McCrimmons Legacy
Inside the Brandon Wheat Kings

By Angela Lovell

Brandon, Manitoba - Even at 46, Kelly McCrimmon has a typical hockey player swagger.

Its a totally unconscious imprint that the years skating leaves on their gait.

It also leaves no doubt as to the credentials of the coach, General Manager and owner of the Brandon Wheat Kings, a former Western Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League Executive of the Year.

Under McCrimmons tutelage the Wheat Kings has become one of the most successful junior hockey franchises in the Western Hockey League (WHL).

Since '92-93, the Wheat Kings have qualified for post-season play in thirteen of fourteen years. They have won six division pennants, four Conference titles, four trips to the league championship final and taken home the President's Cup in 1996. The hockey franchise as a business is a pretty unique enterprise.

When most of your assets are people and your product is their performance, it makes for an interesting balance sheet. And increasing profits isnt as easy as simply selling more products. Although revenue streams include percentages of concession sales, sponsorship, fund-raisers and agreements with the National Hockey League for drafted players, it is still ticket sales that determine the bottom line.

Its about getting people into those seats, says McCrimmon. The Wheat Kings, who are celebrating their 40-year anniversary this year, have averaged attendances of 3,200 to 3,500 people for home games.

With the Keystone Centre Arena able to handle just over 5,000 the goal is to average 4,000 per game and add a few sells-outs.

There are very few nights when you cant walk up to the Keystone Centre box office and buy a ticket and we need to get to the point where some nights you cant, so now its important to be a season ticket holder, says McCrimmon.

The Wheat Kings are a far cry from the dilapidated team that he took over in 1989 at the young age of 28. There followed a challenging time for the unproven McCrimmon in his first major role in junior hockey.

Part of improving was we were first going to get worse before we got better, recalls McCrimmon. In his first three years the team never made the play-offs and had one eleven-win season, which was almost unheard of in the WHL.

That stretch of time was probably the most challenging we have ever had here, but in hindsight it was a very important stage in the development of the organization.

Its been quite an achievement for this ex-junior hockey player, who graduated from the University of Michigan with a business degree with the intention of returning to the family farm near Rosetown, about 140 kilometres. south west of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan.

As a younger person I thought there were more secure ways to make a living than the hockey business, says McCrimmon.

Obviously he changed his mind, becoming one-third owner of the Wheat Kings in 1992 and eventually purchasing the remainder of the club from Bob Cornell eight years later.

McCrimmon is now as comfortable in his polished, yet modest office as he is on the care-worn benches of the players box. His hands-on approach helps him deal with the multiple demands of his different roles.

As a coach and manager, because I am in touch with the players, I am very straight up with them, he says. Our team comes first and I will step away personally from a decision and measure it against what is best for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Those decisions arent always black and white. Smaller franchises like Medicine Hat in Alberta routinely play to sold-out crowds and have a 4,000-name waiting list for season tickets.

Its a level of support that McCrimmon knows takes time to build. That is why he has focused on recruiting families as fans for the future.

We try to keep childrens tickets affordable and thats a real long-term initiative, he says. Over time you are going to have people who grew up in Brandon and the Wheat Kings were part of their life and you have a chance to keep those people or get them back at some point.

Marketing efforts have to sometimes be risky. In a further effort to boost season ticket sales, McCrimmon took a gamble on reducing season ticket prices this year from $375 to $250. We put our money where our mouth was, says McCrimmon. We made junior hockey more affordable in Brandon, Manitoba than anywhere else in the country by forty or fifty percent.

So far the gamble seems to be paying off, with another 1,000 seats full for the season.

The WHL includes some premier franchises like Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, as well as strong US markets like Spokane and Portland. That can make it tough for smaller-market clubs like the Wheat Kings to remain viable.

The bar is being raised in an ongoing manner in terms of the type of organization you want for your players.

Although players receive stipends that are set by the league, there are nuances from club to club that include how they travel, off-ice training opportunities, work-out rooms and locker rooms with various degrees of comfort.

You have to give players the best chance to get better, says McCrimmon. You have to make sure that you provide whatever those things are that they need to do that.

The other side of the marketing challenge is to provide a product that people actually want to watch.

The challenge in the hockey business is you have to have a competitive on-ice product or you lose the casual fan, says McCrimmon.

When that product consists of twenty-four teenagers, ranging from 16 to 20 years of age, most juggling school and hockey, whos emotional and physical state at any given point influences the end result, its not easy to achieve the consistency that keeps the stands full.

And consistency is a key element in bringing the crowds back night after night. Few teams in the WHL have won as many games over the past ten years as the Wheat Kings. But that consistency takes a lot of work from the top down.

How organizations deal with these guys just as people I think is what leaves your best mark on players, says McCrimmon. Youve got to show them how much you care before you show them how much you know.

Hockey can be a fickle business, governed as much by perceptions as tangible realities.

Marketing the Wheat Kings, as a result, is a lot about selling its persona and community involvement is a hugely important element of that. Wheat Kings players routinely show up at schools, charity functions and events, and it is something that McCrimmon believes develops valuable social skills.

I think thats a really important part of their development and you see the change in them, says McCrimmon. When they go out to do a player appearance at seventeen years old they are a shy as the kids are and yet in time they really grow into it.

Just how much the Wheat Kings mean to the economy of Brandon is hard to quantify, but as part of the entertainment scene it plays its part well.

Patty Griffith who is general manager of the 500,000-sq. ft. Keystone Centre says, Our major tenants are vital to our operations. The entire community is much better because we have the Wheat Kings and the Provincial Exhibition (Brandon Winter Fair).

A 2003 economic impact analysis commissioned by the Keystone Centre estimated that non-local day-trippers accounted for 30% of the attendance at events throughout the year. Of those, 70% had come specifically for a Keystone event, and their combined daily expenditures while in Brandon totaled $1.5 million. The Wheat Kings can certainly claim to be a part of that economic gain.

There are few businesses where sweat equity is quite such an apt term as in hockey. McCrimmon probably loses a couple of pounds during every game, and with WHL franchises selling anywhere from $3.5 million to $5 million one might suspect hed be tempted to cash out his investment and go back to the farm.

But that doesnt seem to be on the cards anytime soon. Hockey will always be part of life for McCrimmon, who, at 46 still enjoys every aspect of the game, even riding the bus.

Its part of being with a hockey team, he says. To this day I still love riding the bus.

And for now, at least, Kelly McCrimmon is not just along for the ride. (Angela Lovell is the Brandon correspondent for MANITOB BUSINESS Magazine.) ?2006, Angela Lovell. First Rights Only.