Nashville Predators Marketing Second to None

The Nashville Predators are one of the best when it comes to marketing their team and their product.

The Nashville Predators are a what is called  a Small-Market team, (Although that market is growing by leaps and bounds!)  Since their inception, and especially in the past ten years or so, the Preds have shown just what it takes to make hockey fans where there were none before.

When the Nashville Predators were awarded an NHL Franchise to begin the 1998 season, there were outcries from Canadian and Original Six markets about the viability of “Southern” or non-traditional market hockey.

The Atlanta Flames had already relocated to Calgary back in 1980 and there were real doubts that a team could flourish in the deep South.  The Predators even had a few problems early on, mostly with ownership and folks that wanted to step in and try to sweep them to Canada.

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There is no longer any question of that.  The Preds set attendance and sell-out records last season and played to a 99.2% capacity at Bridgestone Arena.  There are other Southern teams that have continuing attendance problems.  Carolina, Arizona, and Florida were all in the bottom five in attendance percentage last season.

Of course, the Brooklyn Islanders, Columbus, New Jersey, and Ottawa were all below 95% full too, and they aren’t in the Southern half of the states last time we looked.

It seems like the Nashville Predators constantly have something either free to the public or an event that is building hockey and fans in Nashville.  James Neal has his upcoming clinic for Youth Hockey at the Ford Ice Center:

Last weekend they had the Glow Skate at the Bridgestone Arena.  It was well attended and there were lots of Tweets and photos going around about the event:

If you’ve never heard of the Predators G.O.A.L. program and you have young children, you need to. For first-time hockey players, the Preds group will outfit them for a four-week hockey program.  Our kids did it years ago and it is a great program.

All of these events promote hockey to both youth and adults.  When young folks get involved with hockey early, you may be creating a Nashville Predators fan for life.  The Preds have always done a fantastic job of this, through schools and events.

A lot of those young fans have grown up into ticket buying fans now and they still love their Predators.  We have never seen as much interest and excitement in a summer during the offseason and it is fun to watch.  Smashville is definitely a Hockey Town.

Related Story: GNASH Picks Up Big Endorsement

The Predators newest marketing campaign is a real campaign.  Preds Mascot GNASH is running for President and there has been a tremendous outpouring on Twitter and the like trying to get one of those campaign yard signs.  So much so that the PREDSident had to tweet this:

Next: Carle is Newest Preds Defender

The Nashville Predators make it easy to root for them.  Go Preds and oh, yeah, Go GNASH!   #MakeAmericaSkateAgain.