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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLYERS v LIGHTNING

May 7, 2004

Jay Feaster

TAMPA, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. You grew up in Pennsylvania; were you a Flyers fan as a kid?
JAY FEASTER: No, I was a Bruins fan. Big time Bruins fan. Bobby Orr, Esposito, Wayne Cashman; those were my guys.
Q. I see you watching practice every day and I know you're keeping the tune; how do you feel going into Game 1 with this team?
JAY FEASTER: Oh, it's exciting. It's exciting to be here. These guys have worked so hard, and this coaching staff has worked so hard. You know, it's a significant accomplishment for this organization to be in this situation, and it's one of the things we've talked about. We're going to have some fun with it. It's been a long layoff and we're ready to play.
Q. When you say you have some fun with it, I know you'll have some fun with it, but do you sense in that room over there that these guys are mature enough, even though they have got some young guys, they have the leadership there, that they have fun with it, but also business is business?
JAY FEASTER: I think that the importance of where we are is not lost on them. And yet, you know, I think that it's one of the things that this is why they play. This is why you play the grind of 82 games. I think that's something that our players recognize, the first taste they had of it was last year. They all recognize that this is the time you have fun.
I thought that the guys showed a lot of maturity in recognizing that you have to go through the 82 games and play well to get back to the fun part. And obviously, the further you go, the more fun it is.
So, yeah, I think that it's a businesslike approach, certainly, and yet, this is why they play.
Q. Speaking of business, how did tickets move for the first two rounds in terms of sellouts and how are they moving for this round?
JAY FEASTER: This round has been very good. We were a little concerned earlier in the week in that we still had quite a few tickets to sell. One of the issues here, of course; that it's over 21,000 seats. I think we had one or two official sellouts during the first two rounds, but again, we're putting 19,000-plus in here on a pretty consistent basis. I would think that tomorrow will be close to 21 or 21 and change. So it's been good.
There's been a very, very positive reaction in the community. You're seeing things in the community right now that we haven't seen before. You know, this was a place that every second car that went by was flying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers flags, and now it's not every second car with a Lightning flag, maybe it's every fifth and sixth, but you're starting to see that on the marquees around town, "Good Luck, Lightning" and "Go Bolts," that sort of thing. I think it's been a very, very positive reaction. It's something that coming off of last year has really helped solidify our position in the market and with our fan base.
Q. Do your market studies show that your customers are local people or people who have moved here from other places?
JAY FEASTER: That's the thing. I think it's pretty tough to find the native Floridians. You have so many transplants, and that continues to be the case.
I think when you look at where the franchise has been, as you take someone who may be a Red Wings fan, and so they are going to come out to that game and maybe they are going to wear their Red Wings sweater or they are a Flyers fan and they come out to that game.
The hope is, not only do they play well that night, but maybe send them home disappointed, bearing the other team's sweater. But more importantly, because you've played well, and it's an exciting product, more and more people say, you know, we ought to go see them again. And you sort of become the adopted team.
I think if you talk to fans here, you see that kind of progression, where they say, hey, look, I was a fan of whatever team when I moved here, but now I'm a Lightning fan. It's taken a while.
I've said this before; that I think our market has been overpromised and underdelivered to for so long, it's nice to be where we are. It's nice for the people who have been with us all the way through to have them be rewarded.
Q. Overpromised by who?
JAY FEASTER: The various ownerships and general managers; everybody comes in with a slogan that this is going to be the group that saves the world. The fans, they get excited and they are crestfallen again. When you don't make the playoffs the way we have not in our history, last year there was that sense of is this team for real or a one-hit wonder. That's why this year it was important to follow it up and have that good year. Now, I think the fans can start believing again. It's a good thing.
Q. Has that slowed the process of how you market the team, when you pick up the paper for this series, there's still sort of a joking, to explain to the fans what the calls are, what an icing is; that kind of thing, and yourself, in between intermissions and so forth in this building?
JAY FEASTER: I think we have to recognize that this is a football market first and foremost. That's the reality. It's not simply the Bucks, but it's also Florida, Florida State, the University of Miami; that this is primarily a football market.
And one of the great things, I think it's a great thing about our sport; that you have to see it live. That's one of things that we contend, if we get you in the building, then we have a chance to sell you the partial plan. Maybe you'll buy the four-pack or six-pack and maybe you'll like it so much that you're a partial-season holder or we convert you to a full-season ticket holder. I think part of that is we do have to continue to educate people who are maybe still coming to it now for the first time because we are in the Eastern Conference finals. It is not the game that people who live here, that unless they are transplants, the people who are the natives, they don't necessarily know it.
So, I think that's part of it. I didn't see the particular piece today. I heard it being talked about, Dr. Hockey. One of the things we try to do, certainly, you reference what we do between periods and I think it's been good. We've used our video coach, Nigel Kirwan, our goalie coach, Jeff Reese and we try to help the fans understand the game a little bit better.
Q. Your team only played four games in the last 23 days; is that the best scenario at this time of the year?
JAY FEASTER: For us, I think that it actually has been a good thing. You know, we had the injuries mounting in terms of not injuries that kept guys out, but certainly, nagging injuries; that guys were not 100%, and guys were playing through some things. And so, from that standpoint, being able to take this time off has been a good thing.
You know, we had extensive time off after the first series against the Islanders and we responded well to that, and really, I go back and look at the beginning of the season, when our schedule was such that we were playing one game a week in the month of October it seemed. And I think that this coaching staff has a real good feel for where the guys are, and they have done a good job throughout the season in terms of making sure that they get the appropriate amount of rest. And when you're at this stage, you don't have to work real hard to get the ramp back up to want to play.
So the only thing I was hoping is that the series would have gone seven; that the Philadelphia would series would have gone seven and about six overtime periods before it was decided. (Laughter).
But I think we are ready to go. We're just going to play the games.
Q. You talk with Bill Davidson and Tom Wilson, and they are based in Detroit, and you see what happened to the Red Wings, they were really the overall No. 1 seed in this and they are out of it now. They have been around, seen that team play for many years; has that raised the significance in their eyes of what this team's accomplishments have been this year?
JAY FEASTER: Well, Mr. Davidson has been very good about what this team has done this year. Mr. Davidson, while he doesn't necessarily make the trip down here and see us here, he watches the games. He follows us. He is certainly very quick to want to talk about us, when I talk to him, talking about the team and the players.
I think this is something that we are clearly being recognized as the significance of where we are. It goes back to he recognized the importance within this marketplace and the importance of following up last year with another good year. You know, he has been very, very supportive. He's a pleasure to work for, because he is someone who doesn't -- he's not in the kitchen all the time with the cooks. He gives us our parameters in terms of this, this is the kind of payroll we're going to be based on our revenues, we are running a business, and he never second guesses. There's never a question of why did we pick up that player or why didn't we get that guy, or why did you do this way.
I went to him on the Sydor deal and he said, "If you think that's the right move, go do it." He's excited about where we are right now, as well.
Q. Do you feel as though the track that you took and the process you went in term of backing John Tortorella, do you think the process has paid off for both of you, for the franchise and for Vinny?
JAY FEASTER: I've talked about this before, in the context of when I came on board as GM, I met with Vinny and I told Vinny, my legacy won't be that I will forever be the GM that traded Vince Lecavalier. And yet at the same time, I told him that I very strongly believe in John Tortorella coaching this hockey team and I went to meet John and said the same thing to John. My legacy is not going to be that I traded Vinny, but you're the right guy to coach this team.
That's the management part of the job, and yet the reality is if those two individuals don't want to make it work, all the management in the world is not going to make it work.
So that's why the credit belongs to the two of them. I think that one of the advantages we've had, because we've kept this team together, we've kept the core together and we've grown together and we kept the coaching staff here, I think that our players, to a man, have now started to understand John's approach, and they understand what he's all about; and that when he is coaching them, as he likes to say, when I'm coaching them, it is not personal, it's not meant to belittle or criticize, it's meant to get the most out of them.
I think that's where we are as a group and I think Vinny is there. I think Vinny Lecavalier realizes that John cares very, very deeply about him as a hockey player, as a person and as an important member of this team so that while he is coaching them, he is simply trying to get the best out of him and all the rest of the guys.
And John has changed his approach, too. There are times when you see John doing things in a different way, and I think that he has looked for ways to accentuate the positives in terms of the tremendous skills that Vinny has while having all of that happen within the team concept.
So, you know, in terms of how I approached it, yes, and I would approach it this way again, but the reality of it is it doesn't work if the two principals involved don't decide they want to make it work, and it's to their credit that they went that direction.

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