Published October 2003

Ticket sales ramp up
along with season

Illustration courtesy of Global Spectrum A packed house, like the one illustrated above, is what the Everett Silvertips are striving for. To get there, the plan is to market hockey as entertainment, not just competition, said Zoran Rajcic, director of sales and marketing for the new WHL team.

SCBJ Staff

For the past month, ticket sales have been on the rise at the offices of the Everett Silvertips.

“We’re just around the 2,000 mark (for season tickets). The last couple of weeks here have gone quickly as the season has approached,” said Zoran Rajcic, director of sales and marketing for Everett’s new Western Hockey League franchise. “We’re selling a lot of partial plans as well, the 22 and 14 and Flex Pack.”

Although the team had hoped to sell at least 2,700 season tickets by the time the first puck dropped at the Everett Events Center on Oct. 4, Rajcic is optimistic about future sales — once the team becomes engrained in its market and excitement builds.

It is a “nontraditional hockey market,” Rajcic noted, describing a market that didn’t have a team of its own until 2002, when the WHL and the city of Everett reached an agreement to establish an expansion franchise, to begin with the 2003-04 hockey season.

Since that announcement, the team has taken shape, with Bill Yuill divesting of his Seattle Thunderbirds ownership to take over the expansion franchise as president, then selecting Doug Soetaert, a former general manager of the International Hockey League’s Kansas City Blades, as vice president and general manager.

Choosing the team name came next, followed by the hiring of former National Hockey League coach Kevin Constantine as the Silvertips’ head coach. Then it was time for the expansion draft, then the import draft, then training camp and pre-season play.

Bit by bit, interest has been growing, with the team’s Web site, www.everettsilvertips.com, logging 135,000 hits in the month of July alone, Rajcic.

And bit by bit, the team brand has become a part of its market, with its members participating in community fund-raising events, visiting children at the Little Gym in Everett and having one of their own, Soetaert, participating as grand marshal of the Salty Sea Days Parade.

“It’s going to be a key part, I think. We want to engrain ourselves in the community, with the Silvertips’ players and mascot, becoming a focal point for Snohomish, maybe even (up to) Whatcom, County,” Rajcic said.

Related: Everett Events Center open for business
Related: Business groups already making use of center
Related: Bringing people, dollars to area
Related: PFD projects and economic boost countywide

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