Proposed ice hockey league checking into Roanoke

By Mark Berman

A proposed league wants to return hockey to Roanoke, but the general manager of the Roanoke Civic Center is taking a cautious approach.

The Northern Professional Hockey League hopes to debut next winter with six to eight teams, including one in Roanoke. But no teams are set yet.

"Will it get done? Yes, it will," NPHL Commissioner Chuck Harrison said about having a team in Roanoke.

Civic center general manager Robyn Schon had a brief meeting with Mike Chighisola, the NPHL's director of franchise development, at the civic center Saturday. She had a brief phone conversation with Harrison earlier this month.

Schon said she has yet to discuss a lease with anyone from the NPHL or with any prospective owners. But she expects to meet with Harrison and Chighisola next month to give them an idea of what would be in the lease agreement.

"After I meet with them in the next couple weeks, I'll be able to tell a lot about their seriousness and the level of professionalism," she said. "It could go either way."

"Maybe in two to three weeks, after the discussions and we've gone back and forth a few times about the terms, who knows, it may be something that they don't want to move forward with. Maybe it's something that we don't want to move forward with.

"We're not desperate to have a hockey team. ... Ideally, we would like to have a team - that's steady dates."

Minor league sports at the Roanoke Civic Center did not have much luck during the previous decade. The Roanoke Dazzle basketball team and the Roanoke Steam football team flopped. The Roanoke Express and Roanoke Valley Vipers hockey teams wound up failing as well.

The civic center has not had a sports tenant since 2006, when the Vipers folded and the NBA pulled the plug on the Dazzle.

Chighisola said there are two potential candidates to own a Roanoke team, but he refused to name them. He said one is a Roanoke business executive and the other is a semi-retired Roanoke business owner. Chighisola said he hopes the two candidates join forces to form an ownership group rather than maintain their separate candidacies.

Harrison said he hopes to have an owner set by the end of next month so lease negotiations could begin.

The Vipers of the United Hockey League were bathed in red ink and lasted only one season (2005-06), averaging just 1,521 fans.

"How many fans? Wow! I was a little surprised it was that low," Harrison said when informed of the figure. "I do have those figures - I just didn't remember them."

The ECHL terminated the Express in 2004. That team's final set of owners also lost money. The team averaged 2,918 fans in its final season.

Harrison said he figures a Roanoke team could average 2,500 fans.

"From the interest I've gotten through emails and through the social media, I can't see where it won't work," he said.

The civic center drew 6,082 fans Saturday for the annual "Guns and Hoses" charity hockey game between local police officers and firefighters.

"If half of the people that were here Saturday night were just here because they love hockey, that's a great number," Schon said.

Schon said the Vipers were plagued by out-of-state owners and poor marketing.

"The Vipers, to me, are a good example of what not to do," she said. "They failed our community by not providing the promotions that were out there. †They let down the corporate community because they didn't fulfill their sponsorship obligations. They had an overpriced ticket, too.

"We rolled the dice, we gambled, we lost. ... We're not interested in gambling too much anymore. ... We would want hockey in the building. We just don't have to have it."

Harrison, who said he has been an administrator in several hockey leagues, said that when he came up with the NPHL idea last year, he envisioned teams in the Midwest.

But he said he shifted his focus because interest from fans in Roanoke, Richmond, Greensboro, N.C., Huntington, W.Va., and Johnstown, Pa., was "so overwhelming." So the league will probably only use its acronym when it debuts, rather than the full name that includes "Northern."

Schon plans to talk to her peers in other cities to see how far their discussions have gotten with the league.

"What I'm looking for from [Harrison] is solid information about the teams that he's proposing or the ownership he's proposing in other markets," she said. "How close is he to signing deals with these people?"

Harrison, who lives in Canada, said the league headquarters might be in Roanoke.

He said he has two partners in the league, but he would not name them. He said the league will own 25 percent of each team.

Chighisola, a Kansas City resident who once played in Roanoke for the now-defunct Virginia Lancers, said the estimated annual operating budget for a team would be about $550,000. Harrison said the salary cap for players would be $8,000 per week.

"We decided to create a model that would keep the costs low so we could keep the ticket prices low," Harrison said. "Our costs are in line so investors can make a profit."

Tickets for adults would be $8 to $10, said Chighisola. Each team would play 35 home games.

Schon said she read the league's business plan and found it to be realistic.

"They don't seem to have any illusions about how much it costs to keep a team running," she said. "The marketing part of it is very well thought out."

The fee to buy a franchise is $30,000.

The lease with the civic center would probably require the team to pay a rental fee of $2,500 to $2,750 per home game, said Schon.

Chighisola said the NPHL would have a Double-A level of hockey - essentially two rungs below the NHL.

The Federal Hockey League, which has eight teams in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Canada, is also interested in Roanoke. Tom Jackson, the special assistant to that league's commissioner, said the league would like to talk to potential local owners but has not yet been contacted by any. Schon said she has not heard from anyone from that league.

Schon said that in recent years, the Southern Professional Hockey League and two potential ownership groups have expressed interest in Roanoke. But civic center management was not impressed with them.

A history of hockey in the Roanoke Valley

• Oct. 24, 1967: The Salem Rebels play the first pro hockey game in Roanoke Valley.
• August 1976: The Roanoke Valley Rebels fold because of financial problems.
• Oct. 11, 1980: The Utica (N.Y.) Mohawks of the Eastern League relocate to Salem and become the Salem Raiders.
• 1983: The Raiders fold, but the ACHL Nashville Stars become the Virginia ­Lancers.
• 1987: The Lancers win the ACHL title, but the league folds.
• 1988: The Lancers win the All-American Hockey League regular-season title, but the league folds. So the Lancers become part of the ECHL.
• 1991: The Lancers become the Roanoke Valley Rebels.
• 1992: The Rebels are renamed the Roanoke Valley Rampage.
• March 13, 1993: The LancerLot roof collapses beneath a 16-inch snowfall during the Rampage’s home finale. A few days later, the team moves to Alabama.
• May 6, 1993: Roanoke is awarded an ECHL expansion franchise.
• July 20, 2004: The ECHL Board of Governors terminates the membership of the Express.
• March 15, 2005: A UHL team in Michigan announces it will move to Roanoke.
• May 15, 2006: The Roanoke Valley Vipers announce they have ceased operations.