by Robin Tarnowetzki
Journal Staff Writer
The Broncos want to build up their revenue following a loss of $70,000 in last year's season. Broncos president, Jamie Brockman, hopes that the new, larger board will be able to run better fundraisers to make up for it.
"It's always tough to make money as a junior A hockey club," Brockman said. "Every year's a challenge, there's no question. Some years are better than others, for sure.
The goal is to always try to make money, or at least be financially viable. Generally speaking, I wouldn't say there's anything that's really out of the norm from past years."
Last year, season tickets were down $15,000 and gate revenue was down a bit, but nothing significant. However, sponsorship advertising and marketing efforts were up $30,000 last year from the year before. Brockman said that most of the team's revenue comes from being in the playoffs and that he would like to get away from depending on being in the playoffs, as he said that is too much pressure for the coaching staff.
"At every round you make it further into the playoffs, more and more people are interested and you get bigger and bigger attendance," he said. "Our 50/50 through the playoffs are way higher than the regular season game. (If they don't make playoffs) you lose those 50/50s, you lose those liquor sales That's a pile of money."
Not being in the playoffs last year cost the team about $92,000 in lost revenue.
"We need to come up with ways through fundraising so that our regular season pays for itself and playoffs are gravy and goes to the bottom line," he said. "We're not depending on it to pay the bills."
The new board has only had one meeting, so Brockman said that it's too soon to say anything about how the new season will go.
"Now that we have 11 new members, part of the challenge last year and the year before of having such a small board is you run out of time and energy to be able to execute fundraisers properly," he said. "With 16 members, we're really hoping that we can look at and get better at our existing ones."
The season's home opener is against the Notre Dame Hounds on Sept. 20, and the board is planning a tailgate party.
"We've got some pretty fun activities planned to get involved in the community that day, have a barbecue, and some good times before the game," he said.
