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Falcons Owner Bruce Lndon

Falcons Owner Bruce Lndon  bruce-landon.jpg
A conversation By Katelyn Gendron Reminder Assistant Editor While the pulse of professional hockey beats faintly for many in Springfield, for Bruce Landon, owner, general manager and president of the Springfield Falcons, it still sounds as strongly as the day he arrived to play for the Springfield Kings in 1969. First exposure to the game Just as one might expect, this Kingston, Ontario native grew up playing hockey on the frozen ponds near his home. He was first exposed to the game at age three, he said. Growing up, his older brother would shoot snowballs and frozen tennis balls at him as Landon stood on the street between two rubber boots for goal posts. From the beginning Landon was a goaltender and at age 15 he left the frozen ponds of Kingston behind to play in the rinks of the Western Ontario Junior B League. "I remember this like it was yesterday," Landon said. "I took a bus from Kingston to Chatham, Ontario. I was greeted by their trainer and he took me right to the rink and I had to try out right then after being on the bus for 400 miles." Landon had a successful tryout that day and made the team. He later played two years with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League before being selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the fourth round of the 1969 Amateur Draft. "I had a phenomenal training camp," he said. "They just couldn't put a pea by me and they told me that I had made the LA Kings. I was 19 years old and at that time no goaltenders came out of the Junior Hockey League and went immediately to the National Hockey League." In decision later that night, Landon said he got a call from the Kings general manager that he would be going instead to their farm team in Springfield to "get a little seasoning in." Arriving in Springfield The next day Landon got on a bus and arrived in Springfield at 2 a.m. for the beginning of his professional hockey career. "Now I love Springfield," he said. "I've made it my home but I didn't have a clue of where they were sending me." Landon's career began on a positive note with a shutout in his first game on the Springfield Kings. He said he had two opportunities to play in the "big show" for the LA Kings but both times he dislocated his shoulder in a game the night before. The Kings won the Calder Cup in 1971. After leaving the American Hockey League in 1972, Landon played five years in the World Hockey Organization (WHA), for the New England Whalers, which Landon said were the best playing years of his life. The Whalers won a WHA Championship that season. He signed a new contract with the Springfield Indians (formally the Springfield Kings) in 1977, but in December of that year he suffered a severe knee injury that he decided would end his career. "For me, it was time," he said. "I had a number of injuries and I just decided I didn't want to be a hockey gypsy." From player to businessman After his playing career ended at age 28, Landon's dedication to the game continued through a new avenue, the business of professional sports. Upon deciding to end his career, then owner of the Indians, George Leary offered Landon a job in the front office in Group Sales. Landon said he had done some sales work for Leary the summer previous to his injury, which prompted Leary to believe Landon had a future in sales. "It was learning on the job," Landon said. "I worked hard my whole life for everything I've received and so I was used to working hard. I was always the first one in the office and the last one to leave. People can question my decision making process but not my work ethic." With Landon's intense devotion to the game and his new position in the front office he steadily climbed the ranks on the business side of the game. He said he graduated from Group Sales to running the Marketing Department and in 1982, when Peter Cooney bought the franchise and he was given the title of General Manager. Keeping hockey alive in Springfield After 12 years as General Manager for the Springfield Indians and back-to-back Calder Cup Championships in the 1989-90 and 90-91 seasons, Landon said his boss, Peter Cooney sold the franchise at the end of the 1993-94 season, moving it to Worcester. Landon's love for the game and his commitment to keeping professional hockey in Springfield prompted him to make a dramatic decision: to become an owner. "On a game night near the end of the season TV 22 interviewed me asking what I was going to do now that the team was moving," Landon said. "And I made a very flippant statement saying, I'd like to see if I can keep hockey alive in Springfield." Unbeknownst to Landon, a good friend and former teammate, Wayne LaChance, was watching the newscast at home. Within two weeks, Landon said they put an investment group together called Pro Friends, Inc. to purchase an AHL expansion franchise. On May 5, 1994, Pro Friends Inc. was granted the expansion franchise, he said. "It was a big risk because attendance was not good," he recalled. "A lot of people would stop me on the street and said, 'You're absolutely crazy. Hockey is never going to make it in Springfield.' But Wayne and I were committed." Landon said he and LaChance formed a three-year plan to turn attendance around and grow the franchise. Attendance figures improved from of 2,800 in the final Indians' season to roughly 5,000 per game. Rebuilding In 2002, Landon said that it was looking like the "landscape of the league was changing and [he] thought that things might get a little bumpy." So much so that Landon said there was an investment group outside of Springfield looking to buy the franchise and the team. But that was not an option for Landon. He formed a new investment corporation called Springfield Pro Hockey, LLC to buy the Falcons. "I have a great group of owners that are committed to keeping professional hockey in Springfield," Landon said of today's ownership group. "But the fans have to show us that they want it." Landon was correct in his assessment of the league and the city of Springfield. Things have been a little bumpy for the team as attendance figures have been dropping and the on-ice performance has not met the expectations of the fans or the front office. Recent NHL affiliations with the Phoenix Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightening have not been able to produce a winning product on the ice. But Landon's hope is that this year's new affiliation with the Edmonton Oilers will turn all of that around for the Falcons. "We need a good year and I'm not afraid to put that in the paper," he said. "We need the fans to support the franchise. Now on top of that it's also important that we give them a product on the ice that they can be proud of." Despite the troubles that the franchise has faced over "the past four or five years of misery," the fans screaming at him and all of the "nasty" e-mails, Landon says that he looks forward to Monday mornings. He added that he is eager to face the challenges and opportunities that each new week affords him and his Falcons. He says that he is living the dream, despite long hours and numerous challenges, and that his commitment to the business of professional hockey in Springfield is unwavering. Landon often jokes with his staff by saying, "you may be able to outsmart me but you'll never be able to outwork me." It is equally evident that the competitive and determined instincts of an "old hockey player" continue to be trademarks of his character and fuel his drive to make hockey work in Springfield. His mission is to keep professional hockey in Springfield there has been a franchise in the city since 1936 and that he will do whatever he can to keep prices affordable, to make the driveway-to-driveway experience the best possible for all fans. But, the franchise has been losing money in recent years, he said so "keeping hockey alive in Springfield" is now a task of the most urgent nature. Rumors of an impending sale of the Falcons and a move to a new city have circulated. When asked about the rumors Landon said, "it has never entered my mind once, despite all of the rumors that are out there about selling this franchise to another city. That day won't come on my watch if I can do anything to prevent it."