EVERETT — It’s Saturday evening and the Everett Silvertips are holding their home opener.
Comcast Arena is abuzz with lights and sounds during the pregame ceremonies, which build to a crescendo just seconds before the arena announcer introduces the home team.
But the first introduction isn’t reserved for a player or coach. Instead, the Tips lead off by unveiling their new toy.
Onto the ice rolls a large vehicle with the Silvertips logo painted on its side in metallic colors. The vehicle’s flashing green and red lights illuminate the darkened arena, while player photos cycle through the 47-inch television monitor installed in the front panel. On top stands the Silvertips’ mascot, Lincoln, holding a sign encouraging the fans to cheer.
The vehicle is the Silvertips’ new fan Zamboni, the Western Hockey League team’s latest addition to its game-day operations. The fan Zamboni will be available for rides between periods, giving fans the opportunity to experience what it’s like on board an ice-resurfacing vehicle. It’s one of just five fan Zambonis known by the Tips to be in existence, and it’s believed to be the first in major junior hockey.
“We wanted to do something different for the fans,” Tips director of business operations Zoran Rajcic explained. “As we started season seven we thought, ‘What can we introduce that’s new and special?’ We thought there was no better way than the Zamboni.”
It’s an impressive-looking machine. But perhaps equally impressive is the story of how it came into being.
Since beginning play in 2003, the Tips were always exploring ways of allowing fans to ride the Zamboni. However, because a true Zamboni has only one seat — for the driver — insurance issues made that unfeasible.
Then, three years ago, the front office brain trust of Rajcic, general manager Doug Soetaert and marketing and sales manager Mike MacCulloch took a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, to see what the NHL’s Oilers offered their fans. There they came across Edmonton’s fan Zamboni, and inspiration struck.
The first step was finding an old Zamboni to convert from an ice resurfacer into a passenger vehicle. The Tips scoured the nation in search of a used Zamboni, finding leads in Michigan and Maine.
Little did they know the answer was sitting just down I-5.
A chance conversation with a member of the south Snohomish County-based Seattle Junior Hockey Association revealed the existence of a discarded Zamboni collecting rust outside Lynnwood Ice Center. But this wasn’t just a used Zamboni, this was a complete reclamation project.
“It was wrapped in all types of weeds,” Rajcic said. “Mike went in and had to cut it out. When it started getting worked on, there were nests on top of nests and rats, everything you could imagine that would be sitting in an abandoned piece of equipment. When they tried starting it up after putting a new battery in it, it cranked over once and started a small fire with the nests because the rats had chewed through some of the wires.”
Then the project hit an even bigger snag. The economy took a downturn and the people the Tips originally contracted to do the restoration had to back out. The project was put on hold for a year.
Enter Mark Thompson.
Thompson, an Everett-area auto mechanic and hockey enthusiast — he manages teams for Seattle Junior Hockey and is a Silvertips season-ticket holder — decided to take on the project.
“I think the Silvertips are great for the community,” Thompson said of his decision to get involved. “I’m involved in hockey already and this came from my heart. I wanted to do it, I wanted to be involved and I wanted it to be a good project.”
Thompson and his brother-in-law, Rick Fauver, started working on the Zamboni in late June. The project required a complete overhaul of the exterior, with much of the inside also needing to be repaired or replaced. The Tips hoped it would be ready by early November.
But not only did Thompson and Fauver complete the job in time for last weekend’s home opener, they made the finished product far better than the Tips could have imagined. They added the flashing LED lights. They installed hydraulics so the body can bounce up and down. They even had the Tips logo embroidered on the seats, which can accommodate 12 passengers.
“(Thompson) saw what we wanted to do and took it to another level,” Rajcic said. “We would have been happy to have it ready by the end of our big road trip (in mid-November), but he was determined to have it for the home opener.”
The Tips’ plans for the fan Zamboni is to offer rides between periods to fans who make donations to charity, with Seattle Junior Hockey being the first charity in line since it donated the Zamboni. The Tips also plan on having it take part in parades and community activities. Eventually a video-game console will be installed so kids can play games on the monitor in front.
“What we try to do is provide an entertainment experience for the fans,” Rajcic said, “and this is just another way for people to talk about the Everett Silvertips in a different light, as well as give them a few minutes of fame on the scoreboard or a ride down at ice level.”
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog.
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