Three Hockey Leagues Submit Proposals

UPDATE: Three hockey leagues are vying to call the new downtown arena home.    

The leagues include the CHL (the league of the Evansville Ice Men), the United States Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey league. There is still no timetable for the Re-Development Commission's choice. Arena project manager John Kish said he is going to review each proposal on its own merit and no special consideration will be given to the Ice Men.

PREVIOUS: The deadline to submit proposals to be the hockey tenant of Evansville's new downtown arena came and went Monday afternoon.
    Arena project manager John Kish isn't releasing any information about the proposals received.
    But FOX 7 confirmed at least two leagues have submitted proposals.
    Soon after the new arena's scheduled opening next fall, a hockey team is supposed to kick off its first season in the building.
    United States Hockey League commissioner Skip Prince submitted a proposal in hopes that team would be in his league, America's top junior league.
    "They're at that extraordinary moment in their lives when they are being persued by the professionals and by the NCAA," Prince said.
    He says the USHL proposal focused things like the league's ability to add expansion teams, two are joining this year, and the overall quality of the league.
    "The one thing that fans need as well as players, sponsors and advertisers in stability. And that's something that is a not a hallmark of minor league hockey right now. But it is a hallmark of what we're doing."
    But to win this game, Prince's league is going to have to fend off the hockey team Evansville already has - the IceMen, and the Central Hockey League, which also submitted a proposal.
    "We feel like we laid out the fact that we're part of the community already," said Ron Geary, who owns the IceMen. "We're going into our third year. We're already a double-A team playing here in Evansville."
    Though the IceMen and the CHL have a home-ice advantage in the proposal process, the team and league also have more riding on getting this than anyone else involved.
    This year the IceMen will play in Swonder Ice Arena, which can seat a little more than 1,100 fans.
    "The salary cap is much higher than it was in the single-A league that we were in last year - the All-American Hockey League," Geary said. "In order to make that work financially, we have to have a larger venue."
    Neither Geary nor Prince knew when the city would have a decision on who would be taking to the ice.
    But Prince expects movement within the next ten days.
    Kish will present the proposals at Tuesday's redevelopment commission meeting.
    Both the East Coast Hockey League and the North American Hockey League had also previously expressed interest.
    But FOX 7 was unable to get anyone to confirm if those leagues, or any others, actually submitted proposals.