Kevin Stevens

kstevens@pressconnects.com @PSBKevin

Sports reporter Kevin Stevens had a conversation with Tom Mitchell, Binghamton Senators executive vice president of operations and a primary force brokering a deal to bring the New Jersey Devils’ American Hockey League franchise to Binghamton beginning with the 2017-18 season.

The Ottawa Senators disclosed last September that they were relocating their AHL affiliate to Ontario.

Mitchell, 69-year-old Endicott resident, is owner/operator of American Materials Handling in Binghamton.

Question: First things first, I’ve got to hear about Monday night hockey.

Answer: Oh, my god. There’s a group of us. For the most part, many of us, for the past 25 or so years, something ridiculous, have the 7-8 p.m. slot here in the Arena. There are other leagues after us, but since we’ve been here so long, we get first dibs on that hour of ice time each Monday night.

It’s every Monday night unless something is going on in the Arena, some other event. I think we’ve missed two Monday nights this year. It’s the same group, pretty much, that has gotten older and definitely slower over the years.

It’s a lot of fun. We’ve got no referee, teams are a little bit different each night. We just work up a good sweat and have a lot of fun, and nobody gets very serious about anything. But it’s a great workout, and the one beer that I allow myself after and probably the one beer I drink all week tastes so good.

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Q: What’s it been like in these headquarters since "The Announcement"?

A: We’ve been really busy. I mean, we’re still focused on the Senators, of course, although it’s not that we’re not thinking about next year because that started back in January, middle of January, we submitted dates for next year. But it’s been busy on the ticketing side of things. We’ve even had a few people from Albany buy season tickets here for next year. I think maybe four.

It’s been brisk. I do expect we’ll have a bigger base next year than we have this year. We’ve had people who are non-season ticket holders who are here now come in and buy tickets, too. We have a lot to renew yet, but people know they have until the summer to renew their seats.

I think it was really — and it was their idea — for New Jersey to come out and offer a free game ticket. Anyone who buys a season ticket here can come to a designated game down there at no cost.

I think a lot of people will be more apt to go back and forth between here and New Jersey than there was between here and Ottawa. You don’t have to worry about the border; if you don’t want to stay overnight down there, it’s a three-hour drive home. Plus, there are more of their games on TV here than Ottawa games.

Q: In hindsight, how risky, how bold — whatever — the statement or proclamation you made in September?

A: Well, I pretty much knew, I think at the time, there wasn’t much risk of this thing going south. Because all the parties involved were getting pretty much what they wanted. By September, we had agreed on all the details with Ottawa, getting them outta here. Not getting them out, but details of that part of the deal. Way before that, we had pretty much verbally agreed to a lot of the important things, critical things, how much the affiliation fee was going to be and all that sort of thing with New Jersey; it just wasn’t signed.

The big concern was, how are people going to react to the fact of knowing that we’re going to lose our team, the Senators are leaving, and that news was going to get out there, which it did. They made the announcement, and the only thing that we could say at that point was, "Yep, it’s true. But our organization, this group here, is going nowhere, and neither is the American Hockey League."

And that’s about all I could say, because there were non-disclosure agreements that I’d signed. But at the same time, I wanted people in the community to know that, yeah, they are going — but the league’s not going. I realized that I had my neck stuck out a little bit, because if a glitch did get stuck in the deal and it went south? "Yep, Mitchell lied." Well, I don’t lie.

I know what went on with the baseball team there; it wasn’t for sale for four years, and all of a sudden, people find out maybe it was for sale for four years. I didn’t want any part of that. So I had my neck stuck out a little bit. But I was pretty well convinced that everything was going to work out pretty much the way we thought it was going to work out.

We knew New Jersey wanted to be here, we wanted them to be here, the American league wanted them to be here. I think there are no losers in this deal. I think Ottawa got their minor-league team closer to home and on their side of the border. We got a partner who really wanted to be here and needed a good home, that deserved to have a good home. It’s a stable operation here, which the American league wanted.

Q: Summarize what the agreement entails. What are the local group’s responsibilities? What are Jersey’s responsibilities?

A: First of all, I think it’s my responsibility to create the environment around here where everybody downstairs, which is their people or are going to be their people — the coaches, the players, the medical staff and that sort of thing — is to create the environment where they can be the best that they can be.

And the same thing with the crew upstairs here, the business side of it. You’ve got to create the environment around here where they can be the best that they can be.

Q: The crew upstairs remains your people?

A: Yup. We will run the business side — not that we won’t get input from them. They will run the hockey side, and we’ll give them as much input and support as we can. Some of those details ... like, we do a lot of things now for Ottawa. Like Kara (Kellett-Williams, B-Sens accounting assistant and team services/ticket operations manager) out here does most of the immigration work for Ottawa, for foreign players that wind up coming, Canadians, Europeans, all that sort of thing. Now, whether we’re going to wind up doing that for New Jersey or whether they’re going to want to do it in New Jersey? That’s up to them. But we’ll do whatever they want to do, and we have somebody here that’s trained to do that, because it’s fairly complicated this day and age.

There’s the buying equipment. I know who’s responsible for paying for it, but are they going to want us to issue purchase orders? We’re going to have to work all this stuff out. But it won’t be hard. We’ll run the business side, they’ll run the hockey side, and we’ll work together on it.

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Q: What are the daily/weekly requests that are maybe above and beyond what you just described? What might the parent club wantofyou and your people that … whatever it may be?

A: Getting the team involved in the community, which is an important thing, that’s something we will work with the coaches on, I suspect similar to the way we do it now. We schedule these things. Some coaches are more apt to say yes, or they’re more into doing that sort of thing than others. And you need to get to know the players a little bit. Some players really like to do it; others are a little shy and they don’t like to do it. You don’t want to put people in a position where they’re not very comfortable.

But these guys need to be talking to people like yourself, they need to be meeting people in the community. It’s all part of building their own character, you know? So, we’ll kind of work together with them downstairs to plan those sort of things.

Q: What do you know about Jersey’s reputation through the years in terms of stocking its American Hockey League team? Has there been any pattern?

A: I don’t know if you’d say it’s a pattern. They’ve had some success. They’ve won the Calder Cup. The last few years under the new leadership in New Jersey, their American league team has done really well on the ice.

You know, everybody in this league wants to win. And no matter how hard you try, I know I’ve seen where Ottawa is, "This is the best team we’ve ever put in Binghamton," and it falls flat on its face. So, that can happen, too. But their teams have done pretty well. I haven’t looked at exactly what the record is. I know the last couple of years under Ray’s (Shero, New Jersey Devils GM) leadership, they’ve done pretty well.

Q: I think back to ’92 with the Mets, and I don’t think it was any coincidence that New York put some fellas here, who won the whole thing the first year, the honeymoon year.

A: Well, you take the year we won the Calder Cup. I mean, we made the playoffs the last day of the season, the last game of the season, by one point. We got in. Ottawa, and this happens in the American league — not every year, but more often than not — Ottawa didn’t make the playoffs that year, they sent six guys back, all of whom I think are NHL players today. They sent those six guys back, and they got into the fold of things after that first round — which we almost didn’t win, I think overtime in the seventh game.

We were down three games to nothing at one point, came back and won it. After that, everybody got in the groove and these guys got going, they forgot about their golf game and getting out and doing that sort of thing, and we got on a roll. That happens in our league a lot of times. I guess maybe that happens with the Mets, too.

Q: What is your primary motivation to continue overseeing this thing?

A: First of all, I think the American Hockey League is a really special organization, for over 80 years of continuous operation. I’ve seen the league grow from 13 teams to 30; probably it’ll be 31 before very long. For a little community like ours to have one of the franchises in that league, I think, is something worth hanging onto. It’s one of the unique little assets that this community has, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to lose it. It makes a lot of sense for the American Hockey League from a geographical standpoint. The fans support it. I mean, Syracuse, Rochester, Hershey, Wilkes-Barre, all these other teams are glad we’re here because we’re kind of in the middle.

I can’t tell you how many times I look out that window and I’ll see one of the other team buses out here, and we’re not even playing them. They’re staying at the Holiday Inn here, and they’ll shoot up to Rochester and they’ll come back here, go down to Hershey, come back here, go over to — Albany, you see that quite a bit. Especially when Norfolk was in the league, their bus was parked here all the time.

It’s an asset for the community. I think we drag a lot of people into town. I know the Holiday Inn a few years back did a study for us; we caused directly about 2,200 rooms, I think it was, to be rented over there in one year. And that doesn’t count the rooms that players’ mothers and dads and families come down and rent, because we can’t keep track of those, although we get them a rate over there.

But just the rooms that the visiting teams rented, the rooms we rent — training camp and throughout the year, the rooms our parent club rent over there — I mean, 2,200 rooms is a lot of rooms. And every one of those rooms has that extra tax, which goes to the community, doesn’t go to us.

So, I think it’s just a unique little thing that’s worth hanging onto. And the people enjoy it. And I don’t even think about retiring — although people tell me I should. But I don’t think about it.

Q: How many homes games in a season do you miss?

A: None.

Q: Last time you missed one?

A: I remember watching one of our home games four, five years ago from a little tiny place in Pennsylvania. We had a project going over there, and I missed one home game. Well, I didn’t miss it; I watched it on my iPad in my hotel room. But I don’t think I’ve missed any other than that one. There’ve been a lot of games in this old barn.

Q: What will be the reason you’re not in thatchair, when that time comes?

A: When I stop having fun, or when I think I can’t help anymore. I don’t know. I’m going to be 70 in November, and I still don’t feel like I just want to pack up and retire. I like what I do at my other business. I have fun with what I do at that most of the time; sometimes it gets a little stressful. This gets a little stressful sometimes.

But I hardly ever think about retiring.

Q: You have the magic wand in your hand, what’s the one rule in hockey you’d change?

A: (after much deliberation) … You know what? There is a rule. That damn automatic two-minute penalty for shooting the puck over the boards from your defensive zone. I don’t like that one, because most of the time when you get that penalty, you’re already short and you’re trying to get the puck out of your zone and over the glass it goes, and now you’re down two guys instead of one. I know a lot of coaches hate that thing, too.

You see some poor defenseman, he’s damn near on his knees and he’s got to get the puck out of the zone, and over the glass it goes.

Q: You and I are sitting here 10 years from now, what are we going to be talking about?

A: Hopefully, the Binghamton Devils and the American Hockey League. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be. I mean, we just spent 15 years with the Senators; I can see spending that and more with New Jersey. If we do a good job here for them, I think there’s no reason for them to go anywhere.