Lightning club targets business

By KYLE PARKS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000

TAMPA -- In an ambitious move to attract more businesspeople to its games, the Tampa Bay Lightning is spending $1-million to build a plush new club at the Ice Palace.

A seat in the Channelside Club, which will open in September, will cost $4,000 a year, about $1,000 more than a hockey season ticket in the arena's club-seat area.

But a Channelside Club seat will be good for all events at the Ice Palace -- hockey, arena football, concerts, even wrestling.

And here's what might prove an even bigger attraction: It's all-you-can-eat. The price includes all the food and sodas, beer or wine you want each night. Only hard liquor will cost extra.

The club will be the first of its kind in the Tampa Bay area. Raymond James Stadium has an eating area where club-seat holders can buy food, while Tropicana Field's Bullpen Cafe offers picnic-table seating where it sells food vouchers. The Channelside Club will be different: a members-only stadium facility with personalized service that caters to executives.

"We don't think enough has been done by teams to target the companies in the Tampa Bay area, and this will do that," said Lightning president Ron Campbell.

The idea of having clubs with one price for admission, food and drinks is spreading through the National Hockey League. Arenas in Buffalo, N.Y., and Montreal have them; facilities in St. Louis and Nashville, Tenn., are adding them.

Still, the Lightning faces significant challenges in selling out the club, which could hold from 500 to 700 seats, depending on how it's configured when plans are completed in the next few weeks.

At about $92 a hockey game, these are among the most expensive seats in Tampa Bay area stadiums. Some of the prospective customers already have spots in luxury suites or club seats. The Tampa Bay area has relatively few large corporate headquarters.

And the Lightning is one of the worst teams in hockey.

Undeterred, Lightning executives predict they'll sell out the club by August, a month before it opens for the Lightning's first preseason home game. An aggressive marketing campaign has netted 100 seat deposits already. And they are targeting small to midsize companies, not just the big outfits that fill most of the area's luxury suites.

The Channelside Club will be one of the nicest facilities in pro sports, the Lightning said. It will be heavy on high-end hardwood, brick and marble. A concierge will be on hand; plans also call for a business center for execs to use.

And the food, the team promises, will be even higher-quality than what's served in the luxury suites. Buffet menus will honor visiting teams -- chowder for Boston, cheesesteak for Philadelphia -- and there also will be options such as a pasta bar and a menu of other entrees.

The Lightning envisions a sporting version of a high-class country club or dinner club, where high-powered business-people are greeted by name as they arrive with clients and employees. But it won't be too stuffy, they hope: There won't be a dress code.

"This is a place where someone can entertain, and $8,000 for two seats here is a lot less than $120,000 for a luxury suite," said Chad Estis, the team's vice president of sales. "While the luxury suite price doesn't include food and drinks, this does."

The list of 100 seat deposits is filled with names of companies you've probably never heard, such as Gulf Coast Fire and Safety Co. Inc. in Tampa and SMCI Fabricating and Machine Services in Lakeland. They are run by people who are often under the radar of pro sports teams' marketers.

"I like hockey, but I'll often give the seats to customers or employees," said Bob Burch, president of Gulf Coast Fire and Safety, a 25-employee company that sells fire-suppression sprinkler systems.

In this healthy economy, small, fast-growing companies have money to spend: Burch also has two club seats for Tampa Bay Buccaneers games. Last season, the Bucs charged $95, $175 or $245 a game for club seats.

The tough part of the sales job, said the Lightning's Campbell, is overcoming the perception that the Ice Palace is a drab, boring place to see a game.

But Palace Sports & Entertainment, run by Detroit billionaire William Davidson, has added luxury suites and is now building a large sports bar on the first floor. "Now, the arena will have some "wow' in it," Campbell said.

Still, the sad-sack Lightning was one of the worst teams in hockey last season, and a slow rebuilding process may take two to three more years.

So the team is emphasizing that a Channelside Club member can go to all 150 events the Ice Palace hosts each year, not just the 41 Lightning games. The arena gets most of the area's biggest concerts, from Bruce Springsteen to Shania Twain to Britney Spears.

If the team sells out the 22,000-square-foot club, it expects that profits from the facility will pay off the construction costs in two to three years.

The club area, on the south end of the arena, was used last year as a bar for club-seat members. Soon, walls will be taken out so one side of the club has windows looking out on the Garrison Channel while the other side faces the ice.

Though the Lightning wants the Channelside Club to have the feel of a business club, it also wants to make sure people know they're in a sports arena. One way to do that: cover the walls with hockey memorabilia.

"We're going to get stuff from all over the place," said project manager Sean Henry with a laugh. "I guess I'll have to get busy on eBay."

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