The Kingdom Grows

All of the points on the map above are hockey teams owned by the same group. It doesn't include their other sports business ventures in baseball, women's basketball, and soccer, but you can see by the colours of the pins on the map that they own several teams or are operating teams within the same league. I'm not sure how conflict-of-interest rules apply here, but owning and/or operating five ECHL teams seems like it would cause headaches. For Zawyer Sports and Entertainment Group, though, those rules don't seem to apply.

Yesterday, the Zawyer Group sunk themselves a little deeper into the SPHL after the Huntsville Havoc announced that Zawyer had acquired a controlling interest in the team. If you notice the green pins on the map, those represent Huntsville and the soon-to-be-real Mobile Mysticks hockey team that will join the SPHL in 2027, both of whom are now owned and operated by the Zawyer Group. I'm no economist or financial guru, but owning and/or operating nine hockey teams - half of whom are in the ECHL - seems like a disaster waiting to happen if anything were to happen to the Zawyer Group financially.

According to the release, the SPHL Board of Governors approved the transaction at their annual meetings last month, and I'm very curious about the conversations that went on with regards to the Zawyer Group's financial situation, the potential conflict-of-interest that owning two teams will cause with the Mysticks, and if there were any other interested parties. The SPHL often has teams operating with tiny profit margins, so one has to wonder what sold the SPHL's Governors on the Zawyer Group taking over as owners of the Havoc.

I'm not here to rain on the Zawyer Group's parade of takeovers in minor pro sports. They seems to understand that fans matter by emphasizing local gate revenues and sponsor revenues, and they treat media deals and merchandise revenue as bonus money. Tickets remain affordable for fans by having more and more sponsors pick up bigger gameday costs, and they replicate this model over all the hockey teams they own and/or operate. The end result is that they have solid attendance figures which gives them a ballpark revenue figure to plan for future seasons. Clearly, as the Zawyer Kingdom grows, this team ownership model appears to be successful.

Again, this isn't a warning that one should be wary of Zawyer Sports and Entertainment. As they continue to add teams and leagues to their portfolio, they are proving that their model works. It becomes a little more worrisome, however, when you consider that they're being asked to use the model above in places where hockey isn't a top-three sport or in places where hockey has failed once before.

The Tahoe Knight Monsters, for example, have never exceeded 3700 fans per game in their three years of existence yet the Savannah Ghost Pirates have sold out their arena at 7485 fans for the past three seasons. Why does the model work in Savannah, but not in Stateline? Jacksonville 's attendance climbed to above 9000 fans per game since Zawyer took over, but Greensboro only saw 6050 fans per game in their inaugural season. How does an expansion team not see more fans than an Icemen team that hasn't even won a division title?

Obviously, there are a pile of other factors that get thrown into the recipe as well, but Huntsville wasn't having problems drawing fans to their games as they've averaged more than 6000 fans over the past three seasons. They played to 98.4% capacity last season - second-best in the SPHL - and averaged more than 1500 fans per game in the playoffs than second-best Pensacola. In terms of ticket sales, the Havoc might be the SPHL's best team from a revenue perspective.

So why did Keith and Becky Jeffries made the decision to sell to Zawyer Sports and Entertainment when they were already doing well?

Well, age might be one reason as Keith Jeffries is 68 years-old. In the release yesterday, Jeffries stated, “The time is right to bring in a managing partner that can help take the Huntsville Havoc into its next chapter," making it sound like he and his wife may want to enjoy the game more rather than running the show. He's certainly earned that right after founding the team in 2004 and guiding it through, at times, some murky waters in the SPHL. However, he stuck to his one guiding principle over 22 years of founding and running the Havoc.

"It goes back to when I went into business early in life, when I was in my early 20s," Jeffries told Mike Easterling of the Huntsville Business Journal in 2019. "My dad told me the key has always been good customer service. The name we had was Golden Rule and it came from the idea of how to treat people, whether they were customers or employees, to try to treat people the way you'd want to be treated as a customer or employee.

"We try to do the same thing here. We're not perfect, but we're getting better. If I was a fan or season ticket holder — how would I want to be treated? Some things are out of our control, but we still do the best with what we have."

It seems pretty clear that his principle has led the Havoc to success both on and off the ice, and one hopes that the Zawyer Group will continue to hold that principle as the guiding light in Huntsville. The Jeffries will still be a fixture at games as a minority owner, but this transition to the Zawyer Group should allow the Jeffries to enjoy a day off every once in a while as they approach retirement ages. After all, I'd say that Keith and Becky absolutely deserve that.

It's funny that in the cutthroat world of professional sports that one simple principle we're taught in elementary school helped to make an SPHL team successful in its community. Make no mistake that the Jeffries guided the Havoc through some tough times and they likely made istakes as well, but the idea of treating fans and sponsors well was the driving force behind the Havoc's tenure in the volatile SPHL. Perhaps the "Golden Rule" should be the first rule for all teams?

That now falls to the Zawyer Group to embrace that mentality as the Havoc move forward. If they follow the plan laid out by the Jeffries, they shouldn't have any issues in Huntsville when it comes to finding success. And if they do find that success, that will only make their sports portfolio that much stronger. Seems easy, doesn't it?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!