ORLANDO, FLA – Almost a year ago, the city of Pensacola, Florida was in the process of losing its hockey team, the Pensacola Ice Pilots, because of financial concerns. Monday night, the city’s hockey fans took a very important first step toward bringing the game back. Answering a call to arms, between 150 and 200 die hard fans made their voices heard at a rally at New York Nick’s in Pensacola where they heard from SPHL Commissioner Jim Combs and Tim Kerr, former Ice Pilots owner and the man behind the bid to bring the SPHL to the Pensacola Civic Center as soon as this fall. “It was very exciting. There were about 150 to 200 people in this bar at 5:30 (P.M.),” Combs said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “90 percent of them had Ice Pilots jerseys on. It was unbelievable.” Monday’s event was the first stop in a week long push by the SPHL to bring Pensacola into its membership. It will culminate in a presentation in front of the Escambia County Board of Commissioners on Thursday morning at 9 A.M. Combs, joined by SPHL Board of Governors chairman Jerome Bechard from Columbus and Huntsville owner/President Keith Jeffries in Pensacola, has been working for months on bringing the former ECHL city to the SPHL. Both he and Bechard have made trips to meet with officials and potential ownership groups. Monday was his first time meeting with the fans as well as reporters from several radio stations and newspapers covering the event. Combs said that all it took was one phone call to set up the meet and greet. “Basically it was a booster club meeting. Last week, I called and told the guys that were down here that we were coming down to talk to the board and the county commission on Thursday and if you want us to come in early and talk to anybody else we will,” he said. “Last Friday went sent out the word ‘hey, we’re coming in and anybody that wishes to support hockey returning to Pensacola let us know by coming out Monday at 5:30 at New York Nick’s’.” Among the people in attendance was County Commissioner Gene Valentino. Bechard said Valentino seemed to be quite impressed with the gathering as was Bechard himself. “I think he (Valentino) was fairly impressed with what he saw,” Bechard said. “Things look really positive. Obviously there’s a big group of people that do want hockey to return here.” Combs said the major selling point that he, Bechard and Jeffries want to get across is that the SPHL can work for both the fans and the business community in Pensacola. “We’re here to show the city that there is a big need for hockey, not only for the fans but the economics of what can happen with teams from Columbus and Huntsville coming down here,” Combs said. “They’re going to have fans (from those cities) staying in hotels and eating at restaurants.” The other part of the equation is the local ownership group led by Kerr. A former NHLer with Philadelphia, the New York Rangers and Hartford, Kerr at one time owned the Ice Pilots. During his tenure, the Ice Pilots had their most successful season, going 51-16-5 during the 2004-2005 campaign. He also suffered with the team through the ravages of Hurricane Ivan before selling to Mario Forgione in August of 2005. Forgione ran the team until closing its doors in 2008. According to documents published on the Escambia County government web site, Kerr’s group has submitted what Kerr called “a blind offer” as a starting point for negotiations with the county and SMG, the PCC’s management company. The initial offer requests building rental costs be set at $2,000 per game, that the team receive 15 percent of the net concessions revenue, one-third of parking revenue and the allowance of a $1 add-on to each ticket that would be passed on to the purchasers. Among the accompanying documents is a list of capital projects including scoreboard repairs, dasher and glass system improvements, ice plant fixes and a backup zamboni totaling an estimated $247,244.33. There is also a “breakeven analysis” for the PCC hosting the SPHL which seems to indicate that in order for the PCC to be close to even or making a small profit, the hockey team would need to average 6,798 fans per game. Conversely, if the team were to average in the area of 2,500 to 3,000 fans – the numbers long considered to be solid for the SPHL business model – the building would incur a loss of over $200,000. Although admitting he hadn’t seen the printed analysis, Combs disputed the break even attendance numbers when told what the report said. ProHockeyNews.com will have updated information Thursday night or Friday morning following the board of county commissioners meeting. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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