Finances, logistics face off in Tucson's quest for AHL club

Two days before the Arizona Coyotes announced plans to put a minor-league hockey team in Tucson, two Rio Nuevo officials drove down Interstate 8 in San Diego, exited at Sports Arena Boulevard, navigated past Kobey’s Swap Meet and took a look at an American Hockey League sensation.

The San Diego Gulls are a standout in the American Hockey League and — many believe — one of the reasons for Tucson’s latest chance at a professional sports team. After a walk around the Valley View Casino Center, Tucson officials were encouraged.

Minor-league hockey can work in Tucson, they determined. It’s just going to take some money.

Rio Nuevo is prepared to foot the bill, in the millions of dollars, to make Tucson Convention Center’s arena suitable for minor-league hockey. The Coyotes announced Tuesday that they plan to purchase the Springfield (Massachusetts) Falcons of the AHL and relocate the team to Tucson, where they will serve as the parent club’s top minor-league affiliate.

The deal is contingent on both league approval — the AHL’s Board of Governors meets next month — and a lease being struck between the Coyotes and the city of Tucson.

The yet-unnamed team would begin playing next season.

“They want to skate in October,” said Fletcher McCusker, Rio Nuevo’s chairman. “We need that approval, then we’ve got to get busy.”

TCC upgrades needed

TCC arena underwent a $7.8 million renovation in 2014, and needs a few million more in upgrades to be suitable for minor-league hockey, McCusker said. Rio Nuevo would pick up the bill; the city would then negotiate a lease with the minor-league team for 35 home games per season.

Local officials are expected to meet with the AHL soon to determine the upgrades and their costs. McCusker said the “back of the house” improvements would include new locker rooms, a weight room and offices for the team. The league could vote on relocation as soon as May 10.

“To have a pro hockey team here, we have to have locker rooms, weight rooms, training rooms — all the things associated with a pro hockey franchise,” McCusker said.

TCC is the longtime home of the Arizona Wildcats club hockey team, previously known as the Icecats. McCusker said the UA is on board with a potential minor-league team, and that both sides have shown a willingness to schedule around each other.

The TCC recently bought an ice cover, eliminating the hassle of melting — and then re-freezing — the surface. The arena hosted a major concert and monster-truck rally with the ice still intact.

Rick Small, chairman of the Tucson Convention Center Commission, said Tuesday that the potential move is “absolutely a good thing for TCC, a good thing for Tucson and a good thing for downtown.

“The challenge for the TCC is entirely logistical,” he said.

Bail — or fail

Minor-league hockey has been part of the Tucson sports landscape off and on for decades: The Tucson Rustlers, Icemen and Mavericks all played at TCC in the 1970s, and the Gila Monsters briefly occupied the arena in the late 1990s. The Tucson Scorch was set to play at TCC in 2000 but folded the day before the first game.

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City councilman Steve Kozachik is leery of another tenant, given the previous teams’ failures. The Coyotes’ past issues in Glendale give him pause, as does the potential events TCC would have to turn away so the team can both practice and play games. The arena, which is in Kozachik’s district, is the city’s only facility with ice.

“There’s nothing to bind them here,” Kozachik said of the potential AHL team. “I’ve asked the city what kinds of protections the taxpayers have so these guys don’t just come in and bail — or fail. … To say it’s Rio Nuevo money and not the city’s money is a distinction without a difference because it still comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets. We have longstanding contractual relationships with the gem show, the SAHBA Home (and Garden) Show, the Icecats. Are we going to buy these commitments out because professional hockey goes from September through May?”

Kozachik, who works in the UA athletic department, counts himself as a hockey fan. He grew up in Michigan watching “Hockey Night in Canada,” and attended Tucson Mavericks games in the 1970s.

“I still have my Tucson Mavericks T-shirt,” he said. “(But) we’ve seen this play out before. (The Coyotes) are looking for the best deal they can get. When a better opportunity comes along, they’ll take it.”

Building fans

The AHL is, by all accounts, a step above the defunct Central League, which the Mavericks played in 30 years ago. The 30-team AHL serves as the top minor-league affiliate for the NHL. A record 6,693,526 fans attended regular-season games this year, an average of 5,982 per game. (TCC seats 6,700 fans for hockey.)

The record numbers can be traced in part to the league’s westward expansion.

A year ago, five NHL teams — the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers — purchased AHL franchises and moved them closer to their home turf. The teams were branded with the parent club’s colors and renamed: The Ontario (California) Reign wear silver-and-black uniforms reminiscent of the Kings’ 1990s gear; the Stockton (California) Heat are, in spirit and practice, a result of the Flames.

The move has been most successful in San Diego. The Gulls, formerly the Norfolk (Virginia) Admirals, lead the AHL in paid attendance. Nearly 9,000 fans per game have passed through the Valley View Casino Center gates, paying between $12 and $65 for single-game tickets.

Having a minor-league affiliate nearby is convenient for NHL teams and helps build regional fan bases. Logistically, it’s a dream.

“It’s been something that our organization has been interested in for a long time,” Coyotes spokesman Greg Dillard said. “When the AHL came west and (given) how successful it has been and was this year, it only reaffirms that interest, that desire to have our affiliate closer to us.”

The Coyotes play at Gila River Arena, a 2½-hour drive from downtown Tucson. Players could be called up — or sent down — on short notice. The Coyotes’ front office could visit Tucson to watch the team’s morning skate, or take in an evening game on an off day. A team in Tucson could increase the statewide reach of the Coyotes, who replaced “Phoenix” with “Arizona” in their name two years ago.

Small called the entire package — convenience for the Coyotes, a pro sports team for Tucson — “a positive on all sides of the equation.”

But financing challenges remain. Minor-league hockey “has to make sense to everyone” for a deal to get done, city manager Mike Ortega said.

City and Rio Nuevo officials are expected to meet with the Coyotes soon. After all, there isn’t much time to waste.

“The season,” Ortega said, “is around the corner.”