Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 3, 1992 TAG: 9202030142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
PRO HOCKEY ON THIN ICE IN VALLEY
The days of minor-league professional hockey in the Roanoke Valley apparently are numbered.Roanoke Valley Rebels owner Henry Brabham, who has single-handedly kept pro hockey in the area for the past decade, said Sunday there's a 90 percent chance he will sell the East Coast Hockey League franchise to one of two bidding parties, who, in turn, would move the team to Birmingham, Ala.
"I'd say it's a 10 percent chance that there will be hockey in Roanoke next season," said Brabham, speaking from Charlotte, N.C., where the league's club owners are assembling for a two-day meeting.
Brabham confirmed he has received offers from former Greensboro Monarchs owner Bill Coffey and current Nashville Knights owner Godfrey Wood, who is representing a group headed by Cincinnati Cyclones owners Ron Fuller and Doug Kirchhofer. The amount of both bids is believed to be $250,000, according to league sources.
Brabham said a sale of the club would not go into effect until April, after the season ends.
"It's not a done deal yet," Brabham said. "I don't have a done deal with either one yet. Both offers will brought up to the board at the meeting on Tuesday. And then there will be a vote among club owners to OK it."
Brabham, who has threatened to sell the club in the past - and actually did in 1989-90 when Northerner Richard Geery owned the club for one season - scoffed at the notion that this may be his power play to lure more people to see the Rebels.
"I can guarantee you this is no threat," he said. "When I've said before I' was going to sell the club it wasn't a threat to get more people to come to the games. I'm dead serious about it."
The Vinton oil businessman said the club's poor attendance and increasing costs in the fast-growing ECHL forced his hand. The Rebels are averaging 2,101 spectators per game and rank 14th in the 15-team league. The league average through Friday night's games was 4,503.
"I just can't fight the [money] loss anymore," Brabham said. "The building [the Vinton LancerLot, which Brabham owns] keeps showing a loss and that's due to the hockey team.
"I'm not near breaking even this year. I've continued to lose money and I can't continue to lose money. And I'm not going to continue to lose money.
"I've got to do something. If I had drawn 2,600 a night, I wouldn't have sold it. That number would have been enough to have gotten me over the hump.
"Last year, I had a meeting with all the die-hard fans and everybody pledged that they would all buy season tickets. I told 'em then I've got to have at least 500 season tickets. And I ended up with right around 300. I've got probably the lowest season-ticket bank in league, I've got the second-lowest attendance, and I don't see any future."
Brabham said the club is averaging about 1,900 in paid attendance per game, not counting complimentary tickets given out in promotions.
"Hell," said Brabham, his voice rising, "some people think I'm getting rich off the thing. They just don't have any idea."
Brabham said he hated to see hockey leave the Roanoke Valley, where it has had a continuous run since the mid-1970s.
"It's killing me to do this," he said. "It's like losing your right arm. But, hey, I've done all I can do. Hockey here will be history as far as I'm concerned.
"Now, if there's a person or group in Roanoke that wants the team, I'd rather sell it to somebody in Roanoke and keep the thing here."
Brabham confessed such an option may be the longest of long shots, though.
"If that happened, they're probably going to face what I did," Brabham said. "But hell, there's a lot of crazy people in this world."
Brabham, 62, said the Rebels fell victim to the league's rapid four-year ascent. So have ECHL franchises in such other small markets as Winston-Salem, N.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., which also are likely to be sold and moved at the end of this season.
Since its first season in 1988-89, when it operated with clubs in the Roanoke Valley, Winston-Salem, Knoxville and the Pennsylvania cities of Erie and Johnstown, the ECHL has expanded to 15 teams, including clubs in such larger markets as Norfolk; Richmond; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Dayton, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio; Greensboro, N.C.; and Raleigh, N.C.
With the exception of Louisville, all of those teams average more than 4,000 spectators per game. Cincinnati, which is drawing 9,391, Hampton Roads, Richmond and Greensboro have averages in excess of 5,300.
"It got to the point where all the big cities killed the little ones," Brabham said.
The Winston-Salem franchise, which is averaging a league-low 2,041 spectators per game, is likely to move to Wheeling, W.Va., and the Knoxville franchise, averaging 3,128, probably will resurface in Memphis, a league source said.
Brabham, who charged onto the LancerLot ice and embraced his players after a 5-4 win over league-leading Toledo on Saturday night, said, "This is a sad time."
"I've worked my a-- off to build this league," said Brabham, the founding father of the ECHL. "You don't know how many miles I ran up and down the road going to different cities. I drove the bus to Danville, Ill., Jackson, Mich., and personally brought those teams in here to play when we didn't have anybody else."
Brabham, who built the 3,200-seat LancerLot in 1983 when he couldn't negotiate a viable rental lease for his club to play at the Salem Civic Center, said his building can continue to function without pro hockey.
"My building has been paying its way without hockey for six months out of the year," he said. "I've already put a pencil to it. Without hockey, I can survive. There's no question I can survive without hockey. I can probably take in more money without hockey than I can with it."
Memo: a slightly different version ran in the New River Valley edition.