Book Report: Hockey Tonk – The Amazing Story of the Nashville Predators
My parents were visiting one time and my dad brought me a book. He had picked it up at a used bookstore for $5.99 (I know because the price tag is still on the book). The book was Hockey Tonk – The Amazing Story of the Nashville Predators by Craig Leipold and Richard Oliver. bought the book because he thought it was a hockey book.
You can call this book a hockey book in that its subject is a hockey team, but after reading it I view it more as a business and marketing book as it tells the story of how Leipold, the original owner of the Predators, landed the expansion franchise and won over the Nashville community, turning them into hockey fans that today are considered by some to be among the best in the NHL.
I can’t help but think that the management group in Las Vegas studied this book and implemented some of their learnings.
Leipold understood the importance of building a good team, specifically a good marketing team. That marketing team understood the Nashville fan base, that they knew next to nothing about hockey and loved country music. This is where they teamed up with some famous locals to feature them in marketing materials before they had players to promote. The rest I guess you could say is history.
If you are a fan of hockey and looking for insights into how different business success happens Hockey Tonk is a great choice. Perfect for vacation reading.
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