Nov. 20 — An interesting news item out of Waterloo, Iowa, of all places.
In the Nov. 1 issue of the Waterloo Courier, there's an interview with the United States Hockey League's new acting commissioner, Ellis T. (Skip) Prince that includes some expansion talk.
La Crosse is not mentioned — no cities specifically are — but it's clear that Prince will take a look at adding to the 12-team league in the near future.
Said Prince: "Expansion is something we are considering and there are some dark teams out there as you know, and we'd like to be able to fill out those teams. That said, you don't want to look at a league where every year there are two new franchises in two new places."
Here's the link to the Courier story.
Former USHL commissioner Gino Gasparini, who stepped back into a limited role this year, had La Crosse in his sights as an expansion site for quite a while until running into a series of hard body checks from the La Crosse Center board.
The most notable efforts came in 2003 and 2004-2005.
Five years ago, Dr. Tom Tegt of Omaha, Neb., who owned the rights to a defunct USHL franchise, offered the city $1.5 million to retrofit the Center. The city balked at committing 30 dates to hockey during the winter and at giving up concession profits, and Tegt moved on.
Victory Sports Group tried again starting in 2004. The group, led by Mike Tatoian, got as far as getting the city commit $22,000 to a feasibility study of retrofitting the Center. The cost estimate settled at $3.1 million, but the issue of who would pay what was never settled. By April 2005, it was clear the La Crosse Center Board, under not-so-subtle pressure from downtown hotel owners, who didn't want hockey nights interfering with prime convention dates, had no interest in making a deal.
That history didn't stop the NBA Developmental League from making a run of its own in the spring of 2007. But the D-League — which has the financial and marketing muscle of the NBA behind it and seemed to want to make a franchise work here — wasn't able to crack the stone wall of the Center Board and its pals in the hotel industry, either.
So that's what the new USHL commish is up against if he wants to work with La Crosse.
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Nestor wrote on Nov 28, 2008 11:07 AM:
The Center Board is run by 'On Too Many Boards', surprised? They will not place money in hockey equipment at the Center, but they will build a wing for the Center especially for 'Banquets'. Then recently allow a 'Meeting Room w/Warming Kitchen' amamzingly to turn into a 'Banquet Room' down the street in a taxpayer subsidized building? Going through a convoluted debate of deciding to reimburse the Center for business lost? Led by a Center Board Member, Farmer? Then we find out that we considered another stab at Basketball, to come with a new floor, a possible partial owner by a Center Board member who laid in the weeds, at least for a short time. "