The AHL team has stepped up its telemarketing in the Twin Cities.
LEWISTON – Lane Feldman is a hockey fan. For the 10 years that the Portland Pirates have been in Maine, Feldman has attended several games a year, especially with his family.
This summer, when the opportunity arose, he and his family signed up to be a billet family for the Lewiston Maineiacs organization, hosting a player in their home for the duration of the season. It was high quality hockey in his backyard, and he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity.
“I’m a hockey fan,” said Feldman. “This is a great opportunity to see quality hockey without traveling.”
Apparently the Pirates are going to miss him.
According to Feldman and several other local hockey fans who have attended Portland Pirates games in the last few seasons, representatives of the American Hockey League team have been calling them to sell them season tickets and other ticket packages.
“That’s a normal course of action during the summer months,” said Pirates’ Chief Operating Officer Brian Williams. “We have a summer sales campaign that kicks off at the end of the season. We bring in a few part-timers and we have a couple of full-timers and we call people and market the team. This isn’t anything new that we haven’t done in the past. It could be people that have purchased tickets on the Ticketmaster Web site, from the box office, or even people that have signed up for contests throughout the year.”
According to Williams, it’s possible to end up on a few different lists based on different factors, so a repeat call or two is normal. But for Feldman, the repeat calls came in multiples of four, and all in one day.
“They called me one day in the morning,” said Feldman. “I got a call again later in the day, and my wife answered another one later. By the fourth one, just to get them to leave me alone, I told them to send me information by mail.”
One week later he received a packet of information from the Pirates – and another phone call.
“This time they were calling to see if I had received the information and if I had made any decisions,” said Feldman. “I said, ‘yes, thank you,’ and told him I was all set.”
For 10 years, Feldman had been attending Pirates games, and for at least five has been purchasing tickets online. This is the first year he has received even one phone call. According to Pirates’ CEO Brian Petrovek, that is a result of an ongoing process to update databases.
“Since we’ve owned the team over the last three years, we have been acquiring new databases of potential ticket-holders from various sources,” said Petrovek. “It just so happens that the names we have on this list this year are from north of the city. I think if you went south and west of Portland, you’d find the same kind of situation.”
“It just gets frustrating,” said Feldman. “It’s always the same person calling me, too. His name is Grant.”
Peaceful coexistence
Neither the Portland Pirates nor the Lewiston Maineiacs are interested in starting a feud. In fact, from Portland’s standpoint, there is a feeling of coexistence.
“In the long run, I have a feeling that this can only benefit hockey in Maine and in particular in these two communities,” said Williams. “We are the next step to the NHL, and there is no other league that can say that, and many players in our league come from theirs, so the level of hockey is very high on both ends.”
When renovations to the Central Maine Civic Center were first announced, Petrovek called owner Roger Theriault to see if he would be interested in hosting up to five Pirates’ home games this season. Theriault referred Petrovek to Maineiacs Vice President and Governor Matt McKnight, who had to decline to offer because of the contract the team and the league have with the arena.
“Part of the contract is exclusivity,” said McKnight. “We are not allowed to have teams at or above our level play here. That policy is in place to protect the team and its interests.”
And while Lewiston and Portland are just 40 miles apart – their hockey markets are decidedly different.
“Our area extends from Lewiston-Auburn up to the Augusta and Waterville,” said McKnight. “Our markets really don’t overlap all that much. Within 10 or 20 minutes of here there are 110,000 people, so it really makes no sense for us to try and pursue their market. We want to establish one of our own.”
Petrovek agreed with McKnight, saying that the Pirates’ intent is not to infringe on the Maineiacs’ market, but to more actively pursue their own.
“There has been no conscious decision to market in that area since the junior team announced it was coming to Lewiston,” said Petrovek. “There have been more calls this summer than last across the board.”
Another call
As if on cue, Feldman said Tuesday that he again received a call from Grant, who asked him several questions regarding the Pirates, ranging from which teams he preferred to watch to which players were his favorites to, again, whether or not he was interested in tickets or ticket packages.
“By that point all I could do was laugh, really,” said Feldman. “I was on my way to the scrimmages (Tuesday) and I got another one. I’m just sick of it.”
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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