Norton Lea, My Part in his downfall...

[mark]

With apologies to departed comedy genius Spike Milligan for borrowing (almost) the title of one of his books.

It's December 2004 and the Norton Lea era was at its worst. At that time I was doing a little work for the Elite League on their forums when I was contacted by the then Cardiff owner Bob Phillips ahead of their visit to the Arena, would I be willing to meet with him in the Devils exec suite during the game ?. I agreed to this and sure enough I found myself in their suite chatting to him. He wanted to know what was going wrong with the biggest club in the league, bearing in mind he was also an EIHL director then. I told him I had no idea of what the financial issues were but I could show him what the big problem was, he looked quizzical but said "go on then, show me" so we walked over to the viewing area and I pointed down at the ice and then the dasher boards, "where are the sponsors" I asked him, there was barely anything on the ice and the boards were almost empty. I also pointed to the rows of empty seats and I told him that my club would die if nothing changed. We then went back to the seats and watched the game, the NHL'r Rob Davison was in there as he had been signed by the Devils during the NHL lockout, I still have a pristine program from that game that he signed for me.

Bob became the owner of the Steelers for the following season, I don't know how much influence, if any !, that I had in his decision but he saved the club at that time.

I've found the video from what I think was the correct game, the program is locked away in a box somewhere so I can't be absolutely certain at the moment but it's close enough. Pay attention to the ice and dasher boards and the thousands of empty seats. That is why you will always see me banging on about not working hard to keep new fans coming in, not cruising on autopilot thinking it's always going to be big crowds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr-349zwzFM

[ginger]

Exactly why I'm not critical of Tony Smith (even if on the face of it I don't agree with some choices). He's the most stable owner I can remember us having - over 10 years and not one summer of chaos/worry. Money obviously invested in the team, facilities and fan interaction/offers.

Whilst we may not get the team right every year, or get beaten out for trophies, we will still be here the next season, ready to go again

[Doom]

An interesting story Mark.

I remember the game in question, but obviously I didn't realise that was probably the day Bob Phillips decided he needed to step in.

I know he certainly had his issues, but I firmly believe that without Bob Phillips there wouldn't be a Sheffield Steelers today, because Norton Lea would have kept grinding the club into the ground until there was nothing left to salvage. I'll be eternally grateful to Bob for that and I for one retain a positive view of his ownership.

The warning signs were there with regards to Norton Lea taking over, because of his history with Chesterfield FC and their supporters views on him. He seemed to have a very simple philosophy to cover the costs, if the crowd numbers dipped just charge more to the remaining supporters. Clearly that just leads to a downward spiral which we saw during his ownership.

There was never any effort from Norton to try and increase the fanbase and attract more sponsors, it was always about taking more from the (ever shrinking) loyal fanbase. I firmly believe the ultimate conclusion would have been us moving to Ice Sheffield on a permanent basis, the only reason that didn't happen was because we had the best Coach our league has ever seen and he managed to bring success, even with a smaller budget than our main rivals.

When Blaiser left things spiralled downhill rapidly with attendances falling to a pitiful level. It was depressing walking into the arena and seeing all the empty seats with very little advertising around the perimeter. I personally thought the writing was on the wall and nobody would get Norton out, so I was absolutely delighted when it was announced that Bob Phillips had taken over.

I thought Bob Phillips did a good job in stabilising and even increasing attendances, but once Simmsey and Westerdale turned against him he was always on the back foot and likely to fail.

I've often thought that because of the location of our Arena that no owner could make a financial success of our club and I was certainly dubious when Tony Smith came in, because I didn't think he had the wealth to fund the club on crowds of 4,000. I have to say he's proved me completely wrong, not only has he managed to increase the crowds by a huge amount, but he's made the club self sustaining.

I would have loved to have seen Blaiser Coaching with Tony Smith as owner, because I think we would have been unstoppable.

I've got plenty of thoughts/comments regarding the time between CJS and Norton Lea and our possible move to the BNL, but I need to get some work done.

Regards

Doom

[Jayboy]

Bob Phillips was a decent man and 100% saved our club, and I can tell you all he ever wanted was what was best for the Sheffield Steelers and he got screwed over big time by more than one person inside the club....

[smbmetal]

Very dark days under Norton Lea going to a half full uncleaned arena. However some of the hockey on the ice wasn’t that bad. Dion Darling and Christian Bronsard weren’t exactly bad players. Guess we got Norton Lea as owner as he got Chesterfield FC from Brown?

We are light years from those days thank goodness.

[BontSteeler]

I don't know the ins & outside but why did Simms & Bob turn on Phillip's if he more or less saved the Steelers unlike Lea....

[mark]

I don't know the ins & outside but why did Simms & Bob turn on Phillip's if he more or less saved the Steelers unlike Lea....

One day that story may be told, both sides of it. but it won't be by me, I only had a narrow view of what was going off , and from Simms / Bob W you will only get theirs. I doubt Bob P will say anything either , last time I spoke to him he was enjoying life in Dubai riding his motorcycle around.