”
Looking back to 2016, when a large ownership
group comprised of local business owners brought the
Thunderbirds to Springfield just two months after the Falcons moved to Arizona, Costa said it was critical to move that quickly, as other cities that had lost AHL teams, including Worcester and Albany, never replaced them, so maintaining momentum was paramount.
Which is why late 2020 posed such a concern. But Costa understood that the way the organization was constructed would put it in the best position
Leah Martin Photography
to succeed when hockey returned — and return it did, with a late-season surge in both wins and attendance in the spring of 2022, and a playoff run that stopped just a couple wins short of an AHL championship.
“We had taken the right steps to build the business the right way ... to do things that were going to put
us in a position to be sustainable long-term,” he said. “And that was really focusing on community activity, being visible in the community, and giving fans a good experience here at the building.”
By continuing with those efforts — and for leading a team that positively benefits community organizations, an enthusiastic fanbase, and the economic vitality
of downtown Springfield — Costa has been named a Difference Maker for 2023, though he’s always quick to deflect credit to a hardworking staff and a committed ownership group.
“I’m a young person — I have a lot of life to go,” he said, contrasting his experience with Ted Hebert, a member of the T-Birds’ ownership group, who was honored as one of last year’s Difference Makers for a lifetime of work in the community. “It’s cool to
be recognized, obviously, but it’s a humbling thing because it’s not what I got into it for.
“I grew up in Springfield,” Costa continued. “I used to come to games. I always thought it would be the coolest job in the world if I could run the hockey team one day, and it happened. And the extension of that is that I get to do things that are going to be the right thing for the community.”
“We had taken the right steps to build
the business the right way ... to do things
that were going to put us in a position to be sustainable long-term. And that was really focusing on community activity, being visible in the community, and giving fans a good experienc”e here at the building.
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FEBRUARY 20, 2023
BusinessWest