Ben Adams named winner of 2024-25 AHL's Ken McKenzie Award
Jun 25, 2025The American Hockey League has selected Ben Adams, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Cleveland Monsters, as the winner of the league's Ken McKenzie Award for the 2024-25 season. Additionally, the Cleveland Monsters are proud to announce the team’s front office received multiple awards at the 2025 American Hockey League Team Business Meetings, including Marketing Campaign of the Year and Ticket Sales Department of the Year.
Recognizing the important role played by team management in building a successful franchise, the Ken McKenzie Award is presented annually to an AHL team executive who most successfully promotes his or her own club.
Adams has transformed the Cleveland Monsters' presence in the AHL through bold vision and execution, making the Monsters one of the most recognized teams in the league. His inventive strategies and tireless drive throughout his ten-year tenure with the Monsters and Rock Entertainment Group sparked a surge in fan engagement, media attention and brand loyalty, setting new benchmarks for the league. Adams leads the Monsters’ retail merchandise team in addition to their multi-faceted content and marketing efforts, helping the club reach new heights in attendance, revenue and standing within the community.
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. McKenzie was also the NHL’s first publicity director and creator of its first media guide.
The Monsters were also recognized as a front office winning the award for Marketing Campaign of the Year following the team’s dive into Fear the Depths for the 2024-25 season. The evolved tagline originally introduced during the team’s 2023 rebrand continued to serve as a guide for marketing, retail, game operations and social elements. Elements encouraging fans to adopt Fear the Depths are found around the Cleveland area and inside Rocket Arena with graphics, game operations elements and even a specific fan section dubbed The Deep End. The Monsters continued utilizing the campaign for local commercials which was nominated for a Great Lakes Emmy Awards.
Additionally, the Monsters were awarded Ticket Sales Department of the Year following a record breaking 2024-25 campaign. The ticket department continued to help grow the fanbase in Northeast Ohio with more group outings, youth hockey events and Monsters Hockey Club membership retention. The hard work culminated in the Monsters leading the league in attendance for the third straight year averaging 11,438 fans. This also marked the third highest average attendance in AHL history and the first time a team averaged over 11,000 fans since 1997-98.
The Monsters front office also received awards recognizing the team’s achievements in ticket sales, corporate, retail and AHLTV on FloHockey subscription metrics. The AHL Meetings took place in Indianapolis, IL, where hundreds of representatives from the league and its teams met to discuss best practices and innovative ideas in several areas, including ticket sales, corporate sales and marketing.
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