The Big Interview Part 1: Shannon

10th Sep 2009 | Posted by Gareth Huish & Aled Lloyd

It’s a hot Monday afternoon and it’s time for a hike up to the 3rd floor of domino house situated deep in the heart of Cardiff’s Queen street. Gareth Huish, Aled lloyd and Chris Stone are here to interview 3 key personnel of the ‘Next generation’ Cardiff Devils. These three men are Shannon Hope the Director of hockey operations, Brent Pope the head of Cardiff devils community foundation and Paul Sullivan the production manager.

The interview is taking place at Devils head office and for anyone who hasn’t been it’s quite a sight, as soon as you enter through the main door you are greeted by a huge TV showing highlights of past games played at the Tent, now a TV ordinarily isn’t such an exciting thing, but this TV is built into the reception desk of the Devils offices. Just around the Corner is where the magic happens, a head coaches room, and then an open planned room containing the desks of Paul and Brent as well as other Devils staff.

During our visit here the whiteboards around the room are littered with positive news, whether it be a list of healthy corporate sponsors or the encouraging list of season ticket holders. To conduct the interview we are taken into the board room, which continues the impressive theme of the whole set up, a huge backdrop sits at the back of the room containing a picture of the Devils bench in front of the huge playoff weekend crowd. Also littered around the room are past Devils trophies as well as the shirts for this coming season, donning some top notch sponsors such as Fresh baked.co.uk.

It’s is here we find our trio of Devils staff laid back, chatty and in an all round jovial mood. It’s time to grill them…….

Shannon on the Devils

What has been the biggest success off the ice since the beginning of last season?

 Shannon: I think the brand in general has been good. The creative team has played a big role in developing the brand. There are numerous things really. I think when we look back at where we were when we first started this thing to where we are now, we’ve turned the ship around full circle. There are areas to improve on as well. I like what we have done with the website and how the brand’s portrayed in pushing Cardiff Devils.com, and also the match night experience is huge as well. Now we have to work on getting the balance of players on the ice and keep topping the match night experience for the crowd.

On ice success aside, what would mark this season as a good year for the Devils organisation?

 Shannon: A full house every night.

With the development of a permanent ice rink likely to be a few years away, are there any plans in store to improve the current temporary rink?

 Shannon: Plans have been discussed but nothing’s been finalised and approved. The council are the ones pulling the trigger on this, so we are liaising with them. So far we have a very healthy relationship with them, and hopefully they can see that we need to work closely together. I think it’s a trust issue with them and hopefully they are getting a lot more comfortable with us. I think our work in the community has been a big factor in achieving that. It’s a big tick in the box for us and it’s only going to get stronger. Brent deserves huge credit for his work on that.

What are the plans for any future venues?

 Shannon: They’re going. I’d say there are plans. They have put a statement out that they want to do something in 2011.  I know they are working on plans now.

What are the chances of the Devils taking over the running of the rink, when the current contract expires?

 Shannon: It’s a tricky one really, I’d say there would be companies going for the tender, if in fact it does go to tender as none of that sort of stuff has gone to discussion yet. Obviously we would look at it, and I think we need a better deal all around. But I think the structure needs to be more in favour of the club in order for us to promote Cardiff.

What are the plans for developing the off ice organisation, this season and beyond?

 Shannon: I think we are expanding now. We got a new sales girl in Serena, also to grow the DCF. We also have the juniors on board, so our plans are to develop some great Welsh ice hockey., Our aim has always been to be more prominent in the community. We are looking to get more involved with roller hockey also, so hockey in general in South Wales.  In the past it’s usually been ice hockey or roller hockey. But we are quite happy to have a cross over.

With the fans reaction to the name change in Sheffield, could anything similar happen here and what does the name Cardiff Devils, mean to you?

 Shannon: We play out of Cardiff and as long as we are playing out of Cardiff it wouldn’t change. We are proud to be a Welsh brand and proud to play out of Cardiff.

You made huge strides last season in terms of Corporate Hospitality, what can you tell us about what’s being done to improve on that this coming season. 

 Shannon: We are looking at other areas., We’re looking at a possible student area at the far end. A branded corner over in block 1, maybe get a small bar area there. Corporate is tough as we have the constraints of it not being our building. If it were to be our building I think there would be a lot more changes in the way the bar and café area are and we could branch out maybe and change the outside of the building to make it a bit more attractive. In terms of corporate hospitality it’s just polishing what we had last year and building on it 

Shannon on the League

Will the Clubs, in conjunction with the League, be discussing or finalising a workable format for an Autumn Tournament or is the October 'Hocktoberfest' the equivalent?

Shannon: Right now we are doing the Hocktoberfest in a 20:20 style format, 4 on 4, with a live draw. It’ll be a straight knock out. Hopefully that will grow into a pre season launch weekend in August. Penalties maybe shorter we haven’t finalised everything yet. 

Any plans for the League to link up with teams in Northern Europe (e.g. Holland, France, Belgium) for a tournament as had been rumoured a few months ago?

 Shannon: I think more so again It’s control of the venue., A lot of it depends on where we could host that sort of thing. If we had more control of a big venue, then it’s in our favour to bring more teams over. It’s a huge cost to get these guys over when all we are relying on is ticket sales alone. Steelers have shown that in the summer with debating pulling out of Europe. In hosting it they would have probably made a little bit of money, going away probably cost them a few thousand. If you get through the rounds then you might make a bit of cash. 

The league as an organisation generally suffers from a poor reputation amongst the fan base, which often voices little confidence in its competence. What can the league do to improve this reputation and restore the confidence of the fans?

 Shannon: I think getting a brand partner would be a decent start and stability is important also. This Hocktoberfest is in place to maybe stabilise a couple of the clubs as well. I think we’ve got the wages roughly at a controllable rate. ISL great idea just the wrong format, but I think we are at a good level now. It’s quite interesting that now we can’t the league can’t always keep good British kids which shows we cant drop the wage any lower. On one hand we are trying to get British guys playing but also we want to keep them playing to make the league here better. If we hammer down wages the good guys like the imports are just going to go to a better league, and I don’t think that’s what a wage cap is meant to do; its meant to get the sport working better as a unit.

Will any new teams be joining the league in the foreseeable future and, if so, when?

 Shannon: There’s discussion all the time about new teams. There’s Leeds, Wigan, Dublin Braehead. Initially though we need to stabilise what teams we have now and make sure everyone’s happy. I think we need the right person driving the league also. I think that position needs to be filled

Are there any plans for the league to publish a clear rulebook publicly following the lack of clear direction towards discipline at the beginning of last season? 

 Shannon: They do have a clear rule book, but last year there were some areas that were a bit grey. I didn’t agree with some of the interpretation last season. In any rule book there has to be common sense. What they did last year with the changes I think will make a big difference though and I think they got it right in the end.

But they won’t be published? 

Shannon: (in a jokey manner) They might be, I might have a copy laying around.

We keep hearing about the wage cap from certain quarters, has the league got a workable wage cap in place. And is it a bona fide cap or more of a wage guideline for teams to work towards.

Shannon: There is one in place, it’s not a guideline it’s a strict rule. There’s a minimum and a maximum and we have to supply all our documents in signing players and Eamonn Convrey keeps an eye on it with every club.

Who do you see as favorites for the Elite league this season, and why?

 Shannon: The great thing about it is you can’t say who’s defiantly going to win it. We’ve  put together a team that can compete with the top but so has everyone else. We have improved on last season. Last season injuries didn’t help us and a little bit of it is luck in wining the league. But if we work hard enough then we can be in the final reckoning.

How do you view the strength of the EIHL off of the back of losing both Basingstoke and Manchester this off season?

 Shannon: I think Basingstoke was always going to struggle to stay in the league. I still think we need a strong London venue. Basingstoke isn’t it, but it’s the closest thing we had to it. Manchester; it will be interested to see how they do in the EPL I don’t know what their spend is. The only major difference between EIHL and EPL is Manchester have Milton Keynes coming to town. Will that affect their gate? I don’t know, but I think it would affect ours. Who would fans rather come and see -  Milton Keynes or Nottingham? No disrespect to MK but I think it would be Nottingham. For us we could duck out and join the EPL and do an M4 corridor, but we want to be a big city player, that’s where we believe we belong.

A huge thanks to Shannon for spending the time to answer our questions. Check back in the coming days for part 2 of our interview with Paul Sullivan, the Devils Production Manager.