WHL taps Near as new commissioner

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This article was published 01/12/2023 (917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Longtime sports executive Dan Near will take over as the Western Hockey League’s new commissioner on Feb. 15.

In a press conference at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday afternoon, the league announced the 43-year-old former head of Adidas Hockey will follow current commissioner Ron Robison, who leaves in mid-February after a record 24-season tenure in the job.

Near, who grew up outside Toronto, is done at Adidas at the end of December and heads to Calgary to start on Jan. 1.

“The trophies, the teams, the leagues, they all outlast us,” Near said. “The role we play, and the role I believe we play as executives in the sport, is we’re ambassadors, we’re shepherds, we help carry the sport from one era to the next. It doesn’t belong to us, we’re just gatekeepers.

“If you ask any of us, we would say we hope we leave the sport in a better place when we leave than where we found it.”

Near’s family — wife Lori, son Charlie and twin daughters Taylor and Haley — will move to Calgary from Portland after the current school year ends.

Near graduated from his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario in 2003, and in 2006, earned his Masters of Business Administration from Miami University. He took a job at NHL headquarters in New York in time for the 2006-07 season, and spent a decade there specializing in marketing, retail development, and consumer product licensing before heading to Adidas to head up its hockey and lacrosse operations.

Near, who was credited with bringing the popular reverse retro jerseys back to the NHL, said that program involved tapping into history in a new way, and that future innovations for the WHL will need to find similar unexplored paths.

His search for those opportunities begins with the advent of 2024 during the six-week overlap he has with Robison.

“I have massive shoes to fill and its such a privilege to have a chance to learn from Ron over the next few months and to follow in his footsteps,” Near said.

Robison, who came to the WHL from Hockey Canada in 2000, said mastering the job involves accepting its unpredictability and its relationships.

“There really isn’t a secret sauce for this position,” Robison said. “I think the most important thing is to understand that every day is different. It’s a lot of fun, it’s very exciting, and the opportunity to work with 22 individual owners and teams unto itself is always very important.”

Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo served as chairman of the league’s seven-person search committee, which was formed earlier this year after Robison notified the league he was preparing to step down after the 2023-24 season ended. Togo said the committee began its work of sifting through nearly 100 applications with the assistance of global talent firm TurnkeyZRG.

That group was pared down to 25, and after Zoom and in-person meetings, Near emerged as the top candidate.

“As we went through the process, there were some extremely competent candidates we were somewhat impressed with, but once we got to the in-person meetings, Dan really separated himself,” Toigo said. “His experience with the NHL for the 10 years he was there to his experience running Hockey Adidas for the world and his ability to brand build and all the attributes that came along with that … more than anything his personality shone through, his ability to deal with people, his ability to connect and his energy is really needed to build the brand. It became pretty clear that Dan was our guy.”

Toigo said Near was ultimately the unanimous choice of the search committee, and the board of governors approved it.

Near comes with some sparking credentials. He was recognized at Canada’s Sports Business Awards in 2016 as a “Five to Watch” honouree and received the Sporting Goods Business’ “40 Under Forty” award in 2013. In addition, he’s been named to The Hockey News’ list of “100 People of Power and Influence” in 2021 and 2023.

Toigo said the board of governors will certainly give him time to find his way after he takes over.

“We have to let Dan get in the door first and establish what’s important to him,” Toigo said. “One of the big strengths Dan brings is his ability for brand building that he’s done at his years with Adidas and approaches on that side of it. Dan is going to take his time and do the transition with Ron and after six months or a year on the job, he’ll have ideas on which ways to go.”

One of the issuing facing the league is its continuing efforts to rebound from COVID-19 is empty seats, a common refrain across the sports world. While the league has made progress, Robison said earlier this season it’s still five to 10 per cent off its previous numbers.

“I don’t think there is a singular formal to do that,” Near said. “I think there are a number of ways to do it. I think what you can count on is trying to do things that generate a level of scale and consistency. Rather than having all 22 teams operating as completely distinct individual entities, I think we want to help build some best practices.

“Let’s look at what’s going on and look at what’s successful in our sport, in other sports and in other leagues and try to bring some best practices to bear.”

It’s an interesting challenge for a league that has 16 Canadian franchises and six American teams that reside in centres as small as Swift Current, Sask., and as large as major metropolitan markets in Seattle, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

That means the league has 22 sets of local issues brought to the board table by 22 different forceful proponents for their individual clubs.

Near said he’s hopeful his experience at the NHL office will help because it helps to understand the decision-making dynamic.

“It really is a little bit non-traditional or not intuitive,” Near said. “We spent a lot of time in the recruitment process talking about this and I was asked some really direct questions about how I would handle one situation or another. The best way to synthesize it is there will be wins and losses for individual clubs on every individual decision that is made. It will benefit some and have less benefit for others, but by and large we have to be making choices and decisions that on average help the tides rise. It can’t be the same people winning all the time.”

He noted if teams only look at individual decisions, they’ll always be angry, but if they consider the larger picture, every franchise has to benefit.

Near noted things are certainly going right on the ice. Nearly 20 per cent of National Hockey League players can trace their roots back to the WHL, and 63 current players are on Central Scoutings list, more than any other development league in the world.

Near will be the ninth person to serve in the position, which has variously been called commissioner or president, since the league’s debut in 1966-67. The others are Robison (2000-present), Dev Dley (1995-2000), Ed Chynoweth (1980-1995 and 1973-79), David Descent (1979-1980), Del Wilson (1972-1973), Jim Piggott (1971-1972), Ron Butlin (1968-1971) and Frank Boucher (1966-1968).

He was asked what he hopes his legacy will be one day, and he admitted it’s something he’s pondered.

“I would (like) part of my legacy to have influenced the sport in a way that is unique, different and impactful from other leaders and contributors to the sport,” Near said. “Do I know exactly what the dimensions of that will be? Probably not, but I expect and hope that it will be one ice, off ice, commercially and in a variety of different dimensions. If you ask me that question six months from now, I’ll have identified a bunch of things after speaking to everybody.”

But for now, he’s just settling into the idea of a new challenge that awaits.

“It’s fair to say I’ve been living my dream for a while, and to be able to continue this journey with the Western League is such an honour and a little bit overwhelming,” he said.

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