Hockey in San Angelo?
By: Jason Calder
Updated: July 19, 2007
Hockey in San Angelo. It caused quite the commotion Tuesday during the city council meeting. While many residents want the sport to make a come-back, the city says it supports the idea as long as the team can foot the bill. Jason Calder spoke with some of the city officials and has more.San Angelo residents have already proven they love hockey. At Tuesday's city council meeting they spoke their minds about bringing the sport back to San Angelo.
"All we're asking for, put it on the table, go to negotiations with these guys."
"All we're asking is that you give both sides a chance to sit down and see if there is a viable option out there."
At that meeting the council responded to those requests.
"They authorized staff to proceed with talking with the Lubbock Cotton Kings about the potential for that."
However it was clear in that meeting..
"We are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find money."
And speaking Thursday with Assistant City Manager Rick Weise that money will not be subsidized for the team.
Weise said, "The council was not in the mindset to support of giving a subsidy to bring them to San Angelo for a dollar amount that we offer up above and beyond."
What does this mean? It means the team would have to pay anywhere from 275-thousand dollars to 374-thousand dollars a year to keep the team afloat. That's not counting what the team overall has to bring in.
Civic Events Director Michael McEnrue said, "Hockey is a very expensive sport. It costs about $1.5 million for the ownership group to produce hockey. That's the CHL league projection or model."
He said the good news is the city still has equipment here and would be ready to go if they agree to come to San Angelo.
"We have the ice floor, we got the two ice resurfacers, the dashboards, the glass and the scoreboard. We do need to replace about $7,000 worth of glass but other than that we're pretty much ready to go," said McEnrue.
Parks and Recreation Service Area Director Carl White said they are always looking for ways to bring in activities and sporting events like hockey. However, they also have to make sure it's going to benefit the city and its residents.
He said, "We have to be careful as to what activities we do bring to the city so that they don't become a financial burden on the city."
Even though negotiations could go the right way, that doesn't mean the team will come to the Concho Valley.
"They're not just looking at San Angelo. So even if we said 'Yes come down, we want to have you here in San Angelo' they may still choose to go somewhere else," said White.
So what happens next? The city officials plan on meeting with Cotton Kings team officials next week to continue talks and possibly revive the sport in San Angelo.
