Ed Snider traveled to see a sporting event with a friend nearly 50 years ago. That New York Rangers hockey game made such a positive impression on him that he later took a business risk. In so doing, the Philadelphia Flyers were born.
Risk
and reward
Rewards aren't guaranteed in business, or in life. Snider used his free will when he decided to invest in a National Hockey League
expansion franchise in the late 1960s, with no guarantee of success.
If his team would have flopped, it might
have gone the way of the Cleveland Barons. A hardcore reference that
has been noted for all hockey aficionado's.
Brains
and talent
As
the Flyers built their 1970s reputation and won back-to-back Stanley
Cups against the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres,
arenas around the League were filled to capacity along the way. Everyone
wanted to see one of the world's greatest shows.
Yes,
the team hasn't won the Cup since then. But, it has gone to the last
round six times since those fabled 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons.
So,
what if?
If Snider hadn't taken the risk, hockey may not have started in Philadelphia
as soon as it did. Where's the evidence that any other person, who
may have founded the franchise at any other point in time, would have
made a go of it?
The
sheer amount of media members that cover the team's home games
indicate that there is more than a small, hardcore, contingent of
Flyers fans in the region, as has been suggested over the years. It's
likely a broader group, as evidenced by the amount of street and
inline hockey programs that exploded in the 1980s and ice hockey
programs that have been created at high schools across the
surrounding region during the past two decades.
In
other words, the base has grown since the fall of 1967.
Also,
the Reading Royals wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Flyers. And
that ECHL hockey team, located in a small town over an hour from
Philadelphia, attracts almost four
thousand fans per
game.
Loyalty counts
Don't
forget that Snider built the CoreStates Center in 1996 (now known as
the Wells Fargo Center) with almost total private funding. All sports
facilities could be built without making the public become a partner
through forced, back door, taxation.
There
is no sense of entitlement within the Flyers organization. They have
earned their way through Snider's example. His
straightforward business approach is simply this: Work hard, don't be
afraid to spend money and try to win every single season.
Flyers'
fans are smart and have always recognized that their team
consistently tries to succeed. And with that, loyalty will continue
to reign.
(I hold all copyrights to this article which originally appeared on Yahoo's platform in 2011. Photo credit: cdn1.vox-cdn.)
Rewards aren't guaranteed in business, or in life. Snider used his free will when he decided to invest in a National Hockey League
expansion franchise in the late 1960s, with no guarantee of success.
If his team would have flopped, it might
have gone the way of the Cleveland Barons. A hardcore reference that
has been noted for all hockey aficionado's.
Brains
and talent
As
the Flyers built their 1970s reputation and won back-to-back Stanley
Cups against the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres,
arenas around the League were filled to capacity along the way. Everyone
wanted to see one of the world's greatest shows.
Yes,
the team hasn't won the Cup since then. But, it has gone to the last
round six times since those fabled 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons.
So,
what if?
If Snider hadn't taken the risk, hockey may not have started in Philadelphia
as soon as it did. Where's the evidence that any other person, who
may have founded the franchise at any other point in time, would have
made a go of it?
The
sheer amount of media members that cover the team's home games
indicate that there is more than a small, hardcore, contingent of
Flyers fans in the region, as has been suggested over the years. It's
likely a broader group, as evidenced by the amount of street and
inline hockey programs that exploded in the 1980s and ice hockey
programs that have been created at high schools across the
surrounding region during the past two decades.
In
other words, the base has grown since the fall of 1967.
Also,
the Reading Royals wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Flyers. And
that ECHL hockey team, located in a small town over an hour from
Philadelphia, attracts almost four
thousand fans per
game.
Loyalty counts
Don't
forget that Snider built the CoreStates Center in 1996 (now known as
the Wells Fargo Center) with almost total private funding. All sports
facilities could be built without making the public become a partner
through forced, back door, taxation.
There
is no sense of entitlement within the Flyers organization. They have
earned their way through Snider's example. His
straightforward business approach is simply this: Work hard, don't be
afraid to spend money and try to win every single season.
Flyers'
fans are smart and have always recognized that their team
consistently tries to succeed. And with that, loyalty will continue
to reign.
(I hold all copyrights to this article which originally appeared on Yahoo's platform in 2011. Photo credit: cdn1.vox-cdn.)
