Avs depart ice arena, leaving city with seats to fill

Palmer has lost its junior-league hockey team after spending $1.1 million on a major upgrade to the MTA Events Center that coincided with the Alaska Avalanche's move to the city two seasons ago.

Photo courtesy of the City of Palmer
A Zamboni smooths the ice at the MTA Events Center




 

Last month, the North American Hockey League approved the sale of the Alaska Avalanche to a Johnstown, Pa., partnership. Team owner Mark Lee didn’t respond to an interview request, but the team had logged declining attendance numbers despite two strong seasons. Lee is an investor and co-owner of the new team.

The Avalanche left Wasilla’s Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena in 2010. That year, Palmer's city council agreed to arena improvements like new locker rooms, hundreds more seats to meet hockey league standards, an office and equipment storage. Some $400,000 from the Legislature helped pay for the project. Lee promised to pay the city $50,000 toward the upgrades as part of the team’s agreement with the city. 

Lee still owes the city at least $25,000, city manager Doug Griffin said this week. The team also got a reduced rate on ice time for practices and games, though the city shouldn't have trouble selling any leftover time at the popular rink. 

The city is trying to find an "amicable solution" to Lee's financial obligations, said Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson. City officials this week were looking into what Lee still owes and whether any benefits the city got from the team might offset what’s owed. 

Hockey team or not, the city is still hoping to finish the project that started with the arrival of the Avalanche. 

The team's departure comes even as the city waits on another $725,000 in state funds to finish the third phase of the MTA center expansion. 


Officials last year requested another $500,000 from the state to install an elevator, generators, complete an outdoor canopy and increase arena seating to 1,100. Now that the Avs are gone, it seems the legislative appropriation would be moot, right?


No, city officials say. The upgrades to the arena weren't just for the team, Johnson said. The improvements also benefit future users of the soccer fields outside. The 3-year-old fields still need to green up and aren't playable yet - maybe by late summer, the mayor said - but once they are, players and fans will be able to access locker rooms and restrooms. The mayor also hopes to host future Palmer High School graduations at the arena.


And there's a new emphasis on a potential emergency-response role for the center that comes with a bit of an ick factor. 


A few months ago, the city council amended the description of the center's expansion plans to include emergency response.


On the recommendation of the office of the late Rep. Carl Gatto, the city in February changed its state capital request to include $225,000 for a backup generator, bringing the total request for the MTA center to $725,000.


The city in March adopted a resolution revising its description of the MTA expansion: “As the City becomes more aware of what community assets are needed to address major disasters and emergencies, it has become apparent that the MTA Events Center could fulfill a specific need for the Palmer area as an Evacuation Staging Point, Logistical Supply Staging Area, or Mass Fatality Storage and Processing Facility.”

"Mass Fatality Storage and Processing Facility"??? Yikes. Let's hope that need doesn't arise any time soon.

Barring disaster, the city is working to diversity the uses of the arena. Coming this Friday, May 12: roller derby. The Denali Destroyer Dolls take on the Rage City Rollergirls, with doors opening at 6 p.m. In another upcoming, albeit much more tame event, the city will hold a "Capital Project Fair" from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on May 18 at the center.

The mayor said she's confident the arena will continue to serve the public. The loss of the Avs contract bothers her less, she said, than the loss of the "community-building" that accompanied the team's presence in Palmer.

"It bothers me more to lose the enthusiasm. People came in and were excited about having a home team," Johnson said.


-- Zaz Hollander

The message on the Web site of the Junior "A" hockey team
formerly known as the Alaska Avalanche. The new owner
has yet to pick a name for the Pennsylvania-bound team.

MTA upgrade slips a bit on delay, seat scarcity

Post photo by Melodie Wright
A $1 million upgrade is underway at the MTA Events Center. 

By Zaz Hollander

Post reporter

If you build it, they will come. 

But what if you don’t have enough seats? 

Last year, the City of Palmer lured the Alaska Avalanche to town from Wasilla’s Curtis C. Menard II Memorial Ice Arena, a roomy venue where the junior hockey team served as an anchor tenant.

The move came with a cost to Palmer, too: city officials here are spending $1.1 million to upgrade the always busy ice rink, the MTA Events Center.

To accommodate the team, the MTA center needed to meet the standards of the North American Hockey League, the body that oversees the Avalanche and 27 other teams. In exchange for $50,000 from the team over a four-year period, city officials agreed to expand the arena with new locker rooms and equipment storage. They also promised to expand seating to hold at least 1,500 spectators. Some $400,000 from the Legislature helped pay for the project. 

Work got under way earlier this year. Then things started to slip.

Word came in late August that delivery delays for structural steel would push the project's completion back to Feb. 1. The Avalanche start their season in a few weeks. For a second year, the team will play without real locker rooms, instead changing in a trailer out back. 

It's also clear, however, that even when the project is done the Avalanche won’t have enough seats to meet the league requirement. Right now, the MTA center has about 800 seats. Once the upgrade is finished, city officials say the center will have about 1,160 seats. The design of the building doesn’t allow for more - and never did. 

But Avalanche owner Mark Lee never told league officials about the seating shortage. The league didn’t find out until this reporter called them Monday.

“One of the conditions of the move was getting the building up to that standard,” said the league’s director of communications, Alex Kyrias. “The league office has not been notified officially by anybody of that standard not being able to be met. Other than that, I’m not sure what to tell you.”

Kyrias said any request for a variance to the seating rule would probably have to be reviewed not only by the league but by USA Hockey, ice hockey's national governing body. He couldn't say what, if any, sanctions the Avalanche might face.

Lee, trying to build a following for his hockey team in a tough market, was less than happy to hear about that phone call.

“Thanks very much,” he said.

When asked about any plans to contact the league, Lee said, “I don’t really think it’s any of your business.”

Told that the business of the Avalanche is the business of the City of Palmer, Lee said he would have no comment.

The city has said it could be possible to add another 400 seats though that would take a whole other construction project and a new addition to the north side of the building. On Tuesday night, the city council unanimously approved changes to the city's agreement with the Avalanche. Among the changes: the city promised to provide at least 1,100 seats in the arena, with a commitment to pursue grant funding for 1,500 in the future. Lee told the council he was OK with the changes. He's been very complimentary of the city's desire to work with this team.

This week, city crews were busy installing wall-mounted brackets for television monitors. Fencing in the upper mezzanine of the arena will give the Avalanche secure storage, public works director Tom Cohenour said.  The city also bought a used washer and dryer and installed plumbing and electric in a utility room so the team can have a working laundry.

City council member Brad Hanson, a longtime hockey and football coach, was instrumental in the construction of the ice arena. Hanson said before Tuesday's meeting that the upgrades at the MTA Events Center are about more than the Avalanche. Hanson said new restrooms will be accessible to soccer players outside. Mayor DeLena Johnson is hoping to hold Palmer High School's graduation in the arena; right now it's slated for the Menard in Wasilla.

It's Mark Lee's responsibility to work with the league on seating, both said.

Hanson, though, said he wanted the story to be less about conflict and more about the good things the arena brings to Palmer.

"This is a good thing for the City of Palmer and the community of Palmer to have a facility like this," he said.