Owner of Syracuse Crunch, Howard Dolgon, Joins X101

John Harrison: [00:00:00] Good afternoon everyone. It’s John Harrison on X 1 0 1. Always classing me. Joining me on the line is the owner of the Syracuse Crunch, Howard Dolgon. Howard, thanks so much for calling in.

Howard Dolgon: It’s great to be here. Appreciate your call.

John Harrison: Yeah, of course. And, you know, we’re really happy that you’re, you’re able to call in and talk with us and, you know, the season is not too far off.

October 18th is gonna be the opening of the season, but before then, October 3rd, we’re setting our sights on Binghamton for a game against the Utica Comets. How you feeling about, you know, these preseason matchups.

Howard Dolgon: Well, okay. Preseason in, in hockey to me is really interesting because you’ve got a lot of, you know, young players that are, you know, fighting to make a name for themselves, to, to get a roster spot, to impress their, you know, the NHL team, which in our cases Tampa.

Mm-hmm. And when you come, all of that emotion with the fact that we’re playing, you know, our biggest rival out of 32 teams in the American Hockey League in Utica. The game is, is, you know, even though it is a pre-season game, it will probably be, as [00:01:00] intense as any regular season game, if not more intense, because what’s at stake for a lot of these players,

John Harrison: right?

Yeah, yeah. This is their, their time to prove themselves, especially going into the season. Yeah, definitely expecting the intensity. And talking about, you know, Tampa, how we’re, you know, we’re affiliated with the Lightning. You know, I was reading, we got 18 players coming down from, from Tampa assigned to the Crunch.

What can you tell me about this group of guys?

Howard Dolgon: Well, that’s just actually, that’s just the first wave. We’ve, we’ve got a number of players that are what will be called the last cut from Tampa. Those are the players that are probably. They’re most close to being an NHL regular or based on their performance in camp at least, or the situation.

But you know, we’re gonna be, a much bigger team physically than we were, the last couple years. We are gonna be a, a nice mixture of, of, of youth and, and some good veteran presence. We’re probably gonna be, a lot more physical. We, we’ve got some pretty, tough players on the team and, you know, in a market like Syracuse that’s [00:02:00] always very, very welcome.

John Harrison: Yeah.

Howard Dolgon: You know, we’ve had a history of players, you know, dating back to John Du and Brandon and Jody Shelley, and. John and Eric Nielsen and on and on and on. So, you know, the, the, the, the market I endears themselves or the players of that nature endear themselves with, with our fan base. And, so I think it’s gonna be an interesting team.

And, you know, I, I had a nice chat with our Coach Shield Bouchard yesterday, and he sounded, extremely upbeat about his group of players. I had the chance to go see them in, in a rookie game in, in Tampa a couple weeks ago, and, we actually won up, winning that game and, against the Florida Panther, farm team and very emotional and hard hitting.

And I think all fans are really gonna enjoy this. Couple players.

John Harrison: Yeah, it’s gonna be, a great season. And, talking about, you know, fans are gonna enjoy the players, they’re gonna enjoy the team. You know, that’s, that’s always a given, right? Syracuse Crunch always brings it. But one of the, the fun things, I, I feel like a lot of people.

Look forward to is the promotion schedule for, for [00:03:00] different, you know, fun theme nights you guys have going on starting October 18th with our open air against the Rochester Americans. Any fun nights you’re looking forward to anything you’re previewing. I know. Swamp Night overnight, that was a, a fun looking one, that I noticed.

There

Howard Dolgon: are so many, I mean, there’s so many things that we, we like to do and a lot of the things we do are, are obviously geared toward, you know, raising awareness. Mm-hmm. In the community on, on some important issues. As you know, we got a very big, you know, mental wellness program. We do a big mental wellness night.

We honor the military. We do cancer awareness nights, hockey, hockey fights, cancer. Uh, we do a number of scene jerseys, including our canal mules, our throwback jerseys, jerseys. So, you know, there’s probably not. A night or a game that goes on where there’s not something special included in the game. So you get the game, which is high quality.

American Hockey League is the second best league in the world. I love watching games in the upstate men arena, the old barn, because it’s loud. [00:04:00] It’s, it’s just not a bad seat in the house. Yeah. And, and this year we’ve got a couple upgrades. We’ve got new seats in a little bowl. Wow. And we had an extensive.

Sound system renovation, and I experienced that about a month ago when they were just finishing putting the new sound system in. The difference it will make to our fans and any event that comes into that building is so mind blowing that I’m gonna be interested when I’m walking around the arena on the 18th at our home opener, how our fans who have been going to the building now for.

It’ll be 32 seasons are affected by the higher quality. And this is a, a multimillion dollar system that the county put in. What kind of reaction they have to what they’re gonna be hearing. And you know, back in 2012, 13, we were the first team or the first building arena in the world to go LED lighting in [00:05:00] our building.

John Harrison: Wow. In

Howard Dolgon: our arena and the company, Ephesus Sports Lighting was actually born in Syracuse and we were the, we were actually a beta test for it. Our arena now Ephesus Lights are in probably half the NBA and NHL arenas, probably more than a third of NFL stadiums has, has been in, in, in many Super Bowl venues.

So. You know, I, I think with, with our lighting, our sound system, the energy in the building, it just makes for a great experience for fans to come in and. It’s been two and a half, three hours.

John Harrison: Yeah. Well, I’m certainly looking forward to it. And of course, you know, we’re, we’re, the season starts October 18th, but, preseason is just as intense, if not more intense as you said.

And we’ll be starting that up. Utica comets playing in Bing against our Syracuse Crunch. On October 3rd, and, you know, real quick, just wanted to shout out that date, October 3rd. It’s one day after the 31 year anniversary of the Syracuse Crunch’s first win in Syracuse. That was October 2nd, [00:06:00] 1994. I just thought it was, you know, serendipitous, I guess, you know, playing 31, years.

All these years later. I know we’re gonna be bringing the intensity. Folks, I hope you can come on out October 3rd to Binghamton to catch the, us take on the Utica Comets, Howard Dolgon, owner of the Syracuse Cross. Well, I,

Howard Dolgon: I, I add one more thing that’s interesting. I love your history, is our first game, our first, you know, regular season home game was September 30, right?

It was against the, the Albany River Rats.

John Harrison: Yes. Yeah.

Howard Dolgon: Which was a New Jersey affiliate at the time. Our second game, which was a seven, seven tie. And this was before shootouts? Yeah. Our, our second game was in ton, I guess the ton ranges, which we lost. And then as you mentioned, October 2nd or third game was against the Hershey Bears, at home that Sunday, which we, we won in.

I remember flying home, I was living in New York at the time, and that pilot got on speaker and. Graduated. It might been the first ever, Wayne. I called to believe that was October 2nd, 1994. But yes, that ran Clark. Right? So our [00:07:00] first game was against the Devil affiliate. Our second game was in Bingham’s End.

Our third game was against Hershey. Right? Yeah.

John Harrison: So

Howard Dolgon: now fast forward, we’re playing a Devil Affiliates in Binghamton in this game on the third. And our season opener on the road is against Hershey. So we’re going through the, the same pattern of if you, if you combine it all, you’ve got the three markets back to back to back again, 31 years later for us.

And you know, but we’re, we’re, we’re thrilled to come to Binghamton again. It’s, it’s a great hockey market, man.

John Harrison: Yeah, it

Howard Dolgon: really is. Tom Mitchell has been a friend of mine for more than 32 years. Tom. Was a just a great ally supporter of bringing hockey to Syracuse. He was chaired freely all of his operational information.

As we put together our business plan, and I know, you know, [00:08:00] Tom is not a big goes by when Tom doesn’t get a tap of the shoulder from somebody in Bighamton saying, Hey, when are you, when are you bringing America Hockey team back in?

John Harrison: Right? Yeah. Now

Howard Dolgon: I know right now you’ve got a great franchise in the, in the Black Bears and you know, just prove, you know that it’s a very hockey hungry market in Bigham sense.

So, you know, I think this game, spans in, in, in, in, in the market there, in the airline region. They’re gonna wanna get there. Yeah. And enjoy it. They really are gonna see a high quality of hockey. They’re gonna see a lot of players are been playing in Maryland this year and would bet that a number of these players are gonna get a chance with, with a big club in the NHL this year as well,

John Harrison: right?

Yeah. Yeah. It’s gonna be an amazing game and, and, all the history and all the excitement and everything, it’s definitely gonna make for, a fantastic preseason game. And then we’re just gonna carry that energy straight through the rest of the season into the postseason, Howard Dolgon, owner of the Syracuse Crunch.

Thanks so much for [00:09:00] joining me on the line today. On X 1 0 1. Thanks so much for, for taking the time and just chatting hockey with me and talking all this, this great history and looking forward to this amazing season.

Howard Dolgon: Thanks for your time. I appreciate you.

John Harrison: Of course. Yeah. And, for everyone listening at home, this has been John Harrison on X101