Just before the close of the 1989-90 season
in Spokane, Washington, I had accepted the invitation from Russ Parker to fly out to Calgary, Alberta to meet him and his
wife, Diane, to discuss his plans as
owner for the new Kansas City, Missouri Pro Hockey team. I was so nervous about
this pending interview because I had never been subjected to one up to this
point in my career. Russ had one of his associates (Bill Cragg) pick me up
at the airport. I will never forget this moment when I first walked into Russ’
business office and saw that he and Diane were having a Burger King sack lunch!
I immediately knew that this was the man I wanted to work for! There was no
question! I jokingly told Russ a few years later that he sold me at the first
“hello!”
During our first meeting, Russ explained to
me that as owner, his strategy for the first employee hired would not be the president
or general manager; rather he wanted to find that person who would be his key
“revenue generator?” That was the first time I had ever heard that term! After
he checked out my references, Russ called me with the news that I had just become
his first employee and he gave me the keys to start up his franchise! Of all
oddities, the moment I agreed to join Russ in Kansas City, George Brett, the Hall of Fame Major League Baseball legend,
decided to purchase my Spokane Chiefs team! George and I spent two weeks
together along with his brother Bobby
going over the history of the team, etc. He was also trying to convince me to
stay but I knew that my time had come to take on a new challenge. So I turned
down George and told him I would see him in Kansas City!
It was now the year 1990.
Wendy and I continued to rent and found a home on the north side of Kansas City
(a few miles from the main highway and airport) but would ultimately then buy
our very first home as a family a year later. I’ll never forget the first day
we arrived in KC and opened the door to our home. In front of our eyes and sitting
on the table was this absolutely huge fruit basket that was sent from Russ Parker!
Again, he just cemented the feelings I already had for why I wanted to work for
this man!
Once I settled into our new
office space and lights were turned on, we began operating the business.
Quickly thereafter, I had a surprise visitor to my office. It was George Brett! He walked in with his
son, Jackson, and was accompanied by his
Royals’ teammate Bret Saberhagen, who was the reigning Cy
Young Award winner that year as the American League’s top pitcher! They were
interested in purchasing season tickets and bought front row seats by our
team’s penalty box at Kemper Arena. George also is credited with naming our
Kansas City team through a special fan promotion that was being held. We chose
his name BLADES as the winning entry!
Kansas City posed some
challenges to me at first because now I was applying my trade in a city that
preferred its Major League sports (i.e.: NFL Chiefs and MLB Royals) traditionally
over the Minor Leagues plus there were nationally ranked Division I college programs
nearby (Kansas University, Kansas State & Missouri) that commanded the
attention of the locals and media. One of the first things I did after settling
in was to place a call to my former Big League boss (Max McNab), who was running the New Jerseys Devils NHL team, and
ask for his advice? I knew during his career that Max had operated a few minor
league hockey clubs in some major pro cities so I was hoping he could shed some
light for me? Max called be back one day and said: “Jim, I really don’t need to
give you any advice? You really have a good handle on things but I will say
this: just be sure you’re a ‘Buck Higher’ than the other teams! You will figure
this out!” Those four quarters, I found out, stood for work effort in the
community, customer service, delivering value to the sponsors and developing
exciting game-night entertainment for the fans.
Hockey was a sport that was foreign to the
locals in Kansas City back in 1990 as was the scarcity of ice for the players
to skate and work out? Initially our players would pack into cars and drive 50
miles up-and-back each day to St. Joseph, Missouri just to practice. Our home games were played in the massive Kemper
Arena that would seat over 18,000 fans for a minor pro hockey game! Obviously
we had to come up with a marketing plan to capture the public’s attention and
draw them out to our games!
One idea was to put a Blades Jersey and Cap
on some of the well-known Chiefs and Royals’ players and produce video
scoreboard spots that would play during our games. It was a subtle way to show
the fans that the area’s biggest athletes were behind us! Next, we reached out
to some celebrities to make appearances. At first, my owner was nervous because
of the price tag we had to invest but after the way the fans would react, we
started to schedule more of them! Jenny
McCarthy from the hit TV Show “Singled
Out” and Ashley Montana, a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover Model,
brought in crowds of 15-18,000 people for their appearances. Soon after we
brought in the likes of Mark Paul
Gosselaar from “Saved By The Bell”
and Candace Cameron from the “Full House” television shows much to the delight of our fans. We also
gave Jack McDowell from the Chicago
White Sox, another Cy Young award-winner, the opportunity to bring his music
band “stickfigure” into Kansas City
and perform for our Blades’ fans after a game.
Of all the celebrities I’ve had time to work
with during my career, Ashley Montana
would be tops! Her appearance was rare in that the Ford Modeling Agency in New York, (who would work with me on this
promotion), sent Ashley to us on the night that her Sports Illustrated Cover
was to be released around the world! When I had to pick her up at her hotel
room that game day, she was the least bit ready. Ashley opened the door with a
curling iron in her hair, wearing a tank top chiseled to her body and shorts.
She proceeds to sit down on the floor of all places, still managing her hair. I
sat in a chair a couple feet away. We talked about her duties at the game and
later about her world, life as a model and many other things. Once she was
happy with her hair, Ashley then asked if I would help iron her dress. So I got
down on the floor with this famous model and worked the iron until all of the
wrinkles were pressed! She then got dressed and off we went to our game by
limousine. When she was ready to leave the next morning, you would swear that we
were bonded as “brother & sister!” Ashley even went out of her way to visit
the hotel gift shop much to my surprise and bought this beautiful white frame.
She put the Sports Illustrated Magazine
with her swimsuit cover photo inside the frame and autographed the following
inscription: “To a man who really knows how to treat a girl! Love always!
Ashley!” Yes, this is the one female picture that my wife has consented through
the years that her hubby can proudly display in his office! HaHaHa!!
Speaking of firsts, we also had the very
first appearance around the country by Kelli McCarty when she won the Miss USA title
in 1991! A few years afterwards, I would receive a phone call from Kelli asking
if I would help mentor a friend of hers that was involved in the running for Miss Teen USA in 1995 and lived in
nearby Kansas. So I met Keylee Sue
Sanders, who would serve as my office intern for that hockey season in-between
pageant competitions, appearances and school studies. With me, she took
interest in learning about marketing and special events. Ultimately Keylee went
on to win the Miss Teen USA title which I watched her live on TV and felt like so
proud!
From the hundreds of promotions and
celebrity appearances we assembled for the Blades during my tenure (1990-97),
there was nothing that could match up to a game we had on a Valentine’s Night when
our first-year coach was so upset with the game officiating that he threw
garbage cans and sticks out from the bench and onto the ice surface. The
highlights of that episode were picked up and shown by ESPN and many other national media outlets. It was embarrassing but
to turn this back into a positive, we immediately created a special “Garbage
Can Toss” promotion for the fans at our next home game. We recovered what would become the country’s
most talked about piece of metal and had a local signage company paint the team’s
logo and pinstripe our colors onto the can plus we got our coach to affix his autograph
so as to add more marketing value! Literally there were thousands of fans that
signed up for this promotion and a chance to win that now famous Garbage Can! I
remember waking up the next morning after our event watching ESPN’s SportsCenter (like I usually do) and
Linda Cohn (the anchor of this
particular show) starts off the opening teaser (with video clips of our
promotion) by saying … “and the Garbage Can Toss returns to Kansas City!
Details in a moment!” A few months
later, I can remember Russ Parker calling
me on the phone so happy because the TSN
Network in Canada (which is their country’s version of ESPN) chose our Garbage Can Toss event and follow-up as their top
promotion of the year!
Kansas City was a very good
time for me. Things just always seemed to click be it for promotions or just
lady-luck being on my side! One of our city’s top DJ’s at an FM Radio Station
was married at the time to one of the top Kansas City Chiefs’ players (Bill Maas) who became friends with me.
Bill would later introduce many players to me and get his teammates to wear our
Blades Hockey Caps. I remember this one day, Bill asked me to bring a dozen
team caps down to Arrowhead Stadium for him and he would get many of the
players to wear them on the sidelines in Denver on this one particular game where
the Chiefs played the Broncos on Monday
Night Football! Sure enough, Bill and his teammates were sprouting our hockey
team caps on national TV, including Joe
Montana, who would play for the Chiefs in 1993. That year at a special Joe Montana Day salute at Arrowhead, the
soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback showed up for the event wearing our Kansas
City Blades Cap! It was quite the endorsement for our club that I’ve never
forgotten!
Through those years in
Kansas City with so much attention and publicity that was brought to our minor
league club, a famed hockey writer in New York (Stan Fischler) wrote a piece in his national hockey newsletter
that gave me some exposure and stated: “It can be safely said that there is not
a more creative, if not better marketing-PR maven, in all of hockey than Jim
Loria!” That was nice and PR that would
pay off for me soon in my future.
Now into my sixth year with
the Blades (1995-96) which also brought the saddest news of all when Russ Parker told me that he was going to
sell his ownership in the hockey team. I loved that man and would have never
left if Russ continued to stay on as our father-figure of the franchise. There
has never been an owner like him during my 36-years in sports! He was a first
class human being, gentleman, and a true sportsman who took care of his
employees in ways that always made you feel special! A few days after he sold
the club, a Fed-Ex package arrived at our home from Russ with a bonus check
that was a reward for the years working for him with a disclaimer note which
said “Now Jim, I fully expect you will take Wendy and your girls on a real vacation!”
YES we did Russ! Wendy & I treated the girls on a trip to Orlando, Florida
and a week’s stay at Walt Disney World!
Russ would eventually have
the same impact on my life as Roger Crozier
did during my career. Fortunately for me, as our Kansas City team took on
new ownership, I was also being recruited by the Hartford (CT) Whalers for a
National Hockey League position over a period of two years. I finally decided
to accept the Whalers’ offer following the 1996-97 season for a chance to finally
work close-by to my family in Massachusetts.
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