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Post by Jazzfan on May 14, 2009 19:07:06 GMT -5
UD’s Wabler, Deloitte’s Bentley head downtown arena teamBy Tom Archdeacon Thursday, May 14, 2009 Tim Wabler, the University of Dayton director of athletics, and Ed Bentley, the managing partner of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, have agreed to co-chair the task force that will decide the feasibility of a multi-purpose arena and recreation center for downtown Dayton. The pair will meet for the first time Friday morning with Downtown Dayton Partnership officials and Dr. Michael Ervin, the retired physician and businessman, who is sort of the Wizard of Oz of redevelopment plans for Dayton’s urban core. By June, they will add other members to their task force. “Tim and Ed bring great credibility to the task force,” said Ervin who co-chairs the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan. “Tom knows all about operations and Ed is head of one of the largest accounting firms and has the financial background. “We’re trying to approach this the same way we approached minor league baseball and the Dayton Dragons. We’re going to look at the arena idea systematically, objectively and unemotionally to see if it is financially feasible. And if it is, then where would be the best spot for it.” Wabler said he is looking forward to the challenge: “I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this. It enables me to be involved in the community and I think it’s great for the University of Dayton to be connected like this. Whatever (personnel) resources I can draw on from UD, I will. We want to help as much as we can. “From my perspective, if it’s financially sound, this is something that would be good for the city and good for all of us.” Initial proposals had the downtown arena’s capacity at 5,000 to 5,500. UD Arena is just over twice that size. Wabler said he sees no conflict between the two facilities: “To the contrary, I think they would complement each other.” Ervin reached out to Wabler because he’s worked with him before. When Wabler was the assistant AD to Ted Kissell, Ervin was on the UD Board of Trustees and served as Chairman of the Athletics Committee. Bentley was on the committee that brought baseball to Dayton and he’s treasurer of the Downtown Dayton Partnership. That’s where he knows Ervin from and says of him: “Mike’s a strong supporter of Dayton and I like being around people like that.” One plan initially proposed by Costa Papista, the owner of the financially-strapped and, at least, temporarily-mothballed Dayton Bomber hockey team, suggested an arena and recreation center — which would include two sheets of skating ice — be built on the site of Dave Hall Plaza downtown and connect to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and, by the existing skyway, to the Dayton Convention Center. A pro hockey team would have been just one tenant, playing 40 games a year and using the practice ice. The main bent of the project was to have a dawn-to-midnight recreation facility for youth hockey, high school and college teams, adult leagues, figure skating and open skating, as well as a mid-sized concert hall and additional display space for the Convention Center. Ervin said the city is also now drawing on the expertise of Montgomery County officials, who had looked at putting up an events center at the new Austin Pike exit off Interstate 75 just south of the city. “They’re one of our partners in evaluating this now and are sharing their information with due diligence,” Ervin said. Ervin said the ever-evolving plan for downtown Dayton’s reinvigoration is getting a variety of suggestions — from adding affordable downtown housing “for thousands” of people to turning the city into one of the Midwest’s premier outdoor recreation centers. That could include everything from making the city a bike-friendly destination to adding skateboard parks and using the rivers and dams for white-water rafting. It’s all about drawing people — and the vibrancy that comes with them — downtown and that plays to Bentley’s instincts. “I’m an optimist by trait — we’ve got enough pessimists out there already,” he said. “It’s like I’ve told my kids. If you don’t try out for the team, you’ve got no chance of making it. And even if you fail, the worst that happens is that you’re back where you started. So why not go for it?” www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2009/05/14/uds_wabler_deloittes_bentley_h.html
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Post by Raider Grad on May 15, 2009 21:00:29 GMT -5
I don't understand why UD's AD is getting involved with this since UD won't be using this facility. I would be pissed if our AD was wasting his time sitting on that committee. He's getting paid good money to be an AD, not a committee member for a minor league hockey venue.
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Post by Glory Days on May 16, 2009 10:12:39 GMT -5
I don't understand why UD's AD is getting involved with this since UD won't be using this facility. I would be pissed if our AD was wasting his time sitting on that committee. He's getting paid good money to be an AD, not a committee member for a minor league hockey venue. I'm glad Bob Grant isn't wasting his time on this.
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Post by Raider Rowdies on May 24, 2009 21:26:56 GMT -5
Hockey proposals for Dayton virtually endless By Marc Katz Sunday, May 24, 2009 Welcome to Dayton, Ohio, home of the world’s largest number of virtual hockey teams and even some arenas. Let’s see, we have the ECHL Bombers, who last operated out of the Nutter Center, but won’t play there this season — or apparently ever again — as owner Costa Papista looks for new investors and a new place to play that isn’t so big. We have Michael Ervin and his downtown revival group looking into building a hockey arena in the city’s core, even though they have yet to lure an interested owner or league. We have Mandalay Sports Entertainment, looking into building an arena near the new Austin Boulevard interchange south of town and hoping to lure an American Hockey League franchise to the area. And we have Hara Arena, trying to get hockey back into that facility — maybe in the revived International Hockey League — after having lost its last five teams, four of which went out of business (the old Gems, the Owls, the new Gems and the Ice Bandits. The Bombers left of their own volition and survived several years at the Nutter before going under). All that, and we haven’t mentioned Troy’s Hobart Arena, which recently announced it will host a Junior A team in the fall, the Troy Bruins, a new team with a legendary (in these parts) name. So, there you have it. Lots of talk about hockey without an actual pro team in Dayton. Here’s hoping the right ownership group comes up with the best plan and the best place to play, and the good folks of Dayton will have a live choice to see the game again. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/hockey-proposals-for-dayton-virtually-endless-132490.html
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Post by Nutt House on May 31, 2009 7:02:34 GMT -5
Bombers continuing with efforts to regroupBy Debbie Juniewicz Saturday, May 30, 2009 While the Dayton Bombers won’t be on the ice next season, work continues to bring the financially strapped ECHL team back in 2010. “I’m very pleased with the season-ticket pledges and the interest in the minority shares,” Bombers owner Costa Papista said. Papista said he is in “serious talks” with three potential investors in hopes of finding a controlling-interest partner, which he sees as key. He’ll present his plan to the ECHL board of governors June 25. “I’m feeling optimistic because I believe in the ECHL and I believe in Dayton as a hockey market,” Papista said. “The ECHL is the premier double-A league in the country, there’s no comparison, and I think that’s what Dayton hockey fans deserve.” Meanwhile, other hockey outfits are sprouting up like dandelions across the Miami Valley. An International Hockey League franchise, apparently to be called the Dayton Gems, hopes to play next season and the Troy Bruins, an amateur team, will play at Hobart Arena. The Troy Bruins first took the ice at Hobart in 1951 as an IHL team. They are being reincarnated as a Junior “A” squad for players age 16 to 21. “I’m happy that hockey fans in the region will have an opportunity to get their hockey fix next winter during the Bombers’ reorganization,” Papista said. “There are many diehard hockey fans in the Miami Valley and we totally support any effort to bolster the sport.” Shane Hicke, son of former NHL player Ernie Hicke, was hired last week to coach the Bruins. They will host a tryout camp June 19-21 at Hobart. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/dayton-bombers/bombers-continuing-with-efforts-to-regroup-140750.html
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Post by Raider Fanatic on Jun 6, 2009 7:27:46 GMT -5
Is Hara area’s top hockey venue? Gems will see By Sean McClelland Saturday, June 6, 2009 Having never witnessed hockey at Hara Arena, I’m anxious to see what makes it better than hockey at the Nutter Center. So I’m rooting for the proposed Dayton Gems of the International Hockey League to establish a foothold here. The owners, two pizza proprietors from Fort Wayne, Ind., who are planning an introductory press conference next week, say the team will play at Hara, an intimate setting where hockey once thrived. If nothing else, this will be an opportunity for all those who have been clamoring for hockey’s return to Hara (including those who think the ECHL team never should have left the building) to put their dwindling discretionary income to use by snapping up tickets and making sure there is ample support. Are these new owners on firm ice? Hard to say since the only Hara events I’ve attended have been a Toughman show — interviewed a disgruntled female combatant who wasn’t allowed to fight — and a few games in the one-season history of the Dayton Jets, a basketball team that made it to the championship game of the IBL before folding. At the Toughman show, the noise reverberated and gave me a headache. But headache-inducing racket is the goal in minor-league hockey, so that’s good. The Jets rarely drew more than family and friends, but I sensed headache potential. Or maybe they just played the music too loud. Anyway, many hockey fans are adamant that hockey belongs at this old barn. These shiny new Gems figure to test that long-held belief. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/is-hara-areas-top-hockey-venue-gems-will-see-150963.html
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Post by raiderfan20 on Jun 26, 2009 6:58:10 GMT -5
Bombers won’t be back, failed to get key investors By Debbie Juniewicz, Contributing Writer 12:04 AM Friday, June 26, 2009 The season-ticket pledges were encouraging, so was the interest in the minority partnerships. But a crucial piece of the puzzle was missing. “All along, the key piece was attracting a controlling-interest partner,” Dayton Bombers owner Costa Papista said. “And we didn’t do that.” Papista turned in the Bombers’ membership to the league Thursday, June 25, just prior to the ECHL Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas. The Bombers announced March 30 that they would not play during the 2009-10 season and the club had until Thursday to present a viable plan for the team for the 2010-11 season. “We have had interest, but we don’t have an attractive financial history and that made it tough,” Papista said. “And the potential investors who have come in and visited also expressed concern about facility options.” The return of the Dayton Gems was another factor Papista had to contend with. “It definitely complicated the process, muddied the waters,” he said. “But the Austin (Boulevard) development and possible hockey team there did the same thing more than a year ago when I was talking to potential investors.” The move means the end of the second-longest tenured team in the ECHL after 18 seasons. Only Johnstown, which skated its 21st season in 2008-09, has a longer history in the league. History and tradition, however, took a back seat to finances this season as it became clear to Papista, who has owned the team since 2004, that continuing to operate the team was no longer feasible. Bombers attendance, while shy of the league average, remained steady at about 3,600 a game. But group sales and corporate sponsorships, however, took a hit during the 2008-09 season. The team, which according to Papista has never been profitable, could not continue to play without a significant capital infusion. “In a different economic situation, I think we could have kept it alive,” Papista said. “But we were always undercapitalized and, in hindsight, I think we would have been better off taking the 2004-05 season off to get off to a stronger start. Maybe we could have made it through this.” The league could grant Dayton an expansion team. When the league announced the Bombers’ 2009-10 plans, ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna explained that Dayton is a desirable market, especially with teams in Cincinnati and Toledo. “We very much would like to be back in Dayton and, hopefully, some day we will be,” said McKenna, who was unavailable to comment on Thursday’s developments. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/dayton-bombers/bombers-wont-be-back-failed-to-get-key-investors-178816.html
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Post by Glory Days on Jun 26, 2009 9:58:45 GMT -5
Thank god this pathetic saga is over. Back to basketball.
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 11, 2009 7:49:59 GMT -5
Hara Arena’s changes give hockey a fighting chance to succeed here By Marc Katz October 10, 2009 TROTWOOD — The seats are so close, you feel you can touch the ice by just bending over. Warren Back said that when he played there, patrons did lean over and touch the players from time to time. Now, walking around Hara Arena last week prior to an exhibition game with the newest incarnation of the Gems, Back said the new, unbreakable panels installed around the rink would not allow that to happen. “There was nothing on the sides of the rink, and chicken wire in the ends,” said Back, who is the new Gems’ director of business affairs. In 1964, when the original Gems inaugurated Hara, he was player/coach. “Of course, nobody wore helmets then, and nobody got hurt.” Hara hasn’t changed much since then, which is good and bad. The 5,000 or so seats are close to the ice. They start at the top of the boards, which leave the fans looking down on the players much like the way the Romans looked down on the gladiators. Perfect for an animated home-ice advantage. On the bad side, there still is much to do for the rink, which predates 38-year-old co-owner Richard Bruner by nearly a decade. Yet there is much evidence that work is being done. Painting may be a cheap cosmetic, but it does give the place a brighter look. The dasher boards have been cut back, eliminating the unsightly space between them and the concrete wall where the stands start. Most of the tiles to the false ceiling have been removed, although the rest have to come down. In the main concourse, cracked tiles have been replaced, but not with exact matches. The place still needs to be updated. None of this seemed to matter to nearly 1,000 fans who sloshed through a rainy night to watch the Gems against Toledo, a team classified to be in a higher league. Chris Schook even came up from Centerville. He knew one of the players, Nathan Oke, who used to play in Richmond, Va., where Schook lived. “Not bad,” said Schook as he stood watching warm-ups. “This is good entertainment,” said Bob Moats of Dayton. “I used to go to some games, and my sister-in-law was hit with a puck. But there was no netting then.” There is now, and Bruner is working at warp speed to get the rest of Hara modernized. He has two big-screen television monitors ordered that will be fastened to the walls at each end of the rink (the mid-ice scoreboard was not big enough to hold them) and is working closely with Hara on other enhancing details. “We are painfully aware we have some catching up to do,” said Karen Wampler, who directs public relations and marketing for the complex, which also houses party and exhibition rooms. Part of the delay in improving Hara — the oldest part of the complex — was the estate settlements of the original owners, Harold and Ralph Wampler. (Hara gets its name from the first two letters in their first names.) Although each has been gone for more than a decade, only recently has Ralph’s estate been settled. Harold’s is almost complete. Karen Wampler said the unknown tax bite caused some uncertainty over whether the family could forge ahead with a new hockey venture, but most of those concerns have abated. Already, she said, more than $125,000 has been put into the arena, and much more is planned, including a refurbishing of the parking lot, which, despite a few potholes, remains one of the most convenient to an arena or stadium in the area. Even more credibility was gained by the Gems in the naming of Back, Guy Trottier and Kathy Rupp — all Gems originals — to the staff. Trottier is director of hockey operations and assistant to coach John Marks. Rupp, who prefers a low-key role, is listed as Team Ambassador. The last of the original Gems teams was finished in 1980. More than a decade later, Hara again hosted hockey when the Bombers were founded in 1991. That team moved to Wright State’s Nutter Center — retrofitted with ice — in 1996. The Dayton Ice Bandits took their place at Hara, but only for a season. Now hockey’s back, and with a renewed interest in face-lifting Hara Arena. You can’t touch the ice, but sitting that close makes it almost possible. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/hara-arenas-changes-give-hockey-a-fighting-chance-to-succeed-here-342016.html
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Post by Raider Rowdies on Oct 11, 2009 8:28:46 GMT -5
Hockey belongs at Hara. I'm glad it's out of the Nutter Center.
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Post by wolf41 on Oct 11, 2009 11:36:00 GMT -5
Yet their Hall of Fame pictures are still hanging in the Nutter Ctr. I would have thought they would have taken the pictures down when they packed up to leave.
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Post by Bomber on Apr 6, 2010 21:45:24 GMT -5
WSU to send Greene County more cash to cover loss of hockeyBy Christopher Magan, Staff Writer Tuesday, April 6, 2010 XENIA — Wright State University is increasing the per ticket contribution that goes to Greene County for events that use the ice at the Ervin J. Nutter Center to make up for a loss of revenue since the demise of the Dayton Bombers hockey team in 2009. The $1 per ticket contribution for events that use the center’s ice will come from the facility’s profits and not spectators wallets, said John Siehl, facility president. The money will go toward paying down the $400,000 debt for installing ice making equipment at the facility in 1996. “We just re-formalized the agreement to be good neighbors,” Siehl said of the university’s decision to increase the contribution from 50 cents to $1 per ticket. The memorandum of understanding, approved by Greene County commissioners on Tuesday, April 6, also calls for a $5 per hour payment whenever the ice is rented. The cost of producing ice is costly, making rentals unlikely, Siehl said. Still, county Administrator Howard Poston said the increase was appreciated and a “good move” that will help the county pay back what it owes. Poston expects the county will receive about $25,000 annually through the agreement. Commissioners Alan Anderson and Rick Perales agreed. “It is nice,” said Perales. “Even though it is small revenue, it is nice to have some revenue coming in.” Greene County was in effect a co-signer for the Bombers’ loan to install ice at Nutter. The county took responsibility for the debt after the team defaulted. The ability to make ice remains an asset to the Nutter despite its limited use, Siehl said. He expects one or two ice shows at the center this year. Wright State officials expect to pay off the original $15.3 million debt for the construction of Nutter in 2011. www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/wsu-to-send-greene-county-more-cash-to-cover-loss-of-hockey-639410.html
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Post by wolf41 on Apr 7, 2010 11:39:10 GMT -5
But the pictures are still hanging there. I'd be happy to take them down and deliver them if someone would give me the address.
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Post by Raider Country on Apr 7, 2010 12:01:41 GMT -5
But the pictures are still hanging there. I'd be happy to take them down and deliver them if someone would give me the address. Screw that. Put them up for sale on ebay. If we get anything for them, apply it to the debt the Bombers owed Green County that we are getting stuck helping out with. Otherwise burn it all in a bonfire.
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Post by thatbaldraiderfan on Apr 7, 2010 17:39:06 GMT -5
Do they still have offices there on the concourse? Does anyone still even work there?
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