Belleville Senators’s Press Conference (from left to right): General Manager Ryan Bowness, Head Coach David Bell, Team Captain Dillon Heatherington, and Senior Vice President of Business Operations Breanne Matthews. Photo by: Jessyka Maliksi
By: Jessyka Maliksi
BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Senators are looking to see huge changes both on the rink and in the stands this season.
The Senators held a press conference on Oct. 10 at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre to announce details of this year’s team.
This season, the team has added a lot of new players to help raise their rankings in the American Hockey League.
Belleville Senators General Manager Ryan Bowness said the team hopes that adding skillful players will lead to improvements on the rink.
“We’re actually provided with greater player budgets this year…I think that’s a big part of the reason why we were able to make some of the better additions that we did,” he said.
Head Coach David Bell said the biggest change for the team is their player depth.
Last year, the team saw many injuries throughout the season, making it difficult for them to compete against other teams with complete rosters, he said.
“So, I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve done this year is have a very, very competitive roster and a deeper roster to be able to compete with those guys,” he said.
Team captain Dillon Heatherington agrees.
“We come to work every day with the mindset of trying to get better. We’re going to be a hard team to play against,” he said.
Last year, the Senators found it difficult to win games due to their limited ability to rotate players, Bell said. Some nights the team would play games with seven or eight players, he said.
Playing with a short roster caused the Senators to lead in penalty minutes. Last season, the team sat out 1,186 minutes, the worst in the division.
“When you had smaller lineups and smaller number of lineups, guys play tired, and when you play tired, it creates penalties,” Bell said.
Due to having more players on the roster this season, Bell said there will be more accountability and responsibility on the team when it comes to taking penalties.
Having a small number of players last year caused the team to take a lot of penalties because they knew their playing time wouldn’t be affected, but this year that isn’t the case, said Bell.
“So, there’s going to be more accountability to not taking them,” he said.
Last year, players knew that any penalty meant there were no consequences, he added. The player could keep on playing because nobody was on the bench to replace them, he said.
“But this year is different. If you take dumb penalties that hurt the team, there’s a responsibility to come out of the lineup because there are capable bodies sitting in the stands to replace you,” he said.
Improving attendance at games is another goal for the team this season.
With new skills being brought onto the team, Heatherington hopes that it will bring more fans to the stands this year.
“The new guys that came in are great additions here, and it’s going to be fun.” he said, “Hopefully, fans come to the rink to see a good product on the ice, and we’ll be working hard every day to put that together.”
Last year, attendance was better than the previous year due to COVID-19. But it still hasn’t come close to the number of spectators during the team’s first two years.
Belleville Senators Senior Vice President of Business Operations Breanne Matthews said this year the team is looking to increase ticket sales by creating promotional packages. She hopes the fans will feel they getting their money’s worth.
Matthews said the team understands the financial times are hard right now in terms of money.
“We’ve really focused on what the City of Belleville and the Bay of Quinte Region, (and) what they can afford in terms of tickets,” she said. “People can’t afford to do things…but that’s why it’s important for us to have a lot of value added.”
The Senators have multiple promotional ticket pricing and packages that include items such as food and beverages and offerings with the purchase of a ticket, she said.
One of the offerings is you can get a single game ticket and a Big Mac meal for $22 all in, she said.
Matthews also said the team will focus on its group and minor hockey promotions.
“We focus a lot on our group programing, our minor hockey programing, and kind of that experience piece. So, you’re not just purchasing a ticket and coming, sitting, and watching the game; you’re really engaging in the game. You’re feeling like you’re part of the organization and having that sense of commitment that keeps coming back and back.”
There is also a family aspect to coming to games.
The games are very family-oriented and provide a platform for youth in the community to experience the feel of a professional hockey game Matthews explained. The players are great role models for the kids, and they’re able to attend games to meet and watch the team in action, she said.
“Providing youth in this region with a phenomenal experience to meet professional hockey players…So we’re really kind of leaning into that and focusing on that from a volume sales perspective.”
The Senators season takes off on Saturday, Oct. 14 against the Hershey Bears at 7 p.m.
The home opener is next Saturday, Oct. 21, against the Laval Rocket at 7 p.m. at the CAA Arena.
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