Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - A lot of rebuilding has to take place for Waco to survive

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Sunday, October 17, 1999

A lot of rebuilding has to take place for Waco to survive

By Mark Button
Caller-Times

Imagine 150 sixth-graders sitting in a cramped school gymnasium, waiting to hear a real, live professional hockey player speak.
   Imagine the children growing more and more impatient as the waiting continues ... 30 minutes, an hour, two hours.
   Now imagine the disappointment when the player never shows.
   In minor-league hockey, making enemies on the ice is one thing. Making them in the community in which the team plays is another.
   Meet the new-look Waco Wizards.
   In its four-year life span, the Western Professional Hockey League has never had a team fold.
   Waco came close last summer, when owner Joe Milano had run the franchise into extreme debt. The Wizards were down $200,000 in local debts alone. Milano owed the league another $70,000-plus and several Waco players were reportedly shortchanged on their salaries.
   Always looking for a good fire sale, Corpus Christi's Rick Dames bought the wrecked franchise in August. Dames hired Stu Kehoe as his general manager. Yes, the same Kehoe who worked for the IceRays on an interim basis while Bill Davidson and his local group bought the Corpus Christi team from Rick Brezer.
   The terms of the Waco sale ensured Dames was not responsible for Milano's debts.
   Dames and Kehoe found quickly, however, that they would incur the reputation.
   "This hockey club managed to make a lot of enemies along the way," Kehoe said. "This club has made promises in the past and did not fulfill them. Promises on tickets, promises on deals, promises on sponsorships, promises on public appearances - there were a lot of appearances booked where players did not show, did not phone."
   Dames is doing his part to smooth over the Wizards relationship with Waco.
   In an effort to win back business, the new Wizards regime is offering tickets and advertising to former sponsors in exchange for debt.
   "We've satisfied most of the local debts with tickets and advertising," said Dames, who also owns Pacific Broadcasting, the company which airs the IceRays radio broadcasts. "We're showing good faith even though we're not responsible for his debts." Winning back the fans has not been as easy.
   Kehoe said the Wizards have a season-ticket sale base of around 300.
   "I'm hoping by Nov. 9, when we drop the puck (for the first home game), we'll be up around 400," Kehoe said. "We've had an uphill battle."
   OPEN FOR BUSINESS: It wasn't so much a matter of the WPHL trying to give coach Taylor Hall a nice big cushion to start the season as it was a matter of convenience that explains the odd stretch of eight consecutive games at home the IceRays enjoy to start the 1999-2000 season.
   The IceRays have their arena problems in the spring when a rodeo takes over memorial Coliseum. Seems several other teams are having their facility problems right now.
   "We did the best we could with what we had to work with," said WPHL president Rick Kozuback. "Waco is out of its building until November because of a fair and rodeo; Shreveport is out of its building because of a state fair; Lake Charles doesn't get in until next week and there's a state fair and horse show that are going on in New Mexico.
   "You really don't want to have a situation where the schedule is as unbalanced as this one is," Kozuback said, "but there's really no other way around it other than delaying the start of the season and nobody wants to do that."
   NEW ARENA FOR 'RAYS?: On new arena possibilities in Corpus Christi, Kozuback didn't want to speculate on what may or may not be possible after the recent announcement that the City Council wants to study the feasibility of anew arena.
   "You're not going to reel me into that one," Kozuback said. "What I know for sure is that the city and the hockey club here have a great relationship. We have some franchises in the league that don't have the best of relationships with their city officials and those can be touchy situations - definitely not what you're looking for. Here, the city and the team get along well, work very well together and both sides seem interested in doing what's best for all parties concerned. My interest is in keeping that relationship on good footing, keeping the lines of communication open. If the time comes to talk about options, we'll be happy to do that."
   HOME STAND HOPES: Don't fault IceRays coach Taylor Hall for being ambitious. There could be a case against Hall for being unrealistic, however.
   His team opens the 1999-2000 season with an eight-game home stand. A conservative approach to the 16-point opportunity (two points for each win), would be to count on winning more home games than the team loses. If the IceRays went 5-3 for the home stand, for example, Corpus Christi would have earned 10 points.
   Hall is not conservative.
   "I wanted to win all eight," Hall said. "I wanted 16 points. I think you have to go into every game wanting to win. Why else do we play?"
   After dropping the first game to Austin, Hall remained firm.
   "Now I want to go 7-1," he said.
   FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: After posting an 0-14 mark in shootouts last year, Alexandria beat Tupelo Thursday night, 5-4, in the shootout.
   WELCOME, LUBBOCK: The 1999-2000 expansion Lubbock Cotton Kings attracted 7,209 fans to their inaugural game, selling out the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Thursday night.
   To the fans' delight, Lubbock pounded Amarillo, 10-2.



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

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