http://espn.go.com/sportsbusiness/s/2002/1106/1456805.html League KO's Fight Night promotion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Darren Rovell ESPN.com Innocently sandwiched between Chuck-A-Puck and Casino Night were two promotions that excited many in the Houston Aeros' front office. The American Hockey League affiliate of the Minnesota Wild is averaging 5,500 fans this season, but Thursday nights remain a tough sell, with the Aeros drawing a third of their typical crowd. In order to woo more fans to the Compaq Center, the team announced it would have two Guaranteed Fight Nights, on Nov. 14 against the Milwaukee Admirals and Dec. 6 against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. “ It was an ill-conceived idea. It is disrespectful to the game itself and it is disrespectful to the players. It suggests that gratuitous violence is a big part of the sport and that's just not the case. ” — Dave Andrews, American Hockey League president "We know how much fans enjoy a good brawl, so we are going to guarantee a fight," read a promotional announcement on the team's Web site. "If there is not a single five-minute fighting major given to a player, every fan in attendance will receive a free ticket to the following home game." It was hardly a novel idea. Two years ago, while playing in the anything-for-a-buck and now-defunct International Hockey League, the Aeros played the Orlando Solar Bears in a game billed to Orlando's novice hockey fans as a Guaranteed Fight Night. After the Aeros left for the AHL, Dave Barr, the team's president and general manager, figured the promotion would help his club attract fans on an otherwise slow night. "We have nothing to lose," Barr said. "If there's no fight, fans get a ticket to another Thursday game. Selling hockey in Houston is a whole lot different than selling it in Portland, Maine, and I think people understand that." AHL president and CEO Dave Andrews didn't. He ordered the Aeros to cancel the promotion. "We told them that if they wanted to do it, they would be hit with a substantial fine," Andrews said. "We try to promote the integrity of the game in everything we do and something like this promotion doesn't fit well in our plans. "It was an ill-conceived idea. It is disrespectful to the game itself and it is disrespectful to the players. It suggests that gratuitous violence is a big part of the sport and that's just not the case." “ Maybe we'll have a Guaranteed Win Night now. But then I wouldn't want the other team thinking that we were saying that they were patsies by predicting a win. ” — Dave Barr, Houston Aeros president and general manager "We're not selling fighting, we're just trying to grab attention," Barr said. "Thursday nights aren't about families and they don't consist of a young, Nickelodeon audience." The Admirals were not told about the promotion, but Brian Manthey, the team's vice president of communications, said he would not have encouraged the league to cancel it. "We would not have had a Guaranteed Fight Night," Manthey said. "But each team has to decide what will work in their own market. I don't think this promotion would have changed the way we approached the game, and I would guess it wouldn't have changed the way Houston approached the game either." After canceling the promotion, Barr said the Aeros might replace it with another. "We weren't trying to be rebels in this league. We just wanted to attract a different group of people to our games," he said. "Maybe we'll have a Guaranteed Win Night now. "But then I wouldn't want the other team thinking that we were saying that they were patsies by predicting a win."
