Ball hockey maven saves rink

NEW PORT RICHEY, FLA – Matt Garry is many things to many people. Native New Yorker. 25-year Florida resident. Temp agency operator. Ball hockey tournament coordinator. Coach and dad. As of May 9th, you can now call him rink owner and operator.
Faced with watching the facility that has been a home away from home for him and literally his family close down, Garry did the only thing he could: he gathered every financial resource he could and bought the building with the intent of keeping it open and operating for years to come.
“The people that are involved, they’re there all the time. It’s like a second home to them. The kids are there. They play all day. They love the place,” Garry said. “It’s a big deal to a lot of people.”
The facility now known as All Sports Arena had existed for 13 years as Sportszone 2. Located within a 21,000-square foot warehouse in the coastal community just northwest of Tampa, its main focus was inline hockey roller hockey. When Garry, 35, needed a place to bring his ball hockey to, Sportszone 2 was a perfect fit.
Over time, Garry’s ball hockey joined its inline relative to bring in folks of all ages. Multiple leagues from youth to adult men’s and women’s developed as well as programs to introduce and teach youngsters the sport. According to the former owners in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, there were nearly 200 youth hockey players, 150 participants in the men’s league and 40 in the women’s league at the start of the month. Garry put the numbers at approximately 80 youngsters across three divisions, 140 in the adult “C” division, 40 in Garry’s ball hockey program and 24 in the women’s program.
At the beginning of May, Sportszone 2’s life nearly came to an end. Under the weight of unpaid bills – Garry said his understanding was that they were self-inflicted unpaid bills – and the ending of the lease, Sportszone’s owners wanted out. Without warning, the patrons were told that May 1st would be the last time they would be playing.
The notification hit people hard, especially the kids who were participating. One of those youngsters just happened to be Garry’s soon-to-be nine year old son Austin.
“He’s been playing since he was four years old inside that rink and he’s been coming to that rink since he was born watching me play. I also coach his team in the twelve’s (age group) division and the whole team wasn’t really playing. They were just shutting down,” he said. “The kids were (thinking) they were never going to get to play again. As soon as the game was over, they all skated off crying of course my kid being the biggest one. I pulled him by his facemask and told him that if I had anything to do with it, this is not going to be the last game you ever play. The kid loves it there. He loves it like his father. It‘s what he lives for. He can‘t wait to go play hockey.”
Garry, 35, began looking into what he could do to keep his promise. He learned that the warehouse owners had an offer to purchase half the building – including the rink side – to be converted into business space but the prospective buyer wanted modifications to be made at the investors’ cost. Knowing that might not be a palatable option, Garry made an offer to buy the rink and concessions without asking for any work to be done. Armed with what he felt was a solid business plan and the agreement to purchase the equipment, Garry met with the warehouse investors and convinced them that working with him to keep the rink open would be the best situation.
With the figurative and literal keys to the rink in hand, Garry now has to make good on keeping the facility running and bringing in revenue. He can’t afford to sit back because he isn’t independently wealthy (Garry runs a temp agency as a day job). The financial situation is more precarious since the previous owners had already collected yearly fees from participants and not offered to transfer them, putting Garry in a position to have to honor them without receiving a dime.
“I don’t have any other resources. It’s just me,” Garry said. “The hardest part is that they collected for the seasons from all these people and they didn’t give them their money back. I had to come in, open this place back up and honor everybody’s season actively now. The hardest part is paying the refs out of my pocket. I don’t have any money coming in and I’m having to pay the refs.”
Right now, Garry is trying to come up with ways to increase revenue. One of the first things he took notice of is the solid white dashers – places where advertising could have been and in his opinion should have been sold. He also noticed the numerous holes in the schedule that could have been used for other programs which if developed correctly could draw even more people to use the facility.
“There’s so much potential. They never sold the board space. There’s a whole hockey rink. That’s where people make their money,” he said. “They never opened it up to any other sports. They never had anything in there during the day. It’s a facility. You’re paying a bunch of money every month. You should have everything possible that you can in there.”
Garry thinks that a major key to turning the fortunes of All Sports Arena around is getting the community to realize that the facility is there and that it is for them to use.
“You’ve got to get out to the schools. You’ve got to get people to know the building is there. There‘s opportunity there. It‘s just (a case of) getting it out to the public” he said. “I’ve only been the owner for three weeks. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Garry’s work so far has included launching All Sports Arena into the myriad of social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook and others. He is trying to bring other programs like indoor soccer, lacrosse, fitness programs and more into the building to fill in the gaps. The more leagues he can bring in, the more revenue he can generate simply by collecting the hourly rental fee for the rink.
“When I’ve spoken with the people who run the leagues, I tell them straight up is that all I’m looking for is my hourly rate,” Garry said. “You can make a lot of money off the league. That’s your league. Your refs, your people. You deal with the parents. You just pay me by the hour. If I get my hourly rate, I know the doors are staying open. I know it (revenue) is coming in. I’m content.”
Austin isn’t the only member of the Garry family to join dad at All Sports on a regular basis. Matt’s wife Jennifer and six-year old daughter Sierra are in charge of the concession stand. His mom and dad help out as well and Jennifer’s mother is the bookkeeper for the operation.
“I told my wife that pretty much the concession is hers. That’s her thing. She likes to cater to people,” Matt said. “We’ve already brought new stuff in. She’s started selling pasta dishes on Thursdays. We’re giving out what people want not just junk. Most people who exercise want something healthy so we have protein bars, apples, oranges, bananas and stuff like that. And my daughter sells the candy.”
For the short term, Garry is hoping to sell ad space on the boards as well as selling t-shirts in order to get the financial ball rolling and keep the doors open for the next couple of months. His goal is to stabilize everything in order to have a big grand opening.
Of course, Garry is still planning on holding his “International Shootout” ball hockey tournaments. The first of the two tournaments, the Sunshine Shootout, is scheduled for late June with the second, the Tampa Shootout, coming in the fall. They are the largest ball hockey tournaments in the United States and draw teams from all over the globe. Despite the pulls on his time running the building, Garry said all is ready for the spring tournament to happen.
“The tournament’s been around long enough that it is a lot easier (to run) than it was in the beginning. It was about a 60-hour a week job. Now a lot of people come to me so that helps a little bit,” he said. “Now it’s at the point of knowing when to do everything and get what I needed – schedules, information. I’m probably one of the biggest communicators. Coaches and players have to know what is going on. If they don’t, you’re going to lose people so I’m always on top of things.”
Through it all, Garry is staying true to his passion for both the sport and the community of New Port Richey.
“With the county we work hand-in-hand. I try to book as many hotel rooms (for his tournaments) through them and all that other stuff,” he said. “I’ve been in this town for 25 years. I actually care about my county.”
And with a guy like Matt Garry at the helm, the All Sports Arena stands a chance to become something the community can be proud of.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com