Hockey Hall of Famer
Syracuse Crunch owner Howard Dolgon scores a goaaaal! with team and community
By Mary Beth Roach

“I love being in the hockey world. It’s a great world.”
This from Howard Dolgon, who, as owner, president and CEO of the Syracuse Crunch hockey team, has been sharing his love of the game with thousands of fans for decades. For further proof of his affection for the sport, he has the distinction of owning a Syracuse hockey team longer than anyone else since the Syracuse Stars debuted in 1930.
Dolgon, 67, has been a sports fan since he was a young boy in Brooklyn, taking the subway with his buddies into Manhattan to watch the New York Rangers, among other favorite teams.
Today, thousands travel to the Upstate Medical University Arena (known to many as the Onondaga County War Memorial) to watch his team — the Crunch — play each season.
Attendance averages at more than 5,000 per game and he estimates that from January until the end of each season, (WHEN) Crunch fans fill more 90% of the downtown Syracuse arena every game.
The first puck for the Crunch dropped on Sept. 30, 1994 and with that came what Dolgon sees as his greatest achievement — bringing the team here.
“When you take a look from the grandstands, it’s a pretty big deal,” he said.
He said that as kids, he and his friends were always talking sports, speculating about what they’d do if they owned this team or that team. Now, Dolgon does more than just hypothesizing.
Dolgon started working for the Associated Press but transitioned into public relations in the early 1980s.
The AP experience gave him an advantage in PR, because, as he said, he knew how the media worked. He became a partner in the Alan Taylor Communications in 1981, a leader in the area of sports public relations.

One of his clients, Black Velvet Whisky, was interested in a sponsorship with the American Hockey League in the early 1990s. While negotiating the deal, he worked with Bob Ohrablo, then-marketing director with the AHL and a former intern with the Taylor company. A few months later, Ohrablo called Dolgon and asked him if he ever thought of owning a hockey team, saying that he knew of an opportunity in Syracuse.
Dolgon said he was somewhat familiar with Syracuse at that time, because he had wanted to go Syracuse University for college. After talking with Taylor about this opportunity, he flew up to Syracuse with his long-time friend, Vance Lederman, to meet with Ohrablo and several community leaders.
He said they walked away from the meeting, saying “’this could be really fun.’”
But what made him think it was going to work?

There had been several teams before this that had tried and failed. From 1930 to 1981, there had been at least a half-dozen teams, in various leagues, that called Syracuse home. The Syracuse Stars was the first team to ever win the prestigious Calder Cup, the trophy awarded to the AHL playoff champion, in 1937. But the longest than any of those teams lasted was about 10 years.
Yet, he saw the potential for a team — with Syracuse’s location, the growing interest in the sport and his experience.
“It’s a great location. You had teams surrounding them — Adirondacks, Albany, Binghamton, Rochester. What’s missing from the equation was Syracuse,” he said.
“Hockey was on the rise as a sport,” he added. “And ego. I’ve done huge boxing matches, World Cup, Olympics. Why can’t I do my own brand? The Crunch are a brand. I’m going to treat it like a product. And the fact that it had failed — that was great incentive.”
He went on to say, “We read the articles. We heard the naysayers. We knew the odds weren’t great.”
“The challenge was enticing to me,” he continued. “Yeah, tell me I can’t do it. Bring it on. I always like the underdog. We could make it work here.”

Dolgon established the Syracuse Hockey Ownership Team in 1993, organized the purchase of the Hamilton Canucks, an affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks and created the Syracuse Crunch. The team has been affiliated with several NHL teams over the years. Currently, it’s an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But he believed that if he could give fans something of value, they’d support the team.
“Give them something that they feel ownership of, even if they don’t have the financial ownership. That’s critical. You want your fans to feel equity in your product; I don’t care what it is. If they feel vested, you’ve won them,” he said.
Late in that first season, Dolgon said he overheard some fans at a game talking about a power play that had been made and he said he thought then, “We got them.”
And he has seen the fans at the end of a season trying to figure out what they’re going to do for the next few months until the next season starts.
“Players like playing here because the fans care. They’re loud. They’re knowledgeable,” he said.
But what has the secret for winning fans for 30 years?
“People know we care. We sit with the fans. We talk with the fans,” he said.
The success of the team’s longevity, too, can also be attributed to Dolgon’s ability to blend his branding expertise with his vision — a vision he described as providing quality entertainment at an affordable price and making “sure we remain an integral part of the community, that we utilize the platform we have to do good.”
Coming from a blue-collar family, Dolgon said, “I see the value of people helping other people at all levels and that has stayed with me. We do have a platform here. Our players. Our brand. It goes well beyond putting games on.”
The Crunch’s promotional calendar has many examples of its efforts to give back to the community. The Syracuse Crunch has partnered with Amazon for the Amazon Community Heroes program for this season, in which a member of the Syracuse community is recognized at each home game for his or her impact. Each hero will win a $100 Amazon gift certificate and be highlighted on the Crunch’s social media pages. Also, during the 2024-25 season, the Crunch features special nights to raise awareness for breast cancer, lung cancer, stroke and mental health. There are also the Adopt-A-Kid Nights, during which underprivileged kids and nonprofit organizations are provided with tickets to designated Crunch games, courtesy of fan donations and corporate partnerships. And of course — its popular its annual teddy bear toss.
In December, the Crunch set a record with its 14th annual Stanley Steemer Tired Teddy Toss. As part of the event, when the Crunch scored its first goal in the Dec. 14 game against the Utica Comets, fans tossed new and gently used teddy bears onto the ice. More than 11,780 stuffed toys were collected that night and they, in turn, were cleaned and refurbished by Stanley Steemer and donated to local charities supporting the Central New York community.
That vision, he said, is part of the responsibilities he has as owner of the team and he credits his staff, including Vance Lederman, senior vice president of business operations and chief financial officer, and Jim Sarosy, chief operating officer, with moving those ideas forward. He comes to Syracuse from his home in Florida twice a month.
And while he said that starting the team here was his greatest achievement, he’s racked up a few more over the past 30 years.
This past year, Dolgon was inducted into both the Syracuse and the New York State Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2010, he received the James C. Hendy Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding executive. That same year, he played a major role with the Mirabito Outdoor Classic, the first outdoor game in AHL history, which was hosted by the Crunch at the New York State Fairgrounds. On Feb. 20, 2010, it set an AHL single-game attendance record of 21,508. On Nov. 22, 2014, he led the Crunch to host the first hockey game in Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome as part of the Toyota Frozen Dome Classic. That set a then-North American indoor attendance record with 30,715 fans. This event would lead the AHL to recognize him as the winner of the Thomas Ebright Award for outstanding career contributions to the league. He was also honored with the 2014 Crystal Ball Award by the Central New York Sales and Marketing Executives.
Even after three decades, Dolgon is as enthusiastic as ever about owning the team and is unable to name to pinpoint just one favorite part.
“Every part’s my favorite. I love the games. I love seeing our young staff develop and at times, move on to bigger jobs. I love interacting with the players and the coaches and our partners in Tampa. I could watch hockey every day,” he said.
The years, though, have also caused Dolgon to shift his hockey team allegiances. The Rangers now come in second to Tampa Bay. He told how he was watching the Rangers play Tampa Bay with some buddies one day and was rooting for Tampa. His friends were taken aback.
Dolgon, the father of three and grandfather of four, sees the team and the Tampa partnership as an extended family.
And after 30-plus years, what keeps him so enthusiastic?
“Trying to do better,” he said. “I think people age when they have nothing to look forward to and they constantly talk about the past. When you stop striving to continue to better yourself or better your environment, you get old. You’ve got to do stuff.”
He said his mind is always working and he meditates twice a day to get focused.
And he’s still got plenty he wants to do.
For one, he would like to see a new building for the team and the community as a whole in the Inner Harbor area.
And win another Calder Cup for Syracuse and throw a huge celebratory party — shining the light on Syracuse for the hockey world that he loves to see.