SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League has named Milwaukee Admirals vice president of business development Mike Wojciechowski the winner of the league’s Ken McKenzie Award for the 2005-06 season.
Recognizing the important role played by team management in building a successful franchise, the award is presented annually to an AHL team executive who most successfully promotes his or her own club.
A member of the Admirals’ staff since 1982, Wojciechowski has rightfully earned a reputation within the Milwaukee community and throughout the American Hockey League as a creative and tireless worker. The chief marketer of the club, Wojciechowski has been the catalyst behind several unique and highly successful promotions, and his willingness to think outside the box has led the Admirals organization to impressive growth on a sponsorship and game entertainment front.
Under Wojciechowski’s guidance, the Admirals have grown their corporate sponsorship base by more than 80 percent in the last year, and in 2005-06 experienced a 7.5 percent increase in attendance over the 2004-05 regular season.
The AHL’s Ken McKenzie Award, first presented in 1978, honors Ken McKenzie, the founder and long-time publisher of The Hockey News and a 1997 media honoree by the Hockey Hall of Fame as the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award winner. Mr. McKenzie, the NHL’s first publicity director and creator of its first media guide, passed away in 2003.
Previous winners of the AHL’s Ken McKenzie Award include Mike Emrick (1978), Roy Mlakar (1979), Bruce Landon (1980), Rick Peckham (1982), Dave Strader (1984), Dale Arnold (1985), John Forslund (1989), Glenn Stanford (1997), Rich Hixon (2000), Jim Sarosy (2002) and Brian Lewis (2005).
