Rivermen expand sales staff
December 21, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Peoria Rivermen News Release
Peoria, IL (December 21, 2005) - President and CEO Bart Rogers of the Peoria Rivermen, the proud primary affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, today announced that the Rivermen have hired Chad Mentzer, Tony Heredia, Ashli Keesee, and Kevin Schwartz to new positions in the team's sales department. Each of the Peoria club's new staff members will be responsible for soliciting group ticket sales, developing new sales territories, managing and servicing existing ticket accounts, and assisting with game operations. Including these new additions, the Rivermen business operations staff now includes 17 members.
"We are excited to welcome these four individuals into our organization," said Rogers. "We believe that they can help our team elevate its sales effort to a level commensurate with the new, higher level of hockey that we put out on the ice each game as a new member of the American Hockey League (AHL). Their hiring also reflects our organization's strong new commitment to group and season ticket sales."
Mentzer, 26, will serve as a corporate and group sales executive. He comes to the Rivermen from the Pacific Coast League's Nashville Sounds, the class "AAA" affiliate of Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers. As an event coordinator for the Sounds during the 2005 season, Mentzer focused on group ticket sales to churches, little league baseball organizations, and Boys and Girl Scout groups. Between 2001 and 2005, the native of Churdan, Iowa, worked as a sales representative for Glazer's Distributors of Iowa, a regional distributor of beer, wine, and assorted spirits. Mentzer completed in May 2005 a bachelor of science (BS) degree in sports management at Iowa State University.
Heredia, 23, assumes the new role of a group sales executive. He first joined the Rivermen at the beginning of last season as a media relations intern. His previous work also includes video scoreboard direction for the Midwest League's Peoria Chiefs, the class "A" affiliate of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. Raised in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Heredia graduated from Bradley University in December 2004 with a BS degree in Radio/TV communications.
Keesee, 22, joins the Rivermen as a group sales executive. From January through November of 2005, she served as a part-time director of the evening and weekend newscasts at WEEK-TV, the NBC affiliate in Peoria. The Ransom, Illinois, native has also worked as a producer of Bradley University's "Midstate Magazine," a weekly magazine television program that airs in the Peoria area on public-access television. In May 2006, Keesee will graduate from Bradley University with a bachelor of arts (BA) degree in Radio/TV communications.
Schwartz, 23, will also work as a group sales executive with the Rivermen. Previously, the native of Joliet, Illinois, has worked as a naturalist for the Macomb, Illinois, Park District. He also now ranks as the founder and president of the Western Illinois University (WIU) Ice Hockey Club. Schwartz plans to graduate from WIU in the spring of 2006 with a BS degree in recreation, park, and tourism administration.
The Rivermen are a proud new member of the AHL. Founded in 1936, the AHL now serves as the primary development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams and is celebrating its 70th anniversary season in 2005-06.
Group and season tickets for the inaugural Rivermen AHL season are now on sale! To obtain more information or to purchase season tickets, please contact Rivermen Director of Ticket Operations Jim Small at (309) 676-1040, extension 106, or tickets@rivermen.net. Listen to the live broadcast of all Rivermen games on HOPE 98.5 (WPIA-FM).
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