by CASSIDY DANKOCHIK
The Steinbach Pistons have turned their home games into full-blown events. From in-house replays, themed nights, live music and competitions, the Southeast Event Centre is a party for Junior A home games.
Kevin Geisheimer was brought on at the beginning of last season as the team’s director of business operations. After a season in La Broquerie and a last-second move back to Steinbach, the Pistons have established themselves in their new rink.
“We’ve got lots of fancy toys to play with, which is fun but you can have a really cool building and cameras and things, but you’ve still got be creative and make it fun for the fans,” Geisheimer said.
“How do we create that family experience that’s more than just hockey? Even, dare I say we lose which I never hope we do, that you can leave the rink and still high-five and you’ve had a fun time. That’s been the goal, and we’re trying new and fun things every week, every game and we’ve got more coming.”
One of the more popular additions had been an intermission sumo-wrestling contest, where fans don inflatable costumes and try to push one another out of the centre ice circle.
“I love hockey and sport, but the piece that gets me excited is getting to bring the community together on a game-by-game basis,” Geisheimer said.
For teams looking to emulate the Pistons game-day experience, Geisheimer emphasized improving one step at a time.
“I think we built to this,” he said. “We started one day, ‘let’s throw some stuff out to the fans, let’s talk to a sponsor and do the loudest fan of the game, let’s hand out burritos to a row of fans, hey let’s get a mascot, hey let’s get someone to run with a flag,’ and it slowly kept developing.”
Whenever Steinbach hosts a tournament at the event centre, kids playing get tickets to the Pistons game, if there is one that weekend. The proceeds of the team’s 50/50 go to minor hockey, with Steinbach Ringette running a chuck-apuck fundraiser.
“It’s very generous of the Pistons to assist us in this way, shows the community mindset of the organization,” minor hockey president Josh Plett said earlier this season.
“It builds a solid relationship between the organizations as well as the community.”
With a ringette tournament in town last week, players were in attendance for a game against Winkler, with Timbits-style ringette games during the intermission.
“The Pistons have been fantastic to deal with, the Southeast Event Centre has been good, things have been running pretty good this year,” Steinbach Ringette ice scheduler Lisa Funk said.
A perfect example of how far the Pistons have come came Feb. 4, when they hosted Menno-night. Included in the festivities was a sketch comedy artist, knipsbrat (crokinole) battle during intermission, special perogies, schmaundt fat and farmer sausage concessions, a rollkuchen eating contest with borchst recipe cards handed out to fans as the giveaway.
The team’s game-day operations were put to the test Jan. 26, as they hosted nearly 2,000 schoolkids for an afternoon game against the Winnipeg Blues. After a cancellation, the Blues couldn’t re-book a home game, asking if the Pistons would be willing to host.
With another re-scheduled game set for Jan. 27, the Pistons decided to call schools to see if an afternoon game would be possible and the game came together at the last minute. There was just enough time for Steinbach to change their logo to a scholastic-themed one on the big screens, and include kid-trivia and player interviews for the game.
“It was a really unique atmosphere for the kids,” Geisheimer said.
“We had a really good experience and we’re going to try and find a way to do this again and again and again.”
The Pistons are continuing to ask fans for their feedback on where they can improve. They also recently launched a custom beer, brewed at Torque.
“The sky is the limit here,” Geisheimer said. “We’re always trying to make it more fun all the time, I think the community can count on that.”
The team is set for their first banquet at the SEC, with Winnipeg Jets owner Mark Chipman the featured speaker. The Pistons are hoping to sell double the number of tickets compared to previous banquets, with Geisheimer promising a full-on production at the rink.
“We want to make it feel like a game-day, but elegant,” Geisheimer said.
“We want to add some game-day elements to make it feel like a hockey game but a banquet at the same time.”
