In the days of yore, for example, a company wanting to purchase 100 tickets for an employee appreciation night would call a ticketing agent at their local pro sports team. Nowadays, or at least in the days immediately prior to COVID-19, the company might offer to cover 60 per cent of the ticket price, leaving the employee on the hook for the rest.
The NHL’s revenues dipped to US$4.4 billion for the 2019/20 season, US$1.5 billion of that from seat sales, according to research company Statista. Both figures are going to drop again this year given that only part of the season was affected last year. “Having entrepreneurial parents helped me, because it eliminated the guise of what entrepreneurship was about, in that you see the ups and downs and that it’s not always rosy, and that there are a lot of challenging aspects,” the younger Elmajian said on a recent February morning from his restaurant office digs.
Elmajian’s current test involves saving the Florida Everblades of the East Coast Hockey League, two rungs beneath the NHL. The Everblades are among the canaries in the live sports coal mine, and have been operating the 7,200-seat Hertz Arena near Fort Myers at 50-per-cent capacity since the season started in December.
What truly amazes Kelly, Daniel of the Hurricanes and Carl Manteau, a senior group sales director with the Chicago Blackhawks who worked closely with Elmajian and Spinzo during his years with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, is how he pulls things off with a staff of only four people.
excellent