It's one of the unwritten rules of minor league hockey promotion. Don't stress your fan base with too many home games at once, especially during the holiday season.

"The reason we try to stay away from December is people are obviously getting Christmas gifts and going to Christmas parties, and you're losing a lot of your season ticket holders, too. Your attendance is down," said Rapid City Rush general manager Tim Hill.

The Rush were forced to swim against that tide during last year's inaugural Central Hockey League season with a 14-game road swing, while awaiting completion of the new Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena.

The seal was broken on the new rink on Nov. 29, with a sellout crowd of 5,199 watching the Rush record a 4-0 shutout of rival Colorado.

From there, the Rush seemed determined to make up for lost time on the home schedule, with 10 games on the civic center ice in December. The month's slate included three weeks with three home games.

Attendance indeed dipped during the slate. A midweek clash between the Rush and Colorado Eagles on Wednesday, Dec. 10, drew just 2,855 through the turnstiles and attendance in other games struggled to stay above 3,000.

But the Rush still finished with 10 sellouts in 32 home games, drawing 132,673 spectators for an average of 4,146 per game, good for seventh in the league.

"We knew we had to get through December and we had to get through all those games. Six times last year we had three games in one week and three of those were in December alone," Hill said.

Getting the home schedule established is also a concern for the expansion Missouri Mavericks, who start the year at Rapid City with a pair of games on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17, the first two games of a seven-game road trip, while their new home at the Independence Event Center is completed. A second expansion team, the Allen (Texas) Americans also open with nine games on the road.

"We just have to make do," Mavericks vice-president of communications Patrick Armstrong said.

The Mavs' home-opening weekend is set for Nov. 13 and Nov. 14, against the Wichita Thunder. Their new home ice is located eight miles east of Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs.

Schedules for major college and high school football also demand consideration for the Mavericks, Armstrong said.

"Football is huge here. We're always going to wait until their seasons are over, at least the regular season, before we even begin to think about playing a Friday night game at home," Armstrong said. "It's just not smart for us to go up against some big high school games. We really support those teams and we want them to support us."

The "Border War" college football showdown between Missouri and Kansas is set for Arrowhead Stadium on No. 28.

"Obviously, we don't have a home game scheduled for that day," Armstrong said.

The Rush were able to spread their home games out through the holiday season this year. The December schedule includes just a handful of home games, weekend pairings on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5 and Dec.11 and Dec. 12, and a Tuesday, Dec. 22 matchup against Colorado.

"Since we were able to spread the schedule out, we were able to keep it to five home games in December," Hill said. "We tried to play every game at home that we could on weekends."

Another change to the Rush's early season schedule is the addition of a pair of exhibition games with the Amarillo Gorillas, on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.

The games came about through a close friendship between Rush coach Joe Ferras and Gorillas coach Brian Pellerin.

The Rush will pay travel and lodging costs for the Gorillas for the two-night preseason stand, which will provide fans with a preview and give coaches a final chance to set their season-opening rosters.

"Those games tend to be pretty competitive," Hill said. "There are guys on both sides trying to get jobs." Hill also hopes the preseason games will add momentum to season ticket sales which tend to pick up as the regular season approaches.

"You always get a few people who take advantage of the lower-price ticket at an exhibition game just to check us out, and then they want more," he said.

Hill said more than 2,500 season tickets have been sold for the upcoming Rush season. Having the 32-game home schedule spread more evenly through the regular season should help overall attendance as well.

"This year we expect to be full all the time," he said.

And nothing helps click the turnstiles like a winning product on the ice, which Hill and the Rush are expecting this year.

"You win here and you pack the place," Hill said.