USA Hockey Adult Hockey

Honky Tonk Hockey Town

Q and A with Andee Boiman

Andee Boiman

Director of Youth Marketing and Fan Development

Nashville Predators

Location: Nashville, Tennessee

 

Hockey is growing in the Music City. Ever since the Nashville Predators took the ice in 1998, they’ve been a model organization for their community efforts. In the past couple years, they’ve ramped up activity in the adult hockey department. That’s where Andee Boiman comes in.

Boiman, a Las Vegas native and University of Denver college hockey alum, loves her job. She’s been working with Ashley Bevan, USA Hockey’s senior director of adult hockey, to help create and coordinate activities to better serve the growing adult hockey community.

USA Hockey sat down with Boiman, the Predators’ director of youth marketing and fan development, to discuss the increase in numbers, interest and excitement surrounding hockey in Nashville.

 

AH: I’m not seeing adult anywhere in your title. What exactly is your role here?

Andee Boiman: Obviously nowhere in there does it say adult programming, but I guess you could look more at the parents of the youth marketing side and fan development from an adult perspective.

 

It makes a lot of sense. We are responsible for growing the game in our area – in our market. That could include a variety of things. From youth programs, we do Try Hockey For Free events, hockey programming, fundraising, player-parent camps and clinics. While we’ve been doing that, we’ve realized the adult market has been a group in this area that has been underserved, but has tremendous interest. The numbers have grown and that’s an area we are going after now.

 

AH: So the organization has really made a stronger push with adult hockey just recently?

Andee Boiman: The Nashville Predators are entering our 15th season this year. We’ve always worked with the local adult hockey market in some capacity, but we’ve never been as hands-on as we’ve been the past two years. There are two twin-sheet facilities in Nashville. They both have very healthy adult league programs, but there hasn’t really been anyone who stepped up to do Adult Learn to Play or adult skills clinics.

 

AH: And you need those adult introductory programs to really facilitate growth?

Andee Boiman: When people transplant to Nashville, the hockey players usually just find a rink and find a team and play. That’s great. But what we’ve seen happen in our interest in the youth programs and our free learn-to-play program we do for kids called Get Out and Learn (G.O.A.L.) – in the last six years, we’ve put more than 2,500 kids through a Try Hockey program. All of the parents are asking us how adults can get involved. Their kids love it, now the parents are loving it and they want to get involved. That’s really where we’ve seen the interest to grow.

 

That’s where Ashley and USA Hockey has the Adult First Goal program. When I heard about that, I thought this was a great idea for Nashville. We want the parents of these kids to start playing as well.

 

AH: There are some challenges to that, aren’t there?

Andee Boiman: It’s hard for adults to start hockey. If we can take the concept from the youth Try Hockey For Free and Get Out and Learn (G.O.A.L.) program and provide the same opportunities by partnering with USA Hockey, it’s a win-win. That’s the first program we offered with USA Adult Hockey and we’ll be offering that later this month.

 

AH: What else have you been doing?

Andee Boiman: We’ve run 90-minute clinics for adults with our hockey operations staff, coaches and alumni. We’ve run it in accordance with USA Hockey’s ADM (American Development Model). We had our professional coaches out there. One of the prerequisites we had to be eligible for the program is that you had to have picked up the sport as an adult. We didn’t want the A-league guys that have been playing all their life to come out and show up everyone. We wanted something comfortable for those who may have been a little intimidated by asking for help on their skills. We hosted them here at Bridgestone Arena, which is a huge treat for the players to be able to skate on the same ice as the Predators. We offered a handful of these clinics and they all sold out.

 

AH: Tell me about the Breakfast Club. What kind of program is that?

Andee Boiman: We started doing morning skates for adult hockey players here at Bridgestone Arena. We made the cost really affordable – it’s only $15 for a drop-in for open hockey and breakfast.

 

AH: Breakfast and hockey – for $15? Sign me up.

Andee Boiman: Right? We partnered with one of our local sponsors, Dunkin Donuts. Having them come in before work in the morning, skate, eat and then head to the office. That’s been pretty big. All of our sessions fill up. They’re always asking when we are going to add more dates. The demand is there.

 

AH: What about this big tournament I’ve been hearing a lot about?

Andee Boiman: USA Adult Hockey Weekend came down here August 9 for our inaugural Adult Classic. We put our ice in early every season … it went in during the middle of July. We were looking for ways to do some creative programming in the off-season. With all the interest we’ve had in our skills clinics and Breakfast Club and other ice rentals, the players have asked about putting together a tournament. I talked to some other NHL teams that participate in similar tournaments. We thought it would be a great thing for Nashville to do. With the number of adult teams and players here, we thought we should try it out. It filled up within days of the announcement. One of the unique experiences they had with this tournament is that we painted our ice gold. The guys played on gold ice. It’s pretty neat. I’ve never seen it before.

 

AH: Some people will say hockey doesn’t work in non-traditional hockey markets, but I’ve heard only great things about Nashville’s growth and culture.

Andee Boiman: If you’ve been to a game here, you’d know the answer. Nashville is a destination. Being the Music City, one of the first things you’ll notice when you come here is that we’re located right downtown. All day long there’s live music. When fans are coming in our doors, they’re walking out of the bars and into Bridgestone Arena and they have the same atmosphere here in our arena. We have that honky tonk culture into the arena. It’s just electric and exciting. When people come to games, they’re hooked. There’s something for everyone once you get inside our building.

 

AH: What has made the Predators organization so successful when it comes to growing the game locally in a non-traditional market?

Andee Boiman: From our ownership to our coaches to our players to our front office, we’re all very community-minded. We all give our time to charities and organizations locally. We don’t have any issues with accessibility. Our organization is so hands-on. You’ll see that from our entire staff.

 

AH: Sounds like a solid foundation for even more growth in the future.

Andee Boiman: Absolutely. We’re building additional sheets of ice here, which has been a challenge previously. We need more ice time to accomplish everything and provide more hockey programs at all levels. The city has partnered with us to build two additional sheets in the next year. They’ve planned the location and they’ll be breaking ground shortly. Probably this time next year, we’ll be looking at two more sheets in Nashville that the Predators will be running. That will help grow all of these programs that we’ve built a strong foundation on.

 

AH: You seem very passionate about your job and this relationship with USA Hockey.

Andee Boiman: It’s been huge for us to grow the game. I love USA Hockey. I’ve been playing my entire life and USA Hockey has given me everything I need as a player. Being able to partner with USA Hockey in my career now is great. What they’ve done with the One Goal program and the American Development Model (ADM) and now with the Adult First Goal program and just adult hockey growth in general – it’s a very easy partnership for us.