This is it, feast or famine

Usable amount of the Big Sandy Superstore Arena bond: $4.7mil
Amount the last seating bid went for: $3.8mil
Amount the new seating bid went for: $2.4mil
Estimated amount needed for boiler work: $1mil
Anticipated total of main infrastructure work: $3.4mil
Money left over: $1.3mil
Money that was supposed to go to hockey/ice stuff: $0.3mil

We. Have. An. Extra. Million. Dollars.

If everything goes well with the city of course--the new seating bid is going to the Finance Committee next week, to be prepped for second reading (and possible approval?) the week after.

Let me take this time to apologize profusely for the lack of updates; this page is basically a one-man operation, and unfortunately that man lives on the wrong side of the state. Even when I was in Huntington this occupied a tremendous amount of mental resources, and the physical separation has only made things worse; the historical aspect of this page has ground to a halt, and the up and down nature of following municipal shenanigans--especially being basically powerless to do anything with it--has been, and I hope I don't sound too hyperbolic, but it has been very psychologically taxing on top of everything else I've been dealing with in my life. This appears to be a good sign, and in the time I've been following this there have been so many good signs that have just as quickly been snuffed out; this may be the one we need to really take matters into our own hands.

In the time that I've lived, and observed life, in Huntington I've found that the best parts of the city are those that are created with as little input from municipal government as possible. This is simply the reality of dealing with a particularly ineffective body of government that is at best preoccupied with other matters (like the legality of a city income tax) and at worst stuck in total gridlock (much of David Felinton's first term). With this endeavor we are unfortunately forced to work within the constraints of this municipal government, since it is a city-owned property that games would be played at. When an opening presents itself to be proactive and guide things ourselves... well, we've gotta take advantage of it kids!

Why nothing is happening

On the historical front: I'm simply overworked from everything else. I do have some nuggets that I need to put on here, however.

On the will-we-get-another-team front: there are two major obstacles at this point. The first one I had alluded to earlier, which is that City Council--which dragged its feet so long in trying to get money for the Big Sandy Superstore Arena that the usable amount left shrank from about $5mil to about $4.5mil due to increased interest rates--has an issue with the Arena now taking the higher bid for seating, which actually met the standards that they were seeking, over the cheaper but less satisfactory bid. Let it be stated that I have no problems with the more expensive seats being used, so long as there is still money left over for everything else--and while keeping in mind that technically all the stuff we want/need is NOT included in the bond money, it has been made fairly clear to myself and others that the Arena very much wants to do some ice upgrades. To be quite honest, I'm amazed that anyone has been able to stand the amount of lollygagging going on with the municipal government; as the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day, but this has been dragging on for literally years now.

The second is the annual Minor League Death Pool Silly Season, in which we figure out which shaky teams end up falling apart before next season. This offseason is shaping up to be particularly tumultuous due to recent developments with the Central Hockey League, which I previously had on the shortlist of Places We Should Go. The rumor mill has been all over the place, with sentiment ranging from "keep calm and carry on" to "DEAR GOD THE SKY IS FALLING". Add to that the ripple effects from a potential move of the Phoenix Coyotes back to Winnipeg, and it might be well into summer before we know who will be playing where in what league to even begin to figure where a good fit for us would be. On the bright side, by that time everything with the Arena should be sorted out...

The importance of being comfy

Let's begin by reiterating where we stand as far as fixing up Big Sandy Superstore Arena:

1--they have $4.6mil to work with

2--they will first work on seats, then the boiler, then probably look at ice and such

3--because they took the ice work out of the wording for the bond in the first place.

So of course, first up is the seating. And we already have Steve Williams creating a roadblock. Why? Well the arena took two bids for seating. The winning bid was $3.8mil from Irwin Seating, but the low bid was $2.3mil from Hussey Seating. However, the latter is basically the updated version of the same seats that are presently in there and are presently considered inadequate.

Thusly the seating issue has been referred back to the Finance Committee to find "a more coherent matrix for determining the best choice." Or, basically, they're going to try and convince the arena to take the low bid anyway. I'm torn on this somewhat--naturally with that extra mil-and-a-half sitting around, there should be plenty left over for new hockey equipment. Remember, though, that when the hockey infrastructure segment was originally set aside in the bond measure, it was only $300,000. In other words, so long as fixing the boiler takes less than a half-million dollars, the hockey work should be doable anyway!

My personal preference is to have the nicer seats. My stronger preference, though, is to not have this held up unnecessarily...

An update on that musing from earlier

If Huntington ends up in the CHL, it will be as a brand new team: I've been told my tax lien sale idea would take about two years to finalize, while any other franchise acquisition would require the team to take the ice IMMEDIATELY. The ideal situation would involve about a year of off-ice prep--promotions and hype and such.

Marshall v Xavier, January 26, 1996

WMUL's broadcast of Marshall club hockey from the Huntington Civic Arena... playback is a little screwy, it got slower as the tape progressed and I was never able to remedy that. Still, this is a nice little nugget to chew on...

The entry cost for the Central Hockey League has plummeted...

...to $23,104. Any takers?

No, really. This is not an April Fool's joke.

Bloomington's management is in a total shambles. From the management at US Cellular Coliseum, there are groups interested in keeping hockey in the area, and most parties involved would prefer it be the CHL. I seriously think this could be an advantageous situation for everyone involved--get us a hockey team at a deep discount, but at the same time put an ownership group in Bloomington that won't beat the crap out of each other...

Marshall's back in the game

The Marshall University hockey club has been re-re-launched! Bill Sawyers informed me the other day there was an intro meeting at South Charleston with 20 prospects. Naturally they're hoping for the ice situation to be resolved at Big Sandy Superstore Arena so they can actually play in Huntington, but for now South Charleston appears to be a more than adequate venue (so long as gas stays under $5 a gallon anyway!).

Molly the Perpetually Awesome tipped me off to a Parthenon article on the club. Some choice quotes:

"The rink in South Charleston is a masterpiece that is comparable to most of the top rinks throughout the country," said [JD] Rappold, who has both worked and played at the rink. "Everything is in place to set up shop, we just need numbers."

Rappold, a senior from Huntington, spent some of his undergrad at Maryland-Baltimore County with their team. Also cited in the article was freshman Evan Hazelett, who hinted at future opponents...

We have two games semi-scheduled with some teams up north[...]

Of course there's a LOT of teams north of Huntington--who Marshall plays would probably depend on what ACHA division the Ice Herd end up in. WVU is a given I figure--besides the obvious rivalry there, they field both D-I and D-II teams...

Admirals @ Blizzard, Game 3

So waaaaaaaaaaaay back when I still lived in Huntington, a fellow named Mike Holley got a hold of me with a DVD copy of a videotape he took of the next-to-last game played at the Huntington Civic Arena/Big Sandy Superstore Arena: Game 3 of the Blizzard's series against the Hampton Roads Admirals. He sent me two discs actually--one was a DVD, the other was a data disc with the game split into periods in MPEG format. Unfortunately the third period would not copy off that disc, thus requiring people who know more about pulling stuff off DVDs than I do.

Enter Molly at Apartment 2B Productions, who not only knows more about pulling stuff off DVDs than I do, but used to trek out with her family FROM THE BLEEDIN COALFIELDS to see Blizzard games. The result? Right here. Needless to say I hope to be able to get more on here...

Hey, remember that radio thingy?

I'm uploading some of those to my personal Tumblr page. So you don't have to sift through reblogs and politics and such, I'll post individual links here.

They'll be going up slowly, since Tumblr has a one-file-per-day limit.

Jim Bermingham on Huntington

Ernie Salvatore on the Lefevre/Esposito ownership group

Resting

Things are dormant at the moment. Nothing's going on with the arena for now--they have to solicit bids first--and work will not begin until June. I am only able to sporadically look at NewspaperArchive, so the historical end of things has really taken a back seat to the here-and-now, I'm afraid.

Two biggest pieces of news here:

--A challenger appears: the Northern Professional Hockey League, which is looking to do a SIGNIFICANTLY better job than the AAHL and its ilk. The league will be instituting strict standards on the arenas they play in (no rec rinks, 1500+ seats, to start with) and background checks on ownership groups (if you ain't got no money, take yo' broke @#$ home), and will not be starting play with fewer than 6 teams. Shooting for a 2011-12 launch, but again, unless they have six solid teams, they're willing to push it back a year. Good to see decisions being made for the sake of collective stability.

--Marshall thinks enough of hockey that they've licensed pucks! I've been told they're available at the Barboursville Target, but there's a link up there in case you don't feel like leaving the house (weather being as it is, can't say I blame ya).

--Oh, and tomorrow's the Backyard Brawl on Ice, WVU vs. Pitt @ South Charleston. Both teams are pretty much even--Mounties are 11-11-1, Panthers are 9-9-1, and WVU won their earlier meeting on the road 5-4.