Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993 TAG: 9304210155
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The announcement will be made at a news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. at the civic center.
The group, led by primary investor John Gagnon, reached an agreement in principle with civic center manager Bob Chapman on Friday. The six-member commission board met Monday and gave its necessary OK to terms of the deal, the source said.
The Roanoke Valley's minor-league franchise has played only three games at the civic center since the ECHL's inception in 1988. The building hasn't been the sole home for hockey since the 1975-76 season.
With a rental agreement with the 8,363-seat arena in hand, Gagnon said the group immediately will file its formal application for an 1993-94 expansion franchise with the ECHL office in Charlotte, N.C. The application must include a lease agreement and a $100,000 down payment on the league's $500,000 franchise fee.
ECHL president E.A. "Bud" Gingher, owner of the Dayton franchise, said any vote on a franchise wishing to join the league for next season would have to be taken no later than the league's annual spring meeting on May 5-6 in Freeport, Bahamas.
Gingher has gone on record saying "the league wants a team in Roanoke" and he "can't see any reason why" the group's bid would be voted down.
In addition to the Roanoke group, the league also is expected to receive expansion bids from investors wishing to place teams in Baltimore and Huntington, W.Va. Franchises in Charlotte and North Charleston, S.C., already have been approved to begin play when the ECHL opens its sixth season on Oct. 20. The league operated with 15 teams this past season.
Meanwhile, group partner Pierre Paiement said Tuesday he expects to interview a second head coaching candidate later this week. Paiement refused to identify the candidate because he is under contract with another minor-league team.
Paiement added that he plans to contact Mike Keenan, who was named head coach of the NHL's New York Rangers on Saturday, about a possible working agreement for players. Paiement and Keenan both played with the Roanoke Valley Rebels in the early 1970s.
Gagnon spent last week in Los Angeles, opening discussions on a possible affiliation with the LA Kings.
\ POSTSEASON AWARDS: Nashville's Trevor Jobe, who shattered virtually every ECHL offensive record this past season, was an overwhelming choice for the league's Most Valu able Player award in balloting among league coaches and media. Jobe finished with a league record 85 goals and 161 points. Wheeling's Devin Edgerton was second in the voting.
Kurt Kleinendorst, whose Raleigh IceCaps knocked off two-time defending ECHL champion Hampton Roads in the Eastern Division semifinals, edged Wheeling's Doug Sauter for Coach of the Year. Claude Noel, the former Roanoke Valley coach now at Dayton, was third.
Toledo's Derek Booth was selected the ECHL's outstanding defenseman, while Birmingham's Joe Flanagan was an runaway winner for Rookie of the Year. Roanoke Valley Rampage center Scott Burfoot tied for fourth in rookie balloting.
\ TOLEDO STORMS TO TITLE: The Toledo Storm capped a come-from-behind charge to the 1992-93 East Coast Hockey League championship Sunday night, nipping the Wheeling Thunderbirds 7-6 in double overtime in Game 6 of the Jack Riley Cup finals.
Mark Deazeley's goal at 40 seconds of the second overtime lifted Toledo, which took the best-of-seven series 4-2 after losing the first two games in Wheeling.
Coach Chris McSorley's club won Game 6 on special teams, scoring on four of its five power-play opportunities and killing off five of six T-Birds extra-man chances.
Rick Judson, who had seven goals and 16 assists in the postseason, was named the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Wheeling's loss kept alive a streak in which no ECHL team with the best record in the regular season has ever won the title. Wheeling, which led the ECHL with 88 points and a 40-16-8 record, became the fifth straight Brabham Cup winner to come up short in the playoffs.
\ SUIT SETTLED: A $1 million suit filed by Richmond Renegades owner Allan Harvie against the ECHL and Commissioner Pat Kelly has been settled out of court.
Harvie filed the suit on Feb. 19 for what he alleged was "a series of hostile, vindictive, discriminatory, arbitrary, capricious, anticompetitive and bad-faith actions" against the Renegades.
A $10,000 fine - largest in league history - levied by Kelly against Richmond on Feb. 12 for using too many "veteran" players instigated Harvie's lawsuit.
A league source said Harvie agreed to drop the suit if the league reduced the fine to $5,000.
\ ICE CHIPS: ECHL regular-season attendance numbers dipped slightly this season, down 48,087 from last season's record 2,203,885. The decline can be partly attributed to the poor turnstile numbers of the Roanoke Valley Rampage, which averaged an all-time league-low 1,439 per game, and the loss of the Cincinnati franchise, which averaged a record 9,427 in 1991-92, to the International Hockey League. . . . Wheeling's Darren Schwartz established an ECHL-playoff scoring mark with 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists), breaking the old record of 26 set last season by Hampton Roads' Rod Taylor. . . . Wheeling's Devin Edgerton (12 goals, 17 assists) and Toledo's Iain Duncan (nine goals, 19 assists) also broke the previous mark. . . . Duncan's 19 assists tied the postseason mark set by Johnstown's Tom Sasso in 1989.
by CNB