Tuesday, Sept. 30, 1997 | 10:40 a.m.
IT SAYS SOMETHING about a professional sports franchise when the team mascot becomes more popular than any of its players. What it suggests is that the organization is more concerned about selling T-shirts and game-sweater replicas than increasing its local fan base.
From a business standpoint, if the Thunder wants to change its logo to incorporate Boom Boom, it's popular polar bear mascot, that's ... well, their business. Merchandising a minor league franchise almost has become more crucial to its success than wins and losses, so the Thunder is right in line with baseball's Lansing Lugnuts and the Macon Whoopie, their minor league hockey compadres.
But as an independent franchise, one that isn't responsible for developing players for the parent club, the Thunder has an opportunity to market its human resources as well as its animated ones. That's where it has struggled as badly as its power play.
Sometimes, the Thunder has the right idea -- like when it introduced neophyte hockey fans to 17-year-old Radek Bonk. But when Bonk became one of the few Thunder to graduate to the NHL for something more than a cameo appearance, that was that.
And when Clint Malarchuk arrived with a smile wider than an Alberta prairie and his NHL goaltending skills still very much intact, the Thunder nearly succeeded in making his a household name. The P.R. department concocted a nickname for Malarchuk and the "Cowboy Goalie" was rewarded with a stable of horses when it came time to renew his contract.
But Malarchuk played only one more season before he decided he had seen enough flying rubber. He announced his retirement and the Thunder showed him a debt of gratitude by providing him with a front-office job. That was three years ago and Malarchuk continues to serve as the Thunder's chief ambassador.
He is one of the few remnants from the original Thunder of 1993-94. That was only four years ago, yet only two members of that team -- forwards Patrice Lefebvre and Ken Quinney -- will start a fifth season in Las Vegas. And now there are rumors the Thunder would trade either or both, if the right offer were on the table.
Quinney was the team's first 50-goal scorer and still has a deft scoring touch around the net. But he is a quiet leader rather than a demonstrative one. He's sort of like a palm tree on the Las Vegas landscape, he blends into his surroundings so well.
Lefebvre is the opposite. At 5-6, he's so diminutive that he has to saw his hockey sticks in two to fit his frame. But he can score, play both ends of the ice and is as tough as an old hockey boot -- he was the only Thunder player to appear in all 82 games last season. Ask the casual Las Vegas hockey fan to identify a member of the Thunder, and Lefebvre would be it.
Management insists no deal involving Lefebvre is imminent, and that's good. Because instead of finding himself on the trading block, Lefebvre should be the building block around which this franchise is built.
archive
