How did Reading do it?
Dan Hickling
Minor League News
Minor League News
READING, Pa. -- Strolling around the Sovereign Center, a 7000 seat jewel that still has that "new arena" smell after five years, I'm struck by two thoughts at once.
The first is how envious many American Hockey League cities would be of such a place.
Score one for the ECHL, whose Reading Royals play here before enthusiastic crowds. Fan No. 1,000,000 will pass through the turnstiles in a couple days. The team's facility has lots of luxury boxes, first rate training facilities, and even one of the more interesting concourses in minor league hockey.
That thought is soon replaced by this: If Reading, a hardscrabble series of dingy neighborhoods, can get something like this built, why can't other cities with aging facilities?
Portland, Maine, which is near my base of operation comes to mind.
The city of Portland has been wrangling with ways to replace the venerable Cumberland Country Civic Center, which openeed in 1977.
The Civic Center is a no frills box that seats 6,400, and leaks when it rains, which is in Portland is often until it turns to snow.
The new affiliation agreement signed between the Pirates and the Anaheim Ducks will run five years,including this year. So does the lease signed by Pirates and the Civic Center.
It will not be renewed, Pirates president Brian Petrovek has vowed.
"The future of the Pirates is tied to a new building," Petrovek has said on a few occasions.
Just as the success of the Royals' is tied to its facility.
"It's absolutely essential," says Gordon Kaye, who was brought in as the Royals' general manager this season. "In my opinion, it's one of the best physical facilities in minor league sports. But it's also one of the best run buildings. That's equally important. The co-operation between the team and the building is unbelievable."
The two cities are roughly the same size. Reading is a tad bigger at 78,000. It can be argued that Portland has a bigger business base. It certainly has a better harbor (ha, ha).
What it doesn't have is momentum to get a new facility erected.
Proposals have been floated, but no money has been laid down.
No cash, no cornerstone.
This has been a banner year for the Pirates. The team has had a tremendous year on the ice, and has bounced back nicely at the box office, reversing several years of decline.
Pirates tickets should be even harder to come by as if, as expected, they make a serious Calder Cup push.
What better time to get the ball rolling?
They did it in Reading, where there had never even been a hockey team of any kind. In fact, the town had just one rink, the Timberline Arena, and it had no stands.
"There was a lot of controversy," said Kaye, "as to whether this building should get built. But Mike Ellerman (former SovCenter Authority chair) and Wes Wesley (SMG President) really saw that minor hockey could not only sustain itself, here, but could flourish. That was a visionary thing. There was a lot of skepticism whether, minor league hockey could make it here. Now we have another first class twin-rink facility in town, 250 kids in the Junior Royals program, and all kinds of school districts starting hockey programs. This has become a hockey market."
Portland has been a great hockey market. Now it needs a great building.
Like the one Reading has.
Dan Hickling
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