Page 32 of The Roommate Remodel

“Nothing,” I mutter, returning her tight smile. “Nothing at all.”

EIGHT

Jaz

When I walk into the conference room for a last-minute player meeting, I can tell something’s up. The players are eyeing me skeptically, like they expect me to drop some bad news.

“What are we meeting for, boss?” Leo asks from the back, where he’s leaning back in his chair.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” I reply with a grin as I connect my computer to the conference room’s projector.

As I take my seat in the front, Brax steals the chair next to me. “You look like you’ve got a secret.”

My stomach tilts, reminding me of Alex’s secret news about shutting down the team. But Brax isn’t a mind reader. There’s no way he could know.

“Really?” I play dumb.

“You look happy,” he notes.

Oh, good.Brax doesn’t suspect bad news.

“I just came out of a meeting with Alex where she looked over my community re-engagement plan and approved it, which was a shocker.” I stop myself, and Brax glances at me.

“Why is that surprising?”

“I just thought Alex would be worried about the cost. I heldoff telling her until this morning. When I explained the funds it could generate, she was all in.”

“Smart,” he says. “Do you have a plan to convince the guys?”

I glance around the room and realize that maybe Alex wasn’t my biggest hurdle. These hockey players are.

“Dumb luck?” I say with a shrug.

I step to the front and decide that this is my one shot to convince the team of the value of giving back to the community. Unlike Alex, I’m not in it for the money. I want the team to become more than hockey players to the fans. I want them to see these guys’ hearts.

“You might wonder why I called this meeting this morning. And the reason is that we’re taking a trip this afternoon.”

“A trip to where?” Tate asks, frowning.

“We’re going to make somebody’s day,” I explain with a smile. “You might think that my job is about boring volunteer work.” I glance around the room as a few of the guys nod.

“But really, community engagement is about showing our city that we care. That we’re willing to help others. A team everyone looks up to.”

“They’d look up to us more if we won,” Leo grumbles from the back. A few guys chuckle.

“Winning helps, yes. But research shows that building a fandom is not just about winning games.”

I turn on my slide presentation and flip to a line graph.

“This shows the rate of fan attendance for teams that don’t volunteer in their communities. As you can see, it’s flat. There’s literally no attendance growth.” I click to the next slide. “But when the teams participate in community initiatives, that’s where the line shoots up dramatically. The more players volunteered, the more attendance grew. It didn’t matter how much the teams won.”

“But those statistics are from baseball teams,” Tate says, studying the screen. “Not hockey.”

“Yes, but the psychology of fandom is the same. Hockey fansare some of the most avid ones out there. They love to see you play tough on the ice, but it wins them over when they recognize youcare.”

Leo raises his hand. “How are we going to fit this into our schedule? We’re supposed to practice during the day.”

“Most of the community events will be in the evening, and Coach Thompson has given me the green light for one afternoon event. That’s today, which is why I needed to call this meeting.”

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