Recruiting Mites

SCBlueLiner · Post by **SCBlueLiner** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 10:12 am

I know we have discussed this topic before and looked for the other thread to bump but was unable to find it.

That time of year is approaching, hockey registration. Our association has been working on different ways to recruit new kids to the sport and since we are nearing registration there is a big push being put on for Mite registration.

It would be nice if we could each share some ideas on what your association is doing to attract new players. We're holding some free learn to skate clinics to coincide with registration season. Also, getting in the local newspaper with announcements (may even run a big ad) about registration as well as getting on the local radio station. We also do our usual flyer handout at the schools.

Any other creative ideas out there?

The Exiled One · Post by **The Exiled One** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 12:10 pm

I've been charged with the same task in my association. We do the "Try Hockey Free" as well. I'm pretty sure all associations to this.

• We advertise our Learn Hockey program and our Try Hockey Free event with flyers distributed at parades and elementary schools.
• We also distribute "register now" yard signs around town.
• The local papers are almost always willing to run a piece on our season kickoff event or other relevant news.
• Facebook ads can be geographically and demographically targeted.
• We were going to try a direct mail piece this year but never secured the funding. From what I understand, direct mail gets the absolute best response, but be ready to shell out $2500 up front if you can't subsidize the cost with sponsorships.

Hope that helps.

InigoMontoya · Post by **InigoMontoya** » Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:28 am

Your high level approach can either be push or pull.
Target the parents, convince them, have them bring their kids.
(great social experience, they'll make friends-you'll make friends, fight obesity. etc.)
Target the kids, let them experience how great it is, have them bring their parents.
(get them on skates, get their friend that play talking about it, etc)
Of course, there will be parents you'll have to convince even after Johnny and Jenny are on board.
(be ready to talk about cost, commitment, concussions)

And don't forget to execute what you've planned. You can have all the Try Skating Free sessions in the world, and if all it includes is a few dads standing around talking about who is on the bubble to make the bantam team, while the kids are falling all around with folding chairs, then you've wasted an hour of ice and probably lost the one opportunity you had to capture those 10 or 20 or 30 kids that showed up that day. And don't squander having a parent, that has at least gone to the trouble of bringing the kid this one time, right in front of you to full court press with a cup of good coffee, some literature about how great hockey is with answers to the usual questions, and a friendly smiling face that makes them want to come back to the rink - put your salesmen on the floor.

Ugottobekiddingme · Post by **Ugottobekiddingme** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:01 pm

I just pulled my lawn sign because I have toddlers thinking this is a local association bus stop.

Nevertoomuchhockey · Post by **Nevertoomuchhockey** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 2:29 pm

Ugottobekiddingme wrote:I just pulled my lawn sign because I have toddlers thinking this is a local association bus stop.

Classic

bsmguy · Post by **bsmguy** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:19 pm

It works great to actually give all k-2 kids a slip to take home that tells them how to register for hockey. This really works if you can pull it off politically.

bestpopcorn · Post by **bestpopcorn** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:19 pm

Our school district quit letting groups do handouts to the kids.

I don't think we as hockey parents do ourselves any favors when we go on and on about how expensive the sport is. The one thing that non-hockey families know is how expensive the sport it. When you ask them how much... they can't answer.

Once you get to traveling in any sport it get's expensive.

MrBoDangles · Post by **MrBoDangles** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:20 pm

- hand out flyers at micro soccer games. Usually a huge crowd of parents/kids packed in a smaller area.
- make sure the moms know that mite hockey is no checking... All they have is visions of bone crushing blows.
- first year cheap or free is the key.. Get them hooked.. Make it FUN! Every family is important no matter what skill level for the future strength of an association.
- tell families about leasing skates.. Many times people think big price tag. Plenty of places that lease skates for forty bucks for the season.
- free sticks (wooden) for the first 50 kids that sign up. Sure someone could find a package deal for 50 wooden sticks. A 500 dollar investment could go a long way in giving that extra edge to give it a try.
- Ample amounts of used equipment.. Get a donation system in your association to get some complete sets built up. One service credit for a complete set donated..? All the easier for a family to try with the wallet not going empty...
- be sure to mention that skating/hockey is a skill that every hearty Minnesotan should have. "Just one year and they'll/you'll have a skill to enjoy for a lifetime."

They'll get hooked soon enough and some might even become members of this bored.

goldy313 · Post by **goldy313** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:30 am

Hockey for mites ought to be about $50, you have to compete with other sports (like wrestling with no equipment costs). Pass the hour a week ice costs on to upper levels, far too often the upper level costs are offset by mites. It's been my experience $100 is the cut off for many people trying something new. When we went from $85 to $100 there was a significant drop in first year players, going back to $85 reversed that. Also, explain what the sign up fee goes for, ice costs $X per hour.

You can only keep upper levels viable by having adequate mite numbers, it's for the long term good to give mites a cost break.

Depending on where you live and you're demographic make up, for goodness sakes get minorities involved as coaches. Go out if your way to get them involved, without engaging them hockey is doomed. We managed to get girls involved which was unthought of 20 years ago, we should be able to engage other communities as well.

SWPrez · Post by **SWPrez** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 10:59 am

About a decade ago, Minneapolis made recruiting the cornerstone for our program. Attracting and retaining mites would have a substantial amount of money put towards the recruiting effort.

We have been the fastest growing association in the state going from around 400 to about 750. Because our Park Board and schools do little to assist recruiting, we came up with a simple recruiting plan that has worked:

100 Yard Sign Challenge - Each year we order 100 yard signs and get them up all over town. Those who have signs from prior years also get theirs up.
You can see our 100 yard sign challenge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KcMWHddjvo#t=18

Flyers going home from school in backpacks. We have boys and girls flyers. The flyers we use can be found at the bottom of our main home page:
http:www.mplshockey.com

Word of mouth - we promote parents to talk with other families at soccer, baseball, football, lacrosse to get them to come out for hockey. Also talking it up among school friends (we have kids at over 40 public, private, and parochial schools).

This year we will be doing the try hockey for free event combined with the Total Hockey free equipment for any new players that attend.

We have never followed the "make hockey almost free" model. We charge what it costs for ice time, overhead, etc. It has not inhibited growth and it doesn't force other levels of the association to subsidize the mighty mite/mite levels.

MrBoDangles · Post by **MrBoDangles** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 2:19 pm

SWPrez wrote:About a decade ago, Minneapolis made recruiting the cornerstone for our program. Attracting and retaining mites would have a substantial amount of money put towards the recruiting effort.

We have been the fastest growing association in the state going from around 400 to about 750. Because our Park Board and schools do little to assist recruiting, we came up with a simple recruiting plan that has worked:

100 Yard Sign Challenge - Each year we order 100 yard signs and get them up all over town. Those who have signs from prior years also get theirs up.
You can see our 100 yard sign challenge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KcMWHddjvo#t=18

Flyers going home from school in backpacks. We have boys and girls flyers. The flyers we use can be found at the bottom of our main home page:
http:www.mplshockey.com

Word of mouth - we promote parents to talk with other families at soccer, baseball, football, lacrosse to get them to come out for hockey. Also talking it up among school friends (we have kids at over 40 public, private, and parochial schools).

This year we will be doing the try hockey for free event combined with the Total Hockey free equipment for any new players that attend.

We have never followed the "make hockey almost free" model. We charge what it costs for ice time, overhead, etc. It has not inhibited growth and it doesn't force other levels of the association to subsidize the mighty mite/mite levels.

"Never followed". Make hockey affordable to try.

How many recruits do you get from south of 46th on the east side of 35w?

You have a good thing going on the west side.. A couple families put obama signs in their yards and throngs follow... Must work the same with your hockey signs.

#West mpls is just an extension of Edina.

SWPrez · Post by **SWPrez** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 9:17 pm

Actually BoDangles....about 40% of the signs that were put out this year were East of 35W. I haven't looked at this year's zip code data from registration, but my guess is about 30% of our players come from east of 35W, or waive in from the north side of town.

Our association is pretty unique. We will most likely provide between $25k and $30k of financial assistance this year to assure any kid that wants to play hockey in Minneapolis can play hockey. I would guess that there probably aren't too many associations in the state that set aside that much money so that less fortunate kids can play.

MrBoDangles · Post by **MrBoDangles** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 8:14 am

SWPrez wrote:Actually BoDangles....about 40% of the signs that were put out this year were East of 35W. I haven't looked at this year's zip code data from registration, but my guess is about 30% of our players come from east of 35W, or waive in from the north side of town.

Our association is pretty unique. We will most likely provide between $25k and $30k of financial assistance this year to assure any kid that wants to play hockey in Minneapolis can play hockey. I would guess that there probably aren't too many associations in the state that set aside that much money so that less fortunate kids can play.

Ok..... You have $30k and other associations don't and try to keep it under $100.

You have it easy with many affluent neighborhoods on the west side, and north of 46th, on the east side.

Mpls is hardly a

case.

SWPrez · Post by **SWPrez** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:29 am

MrBoDangles wrote:
SWPrez wrote:Actually BoDangles....about 40% of the signs that were put out this year were East of 35W. I haven't looked at this year's zip code data from registration, but my guess is about 30% of our players come from east of 35W, or waive in from the north side of town.

Our association is pretty unique. We will most likely provide between $25k and $30k of financial assistance this year to assure any kid that wants to play hockey in Minneapolis can play hockey. I would guess that there probably aren't too many associations in the state that set aside that much money so that less fortunate kids can play.
Ok..... You have $30k and other associations don't and try to keep it under $100.

You have it easy with many affluent neighborhoods on the west side, and north of 46th, on the east side.

Mpls is hardly a case.

Aw come on BoDangles...just ten years ago people had written Minneapolis off as being virtually dead when it comes to hockey.

After ten years of hard work within our public schools and broadening outreach to all Mpls kids, we now "have it easy"?

We must be winning too many games...we'll try to dial it back this year to get off of your despised list...I kinda like the Edina treatment though!

MrBoDangles · Post by **MrBoDangles** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:05 pm

SWPrez wrote:
MrBoDangles wrote:
SWPrez wrote:Actually BoDangles....about 40% of the signs that were put out this year were East of 35W. I haven't looked at this year's zip code data from registration, but my guess is about 30% of our players come from east of 35W, or waive in from the north side of town.

Our association is pretty unique. We will most likely provide between $25k and $30k of financial assistance this year to assure any kid that wants to play hockey in Minneapolis can play hockey. I would guess that there probably aren't too many associations in the state that set aside that much money so that less fortunate kids can play.
Ok..... You have $30k and other associations don't and try to keep it under $100.

You have it easy with many affluent neighborhoods on the west side, and north of 46th, on the east side.

Mpls is hardly a case.
Aw come on BoDangles...just ten years ago people had written Minneapolis off as being virtually dead when it comes to hockey.

After ten years of hard work within our public schools and broadening outreach to all Mpls kids, we now "have it easy"?

We must be winning too many games...we'll try to dial it back this year to get off of your despised list...I kinda like the Edina treatment though!

You/You guys are doing great.. Just seemed like you we're putting your nose in the air, like you didn't have to help at all with cost. You have a very large base of families that are able to afford hockey... We don't have that luxury in associations that offer less than $100 mite hockey. We need to hook them.

Was in your "hood"

today.. Are you sure you have that few of signs out? I even saw four on one block!

You should remember from our previous discussions that I'm a fan of Mpls hockey and what's going on there.

bestpopcorn · Post by **bestpopcorn** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 12:07 pm

How many families that can't pay 100.00 for mite hockey consume 1000.00 worth of Mountain Dew a year?

If it were not such a book keeping problem associations would be better off to charge per session for mite hockey. In our assn we have a ton of folks that can't figure out that 100.00 once is a much better deal than 10.00 30 times.

I will worry about cost when I see squirts hauling around wooden sticks.

Ugottobekiddingme · Post by **Ugottobekiddingme** » Tue Oct 07, 2014 9:36 pm

bestpopcorn wrote:How many families that can't pay 100.00 for mite hockey consume 1000.00 worth of Mountain Dew a year?

If it were not such a book keeping problem associations would be better off to charge per session for mite hockey. In our assn we have a ton of folks that can't figure out that 100.00 once is a much better deal than 10.00 30 times.

I will worry about cost when I see squirts hauling around wooden sticks.

I must not think like a typical bored member. If wooden sticks become common again I would consider hockey moving in the right direction. If a typical family is consuming 6.5 cans of Mountain dew a day to reach $1000.00 a year, good for you and thanks for supporting Pepsi and your right to purchase. If your association books show a decline within the mite program maybe there is something else driving the "books". The mite program is the least expensive of all hockey levels which tells me there is something else limiting exposure to hockey at this level. Maybe your program doesn't offer the best popcorn.

bestpopcorn · Post by **bestpopcorn** » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:03 pm

Ugottobekiddingme wrote:
bestpopcorn wrote:How many families that can't pay 100.00 for mite hockey consume 1000.00 worth of Mountain Dew a year?

If it were not such a book keeping problem associations would be better off to charge per session for mite hockey. In our assn we have a ton of folks that can't figure out that 100.00 once is a much better deal than 10.00 30 times.

I will worry about cost when I see squirts hauling around wooden sticks.
I must not think like a typical bored member. If wooden sticks become common again I would consider hockey moving in the right direction. If a typical family is consuming 6.5 cans of Mountain dew a day to reach $1000.00 a year, good for you and thanks for supporting Pepsi and your right to purchase. If your association books show a decline within the mite program maybe there is something else driving the "books". The mite program is the least expensive of all hockey levels which tells me there is something else limiting exposure to hockey at this level. Maybe your program doesn't offer the best popcorn.

I agree on the wooden stick part.

I also agree that keeping costs down at mites is critical.

The part that gets my goat is that those that grumble most about cost are the ones standing outside the door burnin one and sucking on a 20 oz. Dew. This crowd has educated anyone that will listen about just how expensive hockey is.

We has hockey parents need to tell our friends how much our kids love the sport. We need to explain how both the kids and adults meet new people. We also need to explain how hockey is a great deal when the cost is calculated per hour of participation.