LumberJax look to build on their following

Team eyes less travel, better dates, more marketing and additional sponsors

By Jason Vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, May 17, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Brian Silcott, executive vice president, says the Portland LumberJax have ideas in mind to improve their attendance.

CHRIS RYAN

The Portland LumberJax changed their approach in the area of tickets this year, and they increased their average attendance by 8 percent, from 7,527 last year to 8,104. They also gave away fewer freebies than in their previous two seasons.

And the Jax already are making strategy for the future, as they try to capture more fans and get more people to see their National Lacrosse League games at the Rose Garden.

“The first couple of years, the lacrosse community got in the habit of not buying tickets, because they were getting them for free anyway,” says Brian Silcott, the team’s executive vice president. “Being a lacrosse guy, I said we had to stop that, because that's one group that needed to buy tickets.

“We had to focus on getting tickets in the hands of people who, under normal circumstances, couldn't get to the Rose Garden.”

A major emphasis was to provide school children with tickets, Silcott says, to try to build the team's fan base.

Silcott, 42 and from Westchester County, New York, took over as VP this season after serving as a practice player in 2006 and a color commentator in 2007. He has coached the outdoor San Francisco Dragons and has extensive coaching in the college and prep ranks and played the indoor and outdoor pro game. (Silcott's wife, Kim, is vice principal at Grant High).

Jax owner Angela Batinovich has been busy with Jax and other business endeavors, while settling into marriage with former Jax player Adam Bysouth — and carrying a child. She and investors remain happy with the product, Silcott says.

The Jax won their first-round playoff game last week and play at Calgary on Saturday for the West Division title and a shot at the league championship.

Silcott says a long playoff run isn’t entirely important to the organization’s financial ledger.

“From a business standpoint, it'd almost be better having a great regular season and being knocked out in the first round,” he says. “We need to win games during the regular season.”

Coach/General Manager Derek Keenan agrees.

“A good part of our success in 2006 was because we were winning,” he says, of the Jax 12-4 regular-season that year. “We need to splash here, do something big.”

Says Silcott: “The reality is we can't spend enough money in advertising to create the buzz we need. We need to win games, so we give the media stuff to write about and the new cameras reason to come out. We didn't have a great year on the field, and it's tough to get publicity.”

In 2007, the team had a 10-game losing streak, “and people don't like watching teams lose.”

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