Two men well-known in Portland’s business and sports circles say they are close to a deal that would allow them to bring a new hockey team to Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena — and replace the Portland Pirates, who are moving to Massachusetts.
But other proposals may also surface for the facility, whose recent $33 million face-lift was financed by Cumberland County taxpayers.
A former left wing for the Pirates, Brad Church most recently worked as chief operating officer for the team, an American Hockey League affiliate which plans to move to Springfield, Massachusetts. Now Church and one of the Pirates’ founders, Godfrey Wood, say they are putting together a deal to create a new team for the city, one that would be affiliated with another league, known as the ECHL — although it might hold on to the Pirates’ brand.
“The plan here is to get this group together and make this happen: puck dropping here again in downtown Portland October 2017.” he says.
Church says the ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, offers some advantages over AHL affiliation in Portland — lower franchise fees, for one, and more manageable travel costs, now that the ECHL is expanding to include teams in Glens Falls, New York; Manchester, New Hampshire and starting in 2017, Worcester, Massachusetts.
And the benefits of that relative proximity, Church says, are not just about business.
“But also from a hockey standpoint. We would play them a lot and we’ll be able to rekindle some of those great rivalries that we once had — fast, physical, energetic hockey has always been well-taken here,” he says.
Good sports rivalries make for good business, and that’s one reason ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna says he’s interested. But he also says that until there’s a business plan and a facility lease in hand, the league can’t give the idea formal consideration.
“At this point everything is very, very preliminary,” he says. “We’re still waiting for the American League. My understanding is they are still a week or two away from granting final approval of the removal of the American League team from Portland.”
The arena’s board of trustees is putting up a go-slow sign too. Neal Pratt is a long-time trustee who was just appointed chairman of a new strategic planning committee for the facility. He says several proposals have been floated to the trustees.
“There’s a lot of interest in this market. This is a great market. It’s a great, renovated facility which makes this a far more appealing venue than it might even have otherwise been had there not been a renovation, so I am very pleased with the interest that’s been expressed by a number of groups,” he says.
The arena’s renovation has been a flash point since the Pirates’ departure became news last week. County voters in 2011 approved a $33 million bond to pay for it. Now some of them, including local businesses and Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, say they were shocked to learn that the team could break its lease and suffer a penalty of only $100,000.
Trustees, who hold final authority over the arena’s budget, defend the penalty as typical in the industry. But Strimling says negotiations with any new tenant should be tougher than the last time around.
“We encourage the board to pull back a little bit and see if we can get a few teams to the table, because that might give us a little bit more of an opportunity to negotiate well,” he says. “To make sure that whatever lease we put together, it’s got some serious clawbacks in it.”
Church appears sensitive to the optics of it all. He says he hopes to avoid contention over a lease and how long the team would stay.
“Our intention is to be here for another 23-plus years,” he says.
Church says he expects his financing package to be completed this week.