It’s a special season for the Wheeling Nailers, residents of Wesbanco Arena since 1992.
Such an extended tenure, especially for the ECHL and any minor-league organization no matter the sport, is unheard of in professional sports, but come Saturday evening those resident Nailers will face off against the Fort Wayne Komets. The Komets, in their ninth season as an ECHL franchise, captured the title after defeating the South Carolina Stingrays.
But the time has arrived for Fort Wayne to defend the Cup, and it begins with the Wheeling franchise that will celebrate its 30th anniversary all season long.
“We are now driving toward our 30th season this year, and it is not very common in minor-league sports for that to take place. In sports, to have a team in one place for that long is very rare,” explained John Davis, chief operating officer for the Nailers. “That is why we are going to do a lot of merchandise with our 30thanniversary logo, and we are packaging a lot of food items and food experiences for our fans to enjoy at our games.
“We are also looking at doing some additional programming inside the arena during a lot of game nights. That programming could take place in our concourse or in a different area inside the building,” he continued. “That means there will be more going on during game nights for our fans to enjoy, and the development stages will continue throughout the course of the season.”
Bought In
As has been the case for several months across the country, hiring employees has been troublesome for Wheeling’s hockey organization. It always has been a relatively small staff since the hockey club debuted as the Wheeling Thunderbirds
And, even though the opening day is a mere day away, the franchise still has open positions. Thankfully, according to Davis, his employees have accepted copious challenges.
“Right now, we are operating with pretty much a skeleton crew, and most of our employees are new to the organization, so we are finding our stride and things are starting to come together,” the COO said. “We do some positions we are looking to fill, but the staff we have now bought in, and they are working very hard to bring it all together before our opening night this weekend.
“With that said, it is hard to fill these positions right now, and it appears to be the same across the across the board with all sports from what I understand,” he explained. “Hiring is difficult, but the people we do have are 100 percent on board with what we are doing, and they understand and respect what this team means to its fans base.”
Fan Appreciation
Davis has worked in a plethora of leagues in a number of different sports, and the native returned home with a resume that reveal positions in MLB, the NHL, and the NFL.
He knows ticketing; he knows market pricing, and, hopefully, Davis knows how to increase the value for a fan’s game experience.
But how is that accomplished?
“A big part of adding to the value of coming to Wesbanco Arena for a Nailers game is taking care of the members of that fan base in the best possible ways. The same goes for our sponsors, so it’s not going to be a one-way street with us just sending them an invoice at the end of the year,” he insisted. “We respect and understand who our fans and supporters are, so it is important to us to put something back into that relationship all year long.
“I feel as if our employees are ready to take on any challenge,” Davis said. “Without even asking them to do so, we have a lot of people working overtime just to complete a lot of tasks we have from now until Saturday evening, and that allows me to feel a great, great vibe inside our front office right now.”
Along with the new food options, video presentations, and the programming in the front entrance of the area, attending fans and those watching on television will notice a few new angles.
“We have added two new goal cameras that will allow our video folks much better shots of the action taking place on the ice, and that’s another way we will improve the fan experience during our games,” Davis revealed. “That will also offer much better coverage of the action on the TV side of things, and I know there are a lot of people who are excited about those additions.
“We have investigated a lot of things on the tech side, and that effort was made so we can enhance anything we can for the people in the seats and those watching from home,” he added. “That’s why we are very much looking forward to having a big crowd this Saturday evening because those folks are going to notice the changes we have made immediately.”
