HOCKEY REDUX? GIVE IT A SHOT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993                   TAG: 9303220370
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
HOCKEY REDUX? GIVE IT A SHOT
IT COULD be a whole new hockey game.
No sooner had Rampage owner Larry Revo said goodbye to the Roanoke Valley than a group of investors announced their bid for a new East Coast Hockey League franchise that would play at the Roanoke Civic Center. The best of luck.
It will take that, plus a lot of money, a good place to play and excellent marketing to make this venture successful. We hope it's feasible to give the valley a franchise that has a chance at greater success - both as a team and as a community attraction.
The investors say they have the money, and they're trying to get an affiliation with a National Hockey League franchise. Both are essential to putting a team on the ice able to play the kind of hockey popular enough to support a professional franchise. It's up to the investors group to work out these needs.
Of community concern is that other element, a place to play. The group would like to negotiate a deal with the civic center, and there's no question that would be a more comfortable, attractive site than the Rampage's old home, the LancerLot. It's good city officials are looking hard at the prospect.
Civic center officials have to keep the public interest in mind, though, and there are many questions they must ask. For instance: How expensive would it be to put down and maintain ice, and cover it so non-skating events could be held on top of it?
Given such costs on top of the regular expenses of operating the facility, can the civic center come up with a rent that a new franchise could afford while it tried to build a following?
Could the center accommodate practices, offer good dates for games and still be available for the many, varied events it now offers? Since this month's blizzard destroyed the hockey arena at the LancerLot, there would be no place for a team to practice except at the center. Might a team require so much ice time as to force money-making events off the center's calendar?
Does the public want hockey? Attendance at Rampage games doesn't indicate a lot of interest in the sport in Western Virginia. But a good team playing at an inviting site would generate a new following. Whether there would be enough fans can't be known until the idea is tried.
A respectable, even modestly successful professional sports franchise would be an asset to the community. If the civic center commission gets the right answers to all the hard questions, a new team on the ice would be well worth cheering.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB