Companies use deals to win back hockey fans
Economy lost estimated $800M during lockout
VANCOUVER — Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund and Sportscene Group Inc. are among companies ramping up advertising and offering discounts to win back National Hockey League fans after a 17-week lockout that cost Canadian companies as much as $800 million.
Sportscene, which operates 52 Cage aux Sports restaurants in Quebec, cut prices this week on chicken kebab and steak while running television ads featuring CEO Jean Bédard. Boston Pizza, operator of about 350 sports restaurants in Canada, is retraining staff and planning promotions with Molson Coors Brewing Co., maker of Molson Canadian and Coors Light beer.
“The economy isn’t as strong as in the last NHL lockout, so we’re doing our part,” Bédard said in an interview. “I’m confident we’ll get people back. A 48-game season means that every game is important.”
NHL hockey resumes Saturday for a shortened six-month season. Team owners locked out players Sept. 16 for the second time in eight years in a dispute over revenue sharing.
Douglas Porter, an economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, estimates the halt in NHL operations trimmed $700 million to $800 million off economic output as consumers spent less in sports bars near the arenas and fans cut back on buying team apparel.
“The lockout wasn’t a huge deal for the economy, but it was a big deal if you sold jerseys or ran a restaurant close to an arena,” Porter said in an interview. “There was substi- tution from bars and restaurants that are close to arenas to other establishments away from the city centre.”
Game-day spending at businesses near downtown arenas in five Canadian cities dropped 11 per cent in October from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Moneris Solutions, the country’s largest credit and debit card proces- sor. The drop was steepest at bars in “close proximity” to arenas, where spending fell 35 per cent, Moneris said.
Boucherville-based Sportscene said Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Nov. 25 fell 36 per cent to $637,000. The company blamed a 4.9 per cent drop in revenue on the NHL lockout.
An expected increase in customer traffic at Cage aux Sports restaurants as play resumes “should allow to recover, in upcoming months, part of the revenue shortfall sustained,” Bédard said.
Peter Sergakis, who owns Station des Sports, a chain of six sports-themed restaurants in the Montreal area, said business fell 40 per cent in December.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s a lost season,” he said.