Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Lunch with Ernest

Hockey's on hold; he isn't

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published April 15, 2005

As general manager for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jay Feaster hears this a lot: When is hockey coming back?

It seems everyone wants to know when the Bolts will get to defend their Stanley Cup title.

Pull up a chair and join us.

What's frustrating about it is when you think back to Game 7 of the finals and you have 23,000 in the building and another 20,000 people outside. You had so many people who had never experienced hockey before, but became fans during the run. Most of those people are people you're looking to convert.

That's the thing. We had a great summer in terms of selling. We increased the season ticket base, but you don't know what's going to happen now. How many of those people that were casual fans are going to stay with us? That's the frustrating thing. I think we were poised both on the ice and off the ice to capitalize on the success. Now, who knows?

That's a difficult thing because there are so many things involved with it. Part of it is the camaraderie of being together as a staff on the road. The coaches, the trainers, the equipment managers are going out together for dinner and you miss that. The other thing is that you can't do anything about it. It's not as though John Tortorella can come in and problem-solve this. It's happening at a level beyond us.

I think one of the things that this organization does a good job of is being a good community partner. Not someone who is just looking to make money, take your money. I think we've done a good job of trying to be responsible and give back. During the Stanley Cup season, we raised $1.6-million for area charities. The idea is we want to be here a long time. When you're thinking about the Tampa Bay Lightning, whether we win the Stanley Cup or it's an off-year, we want you to say: "They're here, they're active and they're involved."

Oh gosh, being the GM of the Lightning. I can trade those guys if they're not performing. That was some experience. Honest to goodness. We were doing a drill and I said, "Use the backboard." One of the kids at the back of the line said, "What's the backboard?"

That's been really enjoyable. Our fifth child was born on Nov. 10. Prior to that time, I had been on the road with our minor league affiliate up in Springfield, Mass., and I was up there almost every weekend from mid September until the baby was born. Then I basically took three months off. That was three months of being home every day and watching the baby grow, every morning taking the kids to school, coaching Bobby's basketball team. You have to look for some silver linings and that was certainly one of them - the family time.

Thank goodness for our oldest. Theresa will be 13 in April and she is the best. She's the team captain. I always joke she wears the captain's C on our team. She is a big help. So is Bobby. He'll be 11 in April and he's a big help. It's fun to watch them interact with the new baby. My wife is a saint. If you think about it, during the hockey season I'm on the road when the team goes. We have a plaque that a friend gave us that says, "We interrupt this marriage to bring you the hockey season."

Fortunately, she's always been a sports fan. She grew up in Rockville, Md., and her dad was a lacrosse player in college, and he was a Redskins season ticket holder. When we first got married and I first started working for the Hershey Entertainment and Resort Co., we had access to the corporate box seats and we would go to the Bears games.

That was the hardest thing for her. Her family was within two hours, she had her friends, she was established and then to leave and come here, that was when it was tough. She was very active with the parish back where we lived, and I figured it would be the same thing here. Back there, we had 1,500 people in the parish. We come here and there's 2,500 families in the St. Stephen parish. It's totally different.

I hope not. That would not be what I want to do. I used to say when I was at Hershey, my worst days there were better than my best days practicing law. Even if you do a good job for the client, at the end of that day they get that bill and it's, "Oh my."

- Ernest Hooper also writes a column for the Tampa & State section of the St. Petersburg Times. He can be reached at 226-3406 or hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 16:39:09]