Tampa, Florida					Thursday, September 09, 2010

Flash! Winning Rewards
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
TAMPA—Bad publicity is not always a bad thing. The Tampa Bay Lightning which taught us a new version of off-sides, taught so many of us about a sport foreign to us a decade ago, keyed the arrival of a fancy-dancy new arena that has helped trigger a new Downtown Tampa growth area, now has taught us that that bad can be good, with imagination and resolve and, of course, location, location, location. In 1997, Sports Illustrated took a long look at professional sports franchises and declared the Lightning to be the worst of them all—the worst, the pits, the bottom. A reason was the foreign ownership (a Japanese conglomerate said headed by a man no one ever saw) that was held in suspicion by so many, either for hockey incompetence, or primary purpose, or both. Furthermore, the visionary Phil Esposito, whose idea was that a National Hockey League in Tampa Bay would one day work, but he was handcuffed by lack of money and real control by that absentee ownership. It was bad enough not to know the others, but their language, too? Also, in Tampa Bay, a new fan base was being turned off and lost. But, the SI story speaking to the lousy plight of the Lightning, was read by Tom Wilson, the right hand man of William Davidson, a man who built a glass window company in Detroit into an empire and enough wealth to dabble in sports, like owning the Detroit NBA Pistons, a profitable arena, minor league hockey teams, while maintaining his nice-guy, charitable-guy persona. Wilson was always on the lookout for ventures, for troubled businesses, like the worst franchise in the NHL. When SI wrote it was the Lightning in growing, warm-weather Tampa Bay, he bid to buy the team then, in 1997. But, ah-hah, nearer-by was insurance guru and motivational speaker Art Williams who someone talked into bidding for the Lightning. He bid and the Japanese owners went with Williams over Wilson & Davidson. Didn’t last long. Williams lost, it is said, $25 million in a year’s ownership, and asked to bail. In June, 1999, he did. The Davidson Group sent young dervish Ron Campbell, a personable man, down to make a deal. For the Lightning. He did. Ron Campbell closed the proposition for Wilson and Davidson, and never left. He liked what he saw. He liked what Esposito saw—growth, smiling faces, fine weather, the potential, and the new arena then known as the Ice Palace but now as the St. Pete Times Forum. He and wife, Mary Jane, had enough of the Michigan winters, as had Esposito of the northeast cold. Like Steve Spurrier, an avid golfer and a good one (seven handicap), Florida was where Campbell wanted to be, and, friends, where he has been since he closed for the hockey franchise for Williamson. SI hadn’t been off base. It was in losing deal shape. Hockey had not yet been sold well, in part because of the uncertain ownerships, but also because of moves to available places to play the sport. But, believe me, those who now badmouth the Exposition Hall at the Florida Fairgrounds as twice a home, as the old Suncoast Dome as another, take it easy. Be careful. Without the accommodations of the Fair Authority and the Suncoast Dome folks in St. Pete, hockey would not be here at all, surely not in the fine, fine condition it is today. What is much better than to have a well-balanced Lightning team, a team leading its division, a fine mixture of youth and experience, with Davidson, Wilson and Campbell still at the top and doing what they did this week—give virtually everyone on the front lines of hockey here contract extensions. The franchise is not going anywhere. Not moving. The Lightning may get a better deal for the arena they now run and operate and fill on near successive nights with bull riding, Rod Stewart, and a soldout Lighting game. They should. It is a wonderful facility (an improved sound system would help, though not Lightning announcer Paul Porter who can shout over the problems), superbly placed as a catalyst for great growth in the Channelside District of Tampa. So, the Lighting turned a bummer into a winner, division champ last year and maybe more this year. Philadelphia Coach Ken Hitchcock said the Lightning, after a win over his Flyers, were playing as well as any team in the East. Nice compliment, and a truth, too. But now, despite the possibility of a player work stoppage a threat, this energetic, quality character team (these toughies are selling $30,000 worth of Valentines for the Art Pepin Heart Institute Drive these days), Lightning management through the resourceful President Campbell, has doled out early rewards in the form of contract extensions for	team management, including good deals for the keys, General Manager Jay Feaster and Coach John Tortorella, a man of tough hide and tender heart, plus a Vince Lombardi axiom of treating everybody the same—tough-guyish. He is tough himself, and wants you to know it. But, he’s got that little wry smile ready always and used frequently, when you turn away. Kind wife, Christine Tortorella, with Campbell’s petite, pretty Mary Jane are activists in problems of the aging and so many other civic projects, as are the players themselves, indeed as still is Phil Esposito, a radio and TV guy Lightning struck forever. He’s not leaving either. See, this Lightning Family not only came to town to produce and manage a top notch hockey team on the ice, but off as well. Heck, Campbell is on a passel of foundations and boards, is an easy yes in sponsorships, as are they all. Now in place is their Lightning Foundation with Nancy Crane the CEO. And there to help stay the course is Bill Wickett, well-dressed and mannered and always available. All of this team has enlisted top Tampa Bay folk (Tampa General, Moffit, Pepin Heart, as examples) in their corners. So it was not surprising that the just-due was done this week by owner Davidson, CEO Wilson and Campbell when they gave contract extensions to GM Feaster—some say a genuine star in matters of personnel—Coach Tortorella, and associate coaches Craig Ramsey, Jeff Reese TV coach (and original staffer) Nigel Kirwan and strength man Eric Lawson. All are proven. All want to be here. All are wanted here. All are involved here. All are popular, well, as popular as you can be when the roles call for you to laud one minute, laugh with one minute and level an other. What Campbell has done so well is to refuse to toss money freely into a pile to buy fix-now players. He has played the built-the-team carefully game well, along with equally reasonable GM Feaster, and has overseen, as he puts it, a “short and long term’’ program for the good of all, the team and fans. Yet, when it was necessary, for example, Ron Campbell convinced Davidson to spend $2.5 million over the contract life for goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, a young tender of all-world talent, while seizing tender John Grahame when Boston made him available. This may well be the best one-two goalie tandem in the NHL. So, now, at this upside point in this season that could be a honey, Campbell moved to reward those deserving. Yes, all know the coach, Tortorella, has had some uneasy times, felt the extension should have come sooner. If I were he, I would have led the same lobby. But, he let that go and now likes what is happening and isn’t that just dandy? The others surely feel the same way, notably the scholarly Feaster who moved up when Rick Dudley was moved out and went to Miami where apparently matters remain still unsettled. He gave up coaching to only general manage, this week. Now, here this team of youth and experience, the Lightning, has added two top-notch players this year—scorer Cory Stillman from St. Louis earlier, and more recently a badly needed defenseman of fine reputation—Darryl Sydor. They join this roster that has two lines that score well and a fine killer-defensive unit. The result is a strong lead over Atlanta, a team that had that division lead not long ago and seemed on the way to the big show. Now, unless there is a falter, a return to a losing skein, not unknown to Lightning fan, this may be the year awaited in Tampa Bay. And how fun it has been, with speed play of Martin St. Louis, gifts and styles of Brad Richards and the lithe Vincent Lecavalier, the sudden spurts of Stillman, the wisdom of senior citizen Dave Andrey-chuk laying in wait around the net, breakout play of Pavel Kubina, the necessary works of Ruslan Fedotenko, Chris Dingman, big guy Jassen Cullimore, Ben Clymer, Dan Boyle, the experienced play of Tim Taylor, of Brad Lukowich, tough Fredrik Modin (announcers love his name ), underrated Cory Sarich, and the others of this hard-working crowd, of which Andrelychuk is the father confessor. Those of us forced to life in locker rooms appreciate so much one as civil and cooperative, literate and effective as this assembly. They are fortunate to be in such an organization as this just rewarded and in this place that appreciates winners of style and class as much as those among us so long starved for such rewards live and breath and hoot and holler, as if we knew what we were hooting and hollering about. But, it’s fun, isn’t it? And all because a Sports Illustrated article once called the Lightning the worst sports franchise anywhere. Thank you, SI. ##
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