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Power players: Doing business at a Lightning game

Many companies use a high-priced private club at the St. Pete Times Forum to mix business with pleasure, soft-selling clients while watching professional hockey.

By Alan Snel, Times correspondent
Published March 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Jeff Iseler and Dan Sullivan of SmithBarney talk with potential clients at the St. Pete Times Forum before a recent game.

TAMPA - While Tampa Bay Lightning fans savored sliced roast beef and washed down buffet food with beer in the St. Pete Times Forum's swanky AFS Club section, salesman David Taylor was tucked away in a corner of the arena's luxury seating area.

The Lightning spent the night defeating the Washington Capitals, 3-2, in an overtime shootout. And Taylor, who traveled to the Forum from Banner Elk in the mountains of western North Carolina, also was tending to business during the recent game.

Taylor, sales director for a North Carolina land developer, was pitching high-roller Lightning fans on buying $1-million second-homes in the mountains outside Boone, N.C. It was an unusual business arrangement for the Lightning. Usually, businesses such as banks, restaurants, beer companies and utilities cut partnership deals with the NHL team.

But in this case, it was an upscale developer from North Carolina's scenic mountains looking to hook up with affluent Lightning fans in the Forum's high-end ticket district. Taylor showed a slide show of the proposed Wilderness Trail development, dispatched four attractive female workers to round up prospective Tampa Bay area buyers and even chatted with former Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk, who schmoozes with Lightning sponsors for a living.

"We wanted to partner up with the AFS Club because we're selling high-end second homes in the mountains. We knew the heavy-hitter sponsors would be in the venue," Taylor said.

Rob Keith, Lightning vice president of sponsorship sales, said the pricey AFS Club is the ideal venue to hook up high-end developers and hockey fans with deep pockets. One AFS Club season ticket costs $6,500.

Such access, however, has its price. Wilderness Trail, for instance, spent more than several thousand dollars on the deal with the Lightning, Taylor said. (The Lightning would not disclose financial details of deals with vendors). The arrangement includes the NHL team doing an e-mail blast to prospective buyers, coming up with free Lightning caps and inviting the North Carolina developer to a team golf tournament for corporate sponsors, Taylor said.

The sales-inducing ambiance Wilderness got in return includes buffet food such as all-you-can-eat chicken, turkey, roast beef, Caesar salad, pizza, desserts, soda and beer.

"Rather than invite them to a hotel or a restaurant, they invite them to a game. The unique experience of being at a club ensures a better turnout of people who will predisposed to listen to the pitch," Keith said. "It focuses on the soft sell in an ambiance that is synergistic."

To minimize irritating fans who prefer to just watch a game without being subjected to a sales pitch, vendors typically try a soft-sell approach with tables set up in unobtrusive corners.

Passport Marine Inc. of St. Petersburg and Smith Barney's Tampa office are among other vendors using the club to reach out to affluent Lightning fans.

Jeffery Iseler, a financial adviser at Smith Barney's Tampa office, said the AFS Club is an ideal venue to soft sell fans on the company's financial services because of the stress-free, relaxed atmosphere. And the company considers the Lightning's opponent. For example, if the New York Rangers are playing the Lightning, then Smith Barney will try to line up customers with New York roots, Iseler said.

"What are two things your parents tell you when you're growing up? Don't talk to strangers. Don't talk about money. Well, we talk to strangers about money," Iseler said while the Lightning played the Dallas Stars.

Smith Barney has about 40 clients and prospects through the AFS Club, offering a 20-minute presentation to the interested hockey fans.

The Wilderness Trail pitch was just the start of the business relationship because the Carolina developer plans to use another Lightning-controlled sports team to try and sell vacation homes. Lightning owner Bill Davidson of Detroit owns the Asheville (N.C.) Tourists, a minor league baseball team in western North Carolina's largest city. The Wilderness Trail developer plans to be at Tourists games this year to pitch their real estate deals, Keith said.

Taylor said the investment with the Lightning paid off. The North Carolina developer exceeded its goal of meeting with at least 100 people during a recent game. Five or six Tampa Bay Lightning fans said they plan to visit the development site, and one committed to buy, Taylor said.

It was enough of a return on his time investment that Taylor plans to return to the Forum on April 3 to make another pitch.

. Fast facts

About the AFS Club

What it is: Members club in the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.

Where it is: Behind one of the two goals on the club level.

Named after: Academic Financial Services, which provides federal education loans and financial assistance to student borrowers

Season ticket: $6,500

Capacity: 1,400

Amenities: Buffet, beer, wine, VIP parking and networking opportunities

[Last modified March 2, 2007, 22:20:29]