CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – With the announcement that the Amarillo Gorillas had ceased operations for the 2010-11 season, the eyes of the Central Hockey League world rested upon the future of the Corpus Christi IceRays.
On Friday afternoon, that future was revealed by sports reporter Greg Rajan of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
“Multiple sources confirmed the CHL franchise will be replaced by one in the North American Hockey League, a Tier II Junior A circuit that develops players ages 17-21 for college and the pros. A formal announcement is expected next week,” Rajan wrote.
The NAHL is a USA Hockey-sanctioned developmental league with players ranging in age from 16 to 22 years old. Players aren’t paid, and they may attend school during the season.
Last season, the NAHL consisted of 19 teams, including the Wichita Falls Wildcats and the Texas Tornado. There will be as many as nine new NAHL teams for the 2010-11 season, including yet-to-be-named teams in Amarillo and Rio Rancho, N.M., former home of the now defunct New Mexico Scorpions of the CHL.
Head Coach Brent Hughes
The Ice Rays had just completed their second full season under the ownership of majority owner Tim Lange, who stepped in at the 11th hour to save the team from going dark in 2008. Finishing fifth in the Southern Conference with a 30-26-8 record, they made the playoffs for the second season in a row but were eliminated in the first round.
In March, team owners had asked Corpus Christi’s Business Job Growth and Development Corporation Board for $400,000 in incentives that could offset the team’s costs for playing at the city-owned American Bank Center. The board oversees spending the city sales tax that goes toward the American Bank Center arena and economic development projects.
The team wanted to use that money to spend more on marketing and sales with a goal of increasing game attendance at the arena, which has a seating capacity of over 8,000 for hockey. The IceRays averaged 3,104 tickets sold last season.
The team loses approximately $600,000 a year, owners told the board. The team receives revenues from ticket sales, sponsorships, advertising and merchandise sales but receives no funds from concession stands and parking at the American Bank Center. Those revenues go to SMG, the company managing the facility, per its contract with the city.
Board members said the request the team submitted didn’t include specific plans on how the team would increase revenues or game attendance. They asked the team’s owners to come back with a more detailed business plan, without which, they could not base a decision on such a request.
Apparently, the IceRays organization found that their business plan couldn’t support the financial success of a minor professional team.
As for the players currently under contract for next season or whose CHL rights were held by the IceRays, they will become free agents once the team formally ceases operations.
As the story broke before the IceRays organization chose to officially inform players of their plans, most were unaware, but not surprised, that they would not be playing in Corpus Christi next season.
Ryan Bennett
“I knew there was stuff going on behind the scenes here for a couple of weeks,” Bennett said. “They’ve been very tight lipped around here for the past few weeks. I’m not really that surprised after the city didn’t give them back the Memorial Coliseum,” Bennett said.
The Coliseum was the former home of the IceRays from 1997-2004. It is no longer an option for the team as the structure’s demolition has recently begun. Plans to re-develop the facility, supported by the IceRays’ ownership, fell through in October of last year.
“I do give lots of credit to Tim Lange and the IceRays ownership group for trying to make it work here in Corpus,” Bennett continued. “When an owner is willing to put $20 million of his own cash up to renovate a historical building that the city let deteriorate and they flat out said no, you can’t say he didn’t try. Part of that deal was a guarantee that IceRays would be here for 15 years.”
Bennett believes the City of Corpus Christi didn’t do all they could have to help the team remain.
“The city really isn’t trying to make things work from my stand point, nor do they really understand hockey and the business side of it,” Bennett said. “Corpus is way behind the times in a lot of things. I do believe it could work here if the city would back it; we have some great fans here in Corpus and I feel sad for them that there will be no more pro hockey in the near future.”
Bennett said he understands the move to the NAHL is a business decision and credits the IceRays’ ownership with their efforts.
“They tried very hard to keep this going and with economy and the economics of minor league hockey, it’s tough.”
As for his future, Bennett is planning on hanging up his skates in order to focus on business opportunities.
“I am most likely going to retire unless I can stay close to Corpus. I started a real estate investment company here last year and right now in the process of starting a hedge fund. So it looks like my hockey career right now is going to be over. But you never know. I’ve had several offers already in Europe, but as of right now I am hanging them up.”
Kris Tebbs
“I know that the Ice Rays were banking on a big financial year and fell short,” Tebbs said. “Professional hockey is a very difficult area to succeed in financially and with the tough economic times, it’s really hard to keep afloat.”
Tebbs thinks that the move from minor professional to Junior A hockey will be a transition for fans in the area, but the quality of hockey will remain high.
“It is very unfortunate for Corpus Christi community to lose pro hockey and also to lose the heated rivalries with Laredo and Rio Grande Valley, but the NAHL is a respected junior league and will continue to provide Corpus Christi with good, talented hockey.”
While he hasn’t written off hockey completely, Tebbs’ immediate plans are to complete his college education in the Boston area.
Jereme Tendler got the news, literally, on the news.
“I was sitting at home, flipping through the channels when all of a sudden I was on the local channel and there were highlights of the IceRays on,” Tendler said. “So I’m like wait a minute, I know those guys, hey that’s me. Then as I continued to watch, they eventually went on to say the team has officially folded and a junior team will be here next season.”
Hearing the news story only confirmed what Tendler, like many of his teammates, suspected.
“I wasn’t very surprised to hear the team went under just because I had heard rumors of the team folding and the more time that went by, the more I heard things were not looking good. So it was somewhat expected.”
Jereme Tendler
“My plans for next year are still up in the air. I had to get ankle and nose surgery this summer, so right now I am just healing up my ankle and keeping my options open. I guess all I know for sure is that I will not be coming back to Corpus”
Adam Powell is in Alaska running a hockey school. He got word of the story late yesterday.
“I’ve been hearing rumors that pro hockey is done in Corpus Christi,” Powell said. Last week I heard the rumor flying around that the IceRays are becoming a Junior A team. I received several texts yesterday telling me to look on Rajan’s blog. That’s when I saw it.”
Powell also thinks it’s sad that there will no longer be pro hockey in Corpus Christi.
“12 years is a long time and many people become very attached to the team, the franchise, and the players. The good news is that Corpus will continue to have hockey but at a younger, different level.”
Powell is getting married in August and plans to remain in the South Texas area.
Defenseman Chris Mei, who lives in Corpus Christi, had been hearing a lot about a possible change for the IceRays.
” I found out through the paper, but we all heard the rumors and I just assumed that they were true. All the players that I talked to basically saw the signs and started putting two and two together. I had mixed feeling about the news. I feel bad for the ownership since I know Tim and Cassidy Lange. They’ve tried to do everything to get CHL hockey to work in Corpus but I guess the losses were too great.
As for life after the IceRays, Mei had already made some decisions.
“I am looking at retirement so I wasn’t too worried about the news…I was already looking for my life after hockey.”
Justin Quenneville also knew something was up, but was waiting for confirmation.
“I heard many rumors about the situation the team was in and the possibilities about what might or might not be about the team next year,” Quenneville said. “It was still early in the summer and I wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions until I heard it from a reliable source.”
Quenneville has been an IceRay for the past four seasons and is sad to see the end of his playing days with the team.
“My reaction at first was a little disappointment knowing that my playing career in Corpus was over with. I have been fortunate to be here for this long and be successful. This city and community means a lot to me and this is where I reside year round.”
With several months before training camps begin, Quenneville, like many of his teammates, have to consider their futures in hockey.
“I’m not sure what next year holds for me. I have several options in this league and Europe. So I will not rush to any decision and I will use this time to make the right decision.”
Chad Woollard
“I wish that the team could have stayed, it was a great place to play; not only because of the weather and the beaches, but the owner was great and the GM was great as well,” Woollard said. “I don’t have one bad thing to say at all about the team…they treated everyone there the same.”
Woollard, 30, led the IceRays in points (64), goals (40), power play goals (16) and game-winning goals (5) last season and will entertain offers from other teams in the league.
“I’m sure that I’ll remain in the CHL; it’s a great league and I’m not finished with my career.”
Rajan, who has covered the IceRays for the Caller-Times since the 2003-04 season, also blogs about the Central Hockey League and the hockey world in general. He thinks it’ll be interesting to see how the NAHL is received in Corpus Christi.
“Personally, I think Corpus fans should give the NAHL a chance before they dismiss it,” Rajan wrote in his blog. “The people I talked to for this story said the IceRays did their due diligence in researching this move. And since Brent Hughes decided to stay on as coach, I’m guessing he saw something he liked in the league.”
He added this simple truth:
“After all, junior hockey is better than no hockey.”
In the meantime, fans will be left to wonder if professional hockey will ever return to the sparkling city by the sea.
Contact the author/photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com