Playing at the Canadian Tire Centre offers opportunities for the Ottawa Charge to grow the women’s game in Ottawa, a team official says. This summer, the city’s women’s professional hockey team announced it would leave TD Place Arena to play at the CTC starting this fall. The team has already proven that it can fill […]
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Playing at the Canadian Tire Centre offers opportunities for the Ottawa Charge to grow the women’s game in Ottawa, a team official says.
This summer, the city’s women’s professional hockey team announced it would leave TD Place Arena to play at the CTC starting this fall. The team has already proven that it can fill the CTC, which has a capacity of about 18,500.
Erin Thompson, director of business operations for the Ottawa Charge, said the move has been both exciting and daunting.
“We’re learning a lot,” she told OBJ this week. “We were very comfy at TD Place, just in terms of processes and contacts. We’re learning a whole new group of people’s roles. The amount of people that work within the (Ottawa) Senators’ organization and the Canadian Tire Centre is much larger than it ever was at TD Place. We’re just trying to get our footing underneath us and get prepared as much as we can.”
With the start of the PWHL season about two months out, Thompson said the larger venue allows the opportunity to attract more fans.
“Probably one of the most exciting things from the ticketing side of things is the ability to reach out to a broader audience. I’ll give credit where credit is due. My executive account manager Lauren Gallant did incredible things at TD Place. When you’re trying to bring in a pro team – this is no knock against TD or (Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group) – in an older building, I think she did an incredible job at carving out those spaces and experiences in that building.
“Now to be able to transition to the Canadian Tire Centre, where you have hosting spaces and suites and different premium spaces, it opens up a whole new opportunity that we’re really excited for.”
Still, when the team announced that it was moving to the west end, some fans raised concerns that it was too far to get to games. Thompson said that anxiety affected early ticket sales.
“It’s really starting to dissipate, which is encouraging for us … The reality is we play a 15-game schedule. We’re not asking fans to come out to the arena 40 times. It’s a much more reduced schedule (compared to men’s hockey). When we had a recent town hall, I indicated that we’re working on a really robust transportation plan for our fans, along with the 400-series buses. We definitely want to make it easier for the fans to come out to a game,” she said, adding that the Charge will also launch flex packages, where fans can choose which games they attend.
Another worry was that, with the move to Kanata, ticket prices would skyrocket. Thompson said the team has worked hard to avoid that scenario.
“It was very intentional. You probably follow the same message boards that I follow. That was one of the big fears for our fans and our fanbase was that we’re moving into this big, beautiful arena and that prices were really going to go up, but they really haven’t. They’ve stayed within incremental increases, like what we’ve had year-over-year.
“It wasn’t a move that we wanted to discourage fans (from coming). Ottawa is a pretty price-sensitive market and it was intentional to keep prices in line with that philosophy.”
The team has been actively reaching out to the business community following its move to the CTC, she added. “There has been active engagement with a lot of the BIAs and different business and women’s groups … It may be a little more in-depth than what we had been doing at TD Place.”
When it comes to advertising, Thompson said that it’s been interesting to see the number of new prospective partners that have reached out since the move. Playing inside an NHL arena, there is lots more advertising space to play with.
“The sheer ad space that we’re able to use in terms of LED (screens) throughout the building. There’s so much more. I think partners and advertisers can expect to see a lot more of their ads running than they did at TD Place. We’re always open. The majority of the partnerships are negotiated at the league level, but we do have a small capacity for local partnerships with the Ottawa Charge. We’re exploring all options and definitely open to some of that business,” Thompson said.
With overlap between the seasons of the Charge and the Senators, there will be lots of activity in the building from December to May. Thompson said that her team will share some partners with the Senators, but some game-day advertising will have to be swapped out.
“Specifically with rink boards, they get swapped out from game to game, but there is some overlap between the two organizations. As we’ve grown as a league, going into the fourth season, those are things, opportunities, that we’re starting to explore more and more as we get into these NHL-style venues.
“In terms of building signage, that’s the beauty of LEDs. You can change them up as you go from game to game. We’re actively looking into a little bit more building signage to make (the CTC) our home as well,” she said.
All in all, she said being in a larger venue “just opens more doors” for the Charge.
“We’re going to actively lean into some of the hosting spaces that are available at the Canadian Tire Centre that we never had at TD Place. I think you can expect to see really intentional and dedicated (events). When we have a Unity night or a theme night, we’ll actually be able to bring different community organizations and businesses together to celebrate with us … I think the building affords different opportunities to connect with businesses that we never had before. We’re really looking forward to that as well.”
