Can hockey work in Pensacola?
As many of you have heard, the Escambia County Commission approved yesterday a lease agreement which would allow semiprofessional ice hockey to return to the Pensacola Civic Centre, provided the ownership group can sell 1,250 season tickets in the 90 days beginning May 15.
I like hockey, and I always enjoyed going to Ice Pilots games, but I’m less than optimistic that things will be any different this time around.
Will a new team be able to lure more fans down to the games, especially in these rough economic times? Will the team be able to make it financially?
Looking at the recent history of the Southern Professional Hockey League isn’t encouraging. Two of its teams, the Twin City Cyclones and the Richmond Renegades, folded after last season. A third, the Jacksonville Barracudas, has suspended operations indefinitely.
I really do hope the team is successful, but I hope we aren’t spinning our wheels as a community and sinking taxpayer subsidies into something that might not work.
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Mr. Cosson
Two facts you didn’t mention in your article:
1. The start up costs will come from bed tax monies
2. Mr. Kerr has made a commitment to paying back the start up costs, so we’re really not “sinking” subsidies into anything
In reality, the 250K fictitious number that SMG pulled out of the sky will in all likelihood not even be that much, cause no one has gone out for bids. Yes I know you can’t do that till the money is allocated, but it will probably be half that amount. It’s also money that should have been allocated years ago as part of the maintenance for the facility. Somehow that line item always disappeared from the budget. And finally, what ever the start up costs will end up being, it’s nothing compared to the 40 million Mr. Studer is getting for his lavish water front ballpark. And I like baseball.