THE CANADIAN PRESS TODD KOROL
Outgoing WHL Commissioner Ron Robison hands over a WHL hockey jersey to Dan Near after he was announced as the new WHL Commissioner in Calgary on Thursday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A new age in the Western Hockey League is on the near horizon.
The WHL announced Thursday the hiring of Dan Near as the incoming commissioner, taking the reins from Ron Robison who has been at the helm since 2000.
Near will become the 10th commissioner in WHL history and will begin work with the WHL on Jan. 1 in a transition period before assuming full responsibilities of the commissioner’s office on Feb. 15.
Near spoke at a press conference held at the Scotia Bank Saddledome in Calgary, sharing his excitement for what he called the best development league in the world and why he wants to help grow the league for the teams and their fans.
“…We acknowledge the fans are the lifeblood and are in our communities day in and day out,” Near said. “So just as important as managing franchise matters, dealing with facility and lease topics and managing hockey operation items is, so is staying closely connected to these fans, delivering a consistent and entertaining experience across the league. To the fans watching today, you have my commitment that serving you will be an integral part of what we do.”
Prior to being named as the next WHL commissioner, Near has served as the global head of Adidas Hockey since 2016. He also previously worked at the head office of the NHL for 10 years specializing in marketing, retail development and consumer product licensing.
Near played a large role in Adidas’s rollout of the NHL Reverse Retro jersey series for the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons and creating new jerseys for expansion franchises for the two newest NHL teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken. He sees a path where the WHL could utilize the same kind of program and introduce some of its history in today’s game with a consistent message and utilization by all clubs.
“It can start to get to a point where we’re coming up with concepts and initiatives where hockey fans are paying attention to what we do as a collective, not just what their home market is doing,” Near said. “That’s when you start to unlock a little bit of secret sauce and a little bit of magic. We can hope those are some of the things we’ll be able to do as we move forward.”
Near was joined at the podium by his predecessor Robison and Ron Toigo, chairman of the WHL commissioner search committee and governor of the Vancouver Giants. Robison says there is no secret sauce or piece of advice he would offer Near besides enjoying the job and what it means.
“Every day is different, it’s a lot of fun, it’s very exciting,” Robison said. “The opportunity to work with 22 individual owners and teams unto itself is always very important to make sure that we understand the needs of our clubs. As a league, we’re really a function of how well our clubs are doing and that’s sort of the benchmark, I would say, day to day is important from a commissioner standpoint.”
The 43-year-old Near will relocate to Calgary with his family remaining in Portland for the rest of the school year while his 12-year-old twins and 13-year-old wrap up their schooling.
Much like Robison is in the middle of his retirement tour of visiting all the clubs he served in his 24 years as commissioner, Near says he plans to make his way around the league to hear from those in the different integral positions of WHL teams as he gets acclimated to the new role.
One of his main talking points Thursday was growing the WHL brand and creating an enticing product that can compete in the market while also being accessible to families a difficult economic situation. Near says they don’t want to go into a discounting mode like it’s Black Friday, but rather want to focus more on the players and tell their stories to further involve fans.
“Storytelling on players, making our fans and our audience feel closer to the athlete, (help them) feel more invested in what’s happening on the ice and off the ice,” Near said. “It helps make these choices. We have to ingrain our brand and our clubs in the everyday lives of our consumers and our fans.”
When it comes to entertaining a younger audience, Near says there is no one formula, it comes down to the music played in the arena, language used in social media posts and other initiatives. He says the clubs need to pay attention to the desires of their season-ticket holders while also looking to grow the pie with the next wave of WHL fans.
“It’ll be a progression and it’ll be over a period of time, I think some clubs will have a higher appetite than others and I think some players will have a higher appetite than others to be part of it,” Near said. “But I don’t think it’s something where you’ll be able to see day-to-day change but rather look at things 24 months from now versus where it was today, and maybe be able to identify some of the considerations that might look slightly different than they did today or yesterday.”
