Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Ex-IceRays GM Garino back

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Sunday, August 1, 1999

Ex-IceRays GM Garino back - in Waco

By Mark Button

Caller-Times

Another former IceRays front office staff member has joined the new Waco regime.
   Recently deposed Jimmy Garino, Corpus Christi's first general manager, has been hired by Rick Dames to act as a marketing and promotional consultant from Aug. 15 to Oct. 15.
   "I'm going to help Rick turn that franchise around," Garino said.
   Dames, who owns four Corpus Christi radio stations, including KCCG-106.1 FM - which will air all 70 IceRays hockey games next season - bought the financially strapped Waco franchise in early July. Dames filled the Waco GM spot with Stu Kehoe, who replaced Garino as the IceRays GM in April.
   In addition to marketing and promotional help, Dames said Garino will help with operations for the Wizards' opening night game on Nov. 6 against Odessa.
   Garino will have some time to set things up, as Waco will play its first seven games on the road.
   "Hopefully we'll have the same kind of excitement (in Waco) as we had here in Corpus Christi last year," Garino said.
   Dames also owns a 2000-2001 Western Professional Hockey League expansion franchise to be based in Hidalgo. Dames hired Garino to serve as GM there.
   "We're going to have a press conference sometime between Aug. 8-20 down in the valley to announce the team's arrival," Garino said.
   Igloo expansion
   IceRays GM Bill Davidson is taking steps to create 150 new seats and up to three 20-seat corporate suites inside Memorial Coliseum.
   "There were areas that weren't utilized last year," Davidson said. "Now that we're owned locally, we can make the decisions locally. I can go, 'Hey, I think I want to put more seats in here,' and I can do it."
   Davidson hopes to put in three suites with private restrooms and bars in the East end of the Igloo, high up on the open area where spotlights were located last season. For the additional 150 public seats, Davidson is looking into building seats in the Northwest corner, near the stairs to the players' locker room.
   "I'd say it is very likely that it will get done," Davidson said. "I'd say there's an 80 percent chance."
   Abilene's next step
   Abilene finally got its new ownership group in and approved. Now the league must decide whether to fine the new group for possible violations that occurred on the old owners' watch.
   In June, the WPHL announced the Aviators may have violated the league's $10,000-a-week salary cap last season.
   "It's an awkward position," said Steve Cherwonak, the league's director of scheduling and media services. "We have to address the problem and make the appropriate ruling."
   Cherwonak said that if the Aviators violated the salary cap - reports from the Abilene Reporter-News say the Aviators did - it would be difficult to fine the new owners.
   A final decision should be made by mid-August.
   In other Abilene news, the Aviators moved from the Western Division to the Central Division in the only off-season realignment move. The Lubbock Cotton Kings, the league's only expansion team for the 1999-2000 season, will play out of the Western Division, giving the WPHL balance with three six-team divisions.
   Still loud, still proud
   The WPHL marketing department will not vary from its 1998-99 league slogan of "We Play Hockey Loud" and "Proud to be Loud."
   "We started with the first two years and almost the third by having a new slogan every year," said Chris Potenza, WPHL director of marketing. "We feel like until people know the two slogans and the WPHL logo and it's recognizable, then we're not at a point where we're ready to change every year."
   The league seems to be getting serious about marketing, though. It bolstered its marketing staff from one member last year to three this season.
   Potenza said his staff is working on a television deal to get the 2000 All-Star game aired. The staff is "knee deep" in various other projects, Potenza said, adding that he would be in a better position to reveal his plans in late August.



Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at buttonm@caller.com

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