I've recently been appointed to the "Grow the Game" committee for New Hampshire Hockey. Our charge is to come up with a strategy for growing youth ice hockey registration in the State of New Hampshire. As such, we were invited to a New England District meeting to meet with our counterparts in other states and Pat Kelleher from USA Hockey headquarters. Really interesting meeting with some great thoughts exchanged. Here were some of my thoughts coming out of that meeting for how USA Hockey could help organizations in this endeavor.

Marketing Plan & Materials for the Masses

The highest priority should be putting marketing materials to recruit new hockey players in the hands of individual organizations and members. Perhaps USA Hockey could rebate the registration cost $5 for each new member that registers with a match from the organization. Give each organization a comprehensive plan; a blueprint for growing their organization. Right now it feels like a hodge podge of activities (like OneGoal equipment) that doesn't fully give the picture. I recommend a step-by-step guide for the model hockey club to grow the game. Perhaps an outline of the plan would be as follows:

Grow the Game (in your organization)

Organization Structure

• Grow the Game Committee
  • Roles
  • Responsibilities

Hockey Programs

• Skill Development Program - instructional program that follows the Level I guides exactly
• House Program - cross ice, no body checking at any age level. Mite, Squirt and PeeWee divisions. Seed the teams with travel players to create a critical mass of players for new registrants to play with.
• Travel Program - No more than two travel teams at any age level. ALL travel players also play house (thereby reducing overall ice costs and increasing ice time)

Marketing

• Monthly Marketing Plan - what they should do each month (backpack flyers, newspaper ads, recreation guide inserts, phone calls, etc.)
• Marketing Collateral (backpack flyers ready made so the typical user can add their organization's info...MS Word or otherwise). The orgs can print and personalize. Focus on inexpensive or free advertising like backpack flyers.

The marketing materials should focus on key objections and not just be pretty pictures. I think the Vitamin H posters are aesthetically pleasing but ask yourself, "Would a parent who doesn't have a kid playing hockey choose to sign him/her up because of that poster?" You mentioned that you hear the same arguments everywhere that I would characterize as: 1. It's too expensive; 2. it's too much time; 3. it's too inconvenient (i.e. early); and 4. it's too much travel. My preference for marketing would be to offer one positive point about hockey (e.g. lifelong friends) and dispel one myth. The materials should always include a call to action (Call Now kind of thing) and a place for each organization to drive a lead.

Keep "It's Just a Game" In the Family

Take the following suggestion in the spirit it's offered (constructive criticism for the betterment of the sport and organization). The "Relax..." posters should not be publicly displayed in rinks. Although a good reminder to parents to take it easy, it sends the wrong message to new folks. Sending the "It's Just a Game" materials to already registered families is a good PR thing to improve the game. However, for many new folks who are just learning about youth hockey, it reinforces that hockey parents are nuts. Moreover, we may want to consider setting the vision so it will be a self-fullfilling prophecy, i.e. "In USA Hockey, everyone from the kids to the parents to the national organization is committed to making the game fun."

Demographics - Minority Question

One other suggestion regarding the research USA Hockey is doing. I serve on the Governor's Task Force for the Retention and Recruitment of a Young Workforce for New Hampshire. (I know, it's a mouthful). We've been studying in-depth why young families leave and/or come to New Hampshire because there has been a reduction in the young workforce over the past 10 years. There have been a number of surprising demographic trends that I think should be looked at for USA Hockey.

1. The reduction in large part was based on the Baby Boomers getting older and subsequently the population trending older with them. Moreover, Baby Boomers had children at an older age than previous generations. This led to a valley in the population coming through. That population is now child-bearing age. My question is "What is the overall number of children today vs. 10 years go?" as it regards USA Hockey.
2. The second astonishing point was that New Hampshire suffered because it is so heavily white, non-hispanic in terms of population. I don't know what the statistics for hockey are today but my guess is that although we've made great strides in terms of diversity for the sport, we're still predominantly white. Here's why it's a problem:
   • For every one one white, non-hispanic death, there are 1.3 births.
   • For every one hispanic death, there are 8 births.

If we are heavily weighted towards the white population, there may be an opportunity to grow the game by more fully reaching out to minority families.

Join Forces.

Finally, look for opportunities to combine with other sports organizations (Little League Baseball, Pop Warner Football, etc.) to compare notes on growth or lack thereof. We may be seeing a cultural shift away from team sports as a whole and it could be fueling the childhood obesity issue. Childhood Obesity is a HUGE topic for young parents right now and could be a good way to talk about the benefits of hockey.