City seeks semi-professional hockey team, but home ice obstacles remain

By Scott Aust, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, December 21, 2006

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RAPID CITY n As Rapid City pursues its first semi-professional hockey team, it faces the prospect of trying to navigate a logistical hurdle.

An inaugural season would likely begin in 21 months. The likely construction schedule for the proposed Rushmore Plaza Civic Center expansion project would be finished in 22 months.

Still, given the alternative -- not building the project -- civic center general manager Brian Maliske would opt for an inconvenienced hockey season.

“That’s the key, if the worst possible scenario is we just have to wait one more year for a hockey team,” he said. “The best possible scenario is a hockey team says, ‘Look, we really want to be in there that first year, we’re going to go on the road for a month.’ That’s a distinct possibility.”

The Rapid City Council decided this week to seek new bids on an estimated $26.5 million project to build a multi-purpose arena at the civic center designed to seat about 5,000 people for hockey games and more for other events.

If the council decides to proceed with the project after bids are opened and awards a contract in early February, it may take until Dec. 1, 2008 for the project to be built.

Maliske said two leagues have shown an interest in Rapid City: the Central Hockey League, a 17-team mid-level professional hockey league headquartered in Phoenix; and the United States Hockey League, a 12-team Junior league based in Grand Forks, N.D., that develops players for the college and professional levels.

Currently, the CHL has at least two ownership groups interested in Rapid City, and the USHL has at least one ownership group that has shown an interest.

“Quite honestly, they are coming to us. It’s not that I’m having to go out there and make calls to find an interested party. Those parties are coming to me,” Maliske said.

Steve Cherwonak, vice president of communications for the CHL, confirmed through CHL president Brad Treliving that there have been discussions with both potential franchisees and the civic center.

“We currently have a high level of interest, and we’re going to continue to explore possibilities,” he said. “Number one, I think it fits within our geographic footprint, if you will. Number two, from a facility size, it’s ideal from our perspective. We’ve got a few, but we don’t necessarily prefer to be in a 15,000 or 18,000 seat facility.”

USHL president Gino Gasparini could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The civic center won’t begin negotiations in earnest with hockey teams or leagues until after a contract is signed to build the new arena.

In these leagues, the season usually starts in mid to late October. If the new arena opened Dec. 1 or later, a team might have to wait six weeks before it could host a home game.

Maliske said a scenario such as that would be negotiated with the leagues and teams.

“On 21 months, we have a hockey season. Twenty-two months; that’s something I have to negotiate, and I’m not sure if we can do it or not,” he said.

Cherwonak said based on other facility construction projects, he would be surprised if it takes 22 months to build Rapid City’s arena.

“Most facilities I’ve been familiar with are around 12 to 14 months,” he said.

But it’s not unusual for an expansion team to experience a delay getting into a new facility, Cherwonak said. Three new teams in Rio Rancho, N.M., Prescott Valley, Ariz., and Broomfield, Colo., all had new facilities that opened late so the teams started the season on the road.

Adding a sheet of ice and bringing in a semi-professional hockey team has been one of the main reasons, though not the only one, cited for the expansion project. It has been estimated that about $1 million in gross revenues could be generated for the civic center during a hockey team’s first year.

“The first year anything’s opened, there’s a honeymoon period,” Maliske said. “People are more interested the first year a restaurant is open. It’s busier, because people want to go try it out. That’s part of what I’ve looked at with the hockey team. There will be a honeymoon period that usually lasts one or two years.”

Maliske calculated the gross revenue estimate based on the likely facility lease, fees and concession sales. He also researched attendance figures and concession sales generated by USHL hockey teams in Sioux Falls; Sioux City, Iowa; and Kearney, Neb.

Those numbers were multiplied by 75 percent of the new arena’s seating capacity and 32 home games to determine the potential gross revenue here.

Concession sales are the primary revenue producer for the civic center, Maliske said.

“We make very little, or even lose money when we rent the facility, but we make money that goes back to our operational budget when we sell a pop, a hot dog, or a beer. That’s how we make money. That’s how we put money back into operation,” he said.

Given recent history with semi-pro sports teams, such as the Red Dogs and Flying Aces, some people may be a little skeptical about the prospect of a hockey team. But Maliske says the success of a sports team depends on the quality of management.

“To me, running a sports franchise is like any other business. You must have good ownership, and you must have good management,” Maliske said. “If you bring in good ownership, or you have good leadership, good management, the teams will at least be fairly successful. And that’s the key.”

Maliske notes that the Rapid City Thrillers of the CBA succeeded in the 1990s because it had good ownership. Since then, the football franchises have been up and down.

But Maliske says a lot more time will be spent assessing the leagues and ownership groups before the franchise is awarded.

“We’re going to spend a lot more time … on their financing statements looking at how strong of an ownership is it? Do they have deep enough pockets to carry a team through one or two bad years?” he said. “We’re going to spend more time making sure the ownership group has the wherewithal to carry a team through a bad year.”

Maliske said the new civic center rink also could be used in conjunction with existing hockey facilities to host youth tournaments.

"If you look at some of our biggest events at the civic center, it's the boys state basketball, state wrestling and the LNI (Lakota Nation Invitational)," he said. "These high schools and those age groups can bring some really big tournaments. We'll be able to put on a pretty good size tournament. We're pretty excited about that."

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com

Jim Holland contributed to this story