http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/Home/MO/St.
+Charles+County/Orchard+Farm/4F4714FF9EF3D6CE86256B23005CA59D?OpenDocu
ment&Headline=Otters%20score%20hat%20trick%20with%20new%20ownership

After two-plus seasons developing an emotional attachment to the
Missouri River Otters, Kevin Fitzpatrick now has a more tangible
reason to root for the team's success.

On Thursday, the River Otters announced the sale of the United
Hockey League club to River City Hockey LLC, a local ownership
group comprised of three St. Charles County residents — Fitzpatrick,
Dan O'Donnell and Dale Black. Fitzpatrick was introduced as the
group's president, general manager and managing partner and will
run the team on a day-to-day basis.

"Being associated with the team here, being a part of it as my
day-to-day work is just phenomenal," Fitzpatrick said. "I've always
thought about how I could get into it, and this just happened to be
a
perfect time and opportunity for me."

It's a pretty good opportunity for the River Otters as well.
Formerly
owned by United Sports Ventures Inc. — a sports management
company headquartered in New York City that over the last 15 years
has owned and operated more
than 10 hockey, baseball and arena football teams around the country
— the River Otters and the
team's staff will now be able to work with upper management on a
person-to-person basis, rather than
via a long-distance phone call.

"As a general manager the last two and half a years, you try to have
all the answers, you try to have all
the vision, but it's certainly helpful to have somebody else there
along side you working shoulder to
shoulder, and that hasn't been the case," River Otters General
Manager Matt McSparin said. "No
disparagement to (president and chief executive officer of United
Sports Ventures) Eric Margenau or
United Sports, they're fine folks, they've had great franchises and
successful franchises. . . . But
there's a huge difference in that component or that ingredient now
being available."

A former regional vice president for Danka Office Imaging,
Fitzpatrick brings about 17 years of sales
and marketing experience to the River Otters, which McSparin said
should prove quite valuable in the
organization's continuing efforts to grow in the community.

"One of the things that I was most excited about with Kevin being
able to contribute immediately is
knowing how to set up a sales organization, structure it,
incentivise your employees and your sales
people," McSparin said. "We've always struggled with that, quite
frankly. We've got people who are
spread out, doing different tasks in our organization. It tends to
splinter their attention, as opposed to
constantly having their attention on the sales side. I think Kevin
has some ideas on how to restructure
some of those ingredients so there's more of a sustained, constant,
visionary approach to the sales,
and I look to his leadership to try to help mold that sales
machine."

Combined with a passionate love for hockey, Fitzpatrick — a
Rochester, N.Y., native who played a few
seasons of minor pro hockey in the early 1980s — said he aspires to
be the type of owner to whom the
average fans can relate.

"You want to be visible to those fans as they come into the building
and during the games, be
accessible to those people to get feedback from them," Fitzpatrick
said. "I have no 'Here's how it's going
to work,' and that's it. I need to get feedback from the people and
from the community on what they think
we could do differently to make it even more enjoyable."

And to that end, Fitzpatrick said the main focus will always be on
working to put a quality and
entertaining product on the ice.

"St. Louis is a great sports town and has always been fortunate most
of the time to support winning
teams. And when the teams have performed well, the fans have
responded very positively by
supporting those teams," Fitzpatrick said. "Our intention is to run
a class organization on and off the ice,
to compete for the championship on the ice and provide careers for
people in the community to be part
of an organization that's committed to winning."