Five Minutes (and Five Questions) With VGK Prez Kerry Bubolz

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

LVSB: You have 14,000 full season ticket holders and another 6,000 on the “Can’t Wait” list. How do you top that success in season two?

 

Bubolz: First and foremost, great organizations don’t believe in honeymoons. A honeymoon means you will go backwards as a business. Great organizations always are looking for ways to build on the business, to redefine themselves. George McPhee on the ice has worked hard this off-season to make our team better. Much like George’s focus on the ice, our focus off the ice is to make the business better, make it stronger, look at areas that we thought we can improve on from last year.

 

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LVSB: What kind of improvements?

Bubolz: We want to go deeper and wider with our customers. We have unbelievable fans here. We want to continue to show them that they matter, that we’re engaged with them. So, our social and digital team is really working hard to give them the best content available, whether it’s through our social platforms like Twitter and Instagram or like our digital platforms like VegasGoldenKnights.com. And from a game presentation standpoint, this is still Vegas. We did a great job last year, we’re proud of our team, but we have to keep raising the bar, keep elevating that experience and make sure our fans when they come here and spend their hard-earned dollars that we we put on a great show on the ice as well as off the ice.

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LVSB: The “Hockey Days” video spoofing the “Happy Days” TV show intro was a hit.

Bubolz: It was a lot of fun. Our guys are so creative, What really made it work was that our players really bought into it. They said, ‘Yeah, we’ll have some fun with this.’ What was really funny was that when we asked the players if they ever heard of the show, “Happy Days,” most players said they had not heard of Happy Days. That doesn’t bode well for guys like me. That was one of my favorite shows as a kid. But they still got behind it. They just jumped right in. They’re such good people. They’re great players on the ice and even better people off the ice and they make our jobs easier as we sell and market this great game.

 

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LVSB: AGS the gaming equipment supplier signed a sponsorship deal with the Golden Knights. It seems the Supreme Court decision legalizing sports gambling in all states has de-stigmatized sports gambling for professional teams.

Bubolz: The NHL has been a terrific partner in this process. They want to be thought leaders in this. The federal changes that have taken place have now opened the ability with sportsbooks across the entire country. Now it’s still done at the state level. They have to go through that process and that’s happening as we speak. There are 30 states with current legislation and you’ll have it in states throughout the country. Obviously, it’s available here in Nevada. We want to take advantage of this opportunity, One, it’s sponsorship, and two, it’s engagement. There’s proven data that shows when people have a vested interest in the game and if they wagered on the game they’re following it at a different level and I think that’s good for the game of hockey and we’re excited about it.

 

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LVSB: I know you talk with groups across the Las Vegas area and I have heard you talk about Philadelphia Flyers fans being the rowdiest to come to T-Mobile Arena.

Bubolz:  Philadelphia is in the house. I did single them out a couple different times. Most of the times, the visiting fans were so nice, so friendly, so accommodating. They came into town, spent a lot of money at our restaurants and our bars and our casinos. Most of the time we got their points, so that was a bonus. But they (Flyers fans) were the rowdiest fans maybe because they won the NFL championship a week earlier and they were feeling extra special about themselves. We’ll see what happens tonight. They beat us that night.

(And the Flyers won again Thursday night, defeating the Golden Knights, 5-2.)

 

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