Page 8 - BusinessWest October 26, 2020

like many other businesses — had to make some hard decisions and eventually furlough several employees; once a staff of 19, it is now down to seven.
Those who remain are trying to carry on as they did seven and half months ago — selling sea- son tickets, planning events, working within the community, and building the team’s foundation. But it’s all different. For the most part, the staff is trying to prepare for contingencies, plan what can be planned, and, perhaps above all, work tireless- ly to remain relevant while waiting for games to commence and the pandemic to run its course.
“The ownership has given a commitment to Springfield — we’re not going anywhere,” Costa said. “It’s going to be a challenging year for us, like it is for everyone else, but the commitment is there to get through this year and plan for the long term. We’ll get through this ... it’s just going to be tough.”
Setting Goals
When asked about how he’s apportioning his time these days, Costa said he spends much of it on the phone.
Many of those calls are to and from other team executives in the AHL — he knows most of them going back to the days when he worked for the league — who are looking to compare notes and share thoughts on how to deal with a situation unlike anything they’ve encountered.
“I’m seeing what other teams are doing, what they’re hearing from their states, and what the temperature is for us to play in the upcoming year,” he explained. “There’s a lot of conversation going on about how we can pull this off and how we can do it the right way. It’s a challenge that
none of us have faced in our careers, and there’s no way to really plan for it.”
In addition to other AHL officials, Costa and others within the league are also talking with lead- ers from other sports, including the National Football League. From these conversations, they’re learning it’s been difficult to sell even those comparatively few tickets that states like Florida, Texas, and Missouri are allowing teams to sell.
Indeed, while the popular notion might be that there is consider- able demand for those few seats, and that teams would struggle to figure out who might be award- ed them, that is certainly not the case.
Signage outside the MassMutual Center still displays the 2019-20 Thunderbirds’ schedule because the slate for this year remains clouded by question marks.
“They’re having a hard time selling the limited inventory that they have because people are just not mentally ready for it yet,” Costa said. “Even the Cowboys are facing challenges; they’ve had to comp a lot of tickets. The Dolphins, the same thing. That’s what we’re seeing.”
This harsh reality brings yet another layer of intrigue, and questions, to the discussion con- cerning just when, if, and under what circum- stances the AHL might be permitted to carry out its 2020-21 season. Indeed, while the league
wants to commence action and get fans back in the arenas, if they start too early, fans will not be eager to come back.
And the harshest reality of all is that this league — and the NHL as well — simply cannot operate for any length of time without fans in the stands.
The AHL is a league with no national television contracts and only some smaller, regional deals. The vast majority of revenues come from spon- sorships and sales of tickets, concessions, and merchandise. And without fans in the stands ... well, it’s easy to do the math.
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8 OCTOBER 26, 2020
FEATURE
BusinessWest
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