After a wild offseason that nearly saw the Tucson Roadrunners lose home games to Tempe, the state’s last remaining professional hockey team is underway in a new season.
After opening its 2024-25 home slate Saturday night at 7 p.m., the Roadrunners continue their opening weekend homestand with a 4 p.m. Sunday game against the Texas Stars. The afternoon game is one of four Sunday matinee starts the Roadrunners have, an inordinate amount.
The Star chatted with Roadrunners president Bob Hoffman at the team's Face-Off Gala on Wednesday about the team's branding, its schedule, ticket sales and the team’s connection with the Phoenix area.
How exciting is it to get back to hockey after a crazy offseason like that?
A: "Well, it's always the best time of year for sure. So, on a normal standard year, it's always great to have the season start, get things underway. Certainly this year even has a little bit more of that special feeling to it.
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A Tucson Roadrunners fan applauds the review decision that upheld a no-goal call against the Calgary Wranglers in the second period of the teams' Calder Cup play-off game last season on April 24 in Tucson.
"Obviously, some of the hurdles and uncertainty through the off season — challenging — and something you'd never anticipate in an offseason, you'd never imagine. So to get to this point and to see so many familiar faces and to get everybody and nothing has changed from their excitement to be able to be interested in playing hockey again, that's what's fun to see, so it just translates to the staff."
Other than obviously the shoulder patches, are you guys changing the branding at all for the Roadrunners this year?
A: "No, not at all. We're keeping everything the same, the same old group. We're gonna look into some different options, some different things we may do for next season as the 10th anniversary season but for this season, our ninth season, nothing changes other than that shoulder patch."
What do you think about the schedule? With more Sunday games, more options for the fans like that?
A: "Well, I love always they have the weekend games and even if they have to put them on a Sunday gives the fans a great opportunity to come to games on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
"A majority of our games are on those weekend (days), so I think we give everybody a great option to come on out and see us. Plus it also helps, I know from having young kids as well at one point in my life — it's nice to have that earlier start time so that you can get the kids home and in bed for school a little earlier. A late Sunday game is never good, so come out a little early I think we have a little bit of something for everybody."
How have ticket sales been going overall?
A: "So far, it's been great. I mean, we're expecting one of our better opening nights here this Saturday night. The town is really responded and showed that they're back and that they're excited to have Tucson remaining, or hockey remaining in Tucson. So we're excited to where we're at with the season for sure."
With the Coyotes on hiatus, do you guys market more in Phoenix?
A: "We are. We're taking a different approach in our marketing up there to Maricopa County looking at just trying to hit some different areas, some different pockets.
"A lot of hockey fans in the Valley, and we're the only pro team here in the state. So come on out and experience Roadrunner hockey and come on down. It's only an hour and a half, two hours down the road. Come and experience it.
"So we are pushing that and we'll see what we can get from some of the fans up there."
The ice and seating at the Tucson Arena sits empty after the Tucson Roadrunners were eliminated from the 2024 Calder Cup play-offs after a 4-3 loss to the Calgary Wranglers on April 26. While there was public uncertainty at the time as to whether the team would remain in Tucson, the new American Hockey League season is underway and the Roadrunners are, after all, back in 2024-25, for their ninth season in Southern Arizona.
How's the reaction been? Because I've seen that there is actually fans that did come down from Phoenix to Roadrunners games last year and before that.
A: "When the Coyotes were still playing even, yeah, we saw a pretty good influx of that, like when we had playoff games, there would be a good chunk of fans. We would do different promotional nights with different, like weekday games, to try to tell people we're down here.
"It's an affordable option. It's a little different, because one of the things we ran up against with the Coyotes was that Mullett Arena (on ASU's Tempe campus), ticket prices went a little higher up there. And so we were a good comparison to say, “Hey, you may not be able to afford as many games as you might have went to at Gila River Arena in Glendale, but maybe go to one game in Mullett and come down here for two or three and it's gonna save you and be a little bit more economical.
"We saw some pretty good interest in that. So now that there's no team up there, I'm hopeful we see even more interest."
Did you add employees from the Coyotes?
A: "We did. We have three new people that are down here that were members of the Coyote staff and up there two people that are working remote. So down here our new vice president of marketing (Rob Mattina), our new vice president of sales (Daniel De La Torre) all came from the Coyotes.
"They have tons of years of experience at the big-league level and they've been really good people to bounce ideas off of, and to have that steady approach has been a real big benefit for us."
