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Thursday, Jan. 21, 1999
Hall: `Corpus has to step up'
By MARK BUTTON
Staff Writer

   Management of the Corpus Christi IceRays figuratively dropped their gloves Wednesday afternoon.
   Growing frustration over the lack of available playoff dates and the perception that local politicians don't feel the need for a new arena provoked the IceRays coach and general managers to verbalize their feelings at a media luncheon.
   "Corpus Christi is behind the times," IceRays coach Taylor Hall said at a team luncheon Wednesday. "We travel to a lot of cities in Texas and the area - many of them less than 100,000 - and they all have better facilities, better arenas. There's a real need, not just for the IceRays, but the for entertainment in general, for a new arena here.
   "Corpus has to step up," he said. "There's no lack of land and with a hockey team and the university's basketball teams next year, there's no lack of events. Somebody has to step up and take the bull by the horns."
   The size of the arena is only part of the IceRays' concerns.
   Dates have become a more immediate issue.
   The 1998-99 Western Professional Hockey League playoffs are still 29 games away, but the Corpus Christi franchise is already thinking about next year's postseason.
   The IceRays will not host any home games at Memorial Coliseum after April 9 this year, as mandated by the "drop dirt date" for the 61st annual Buccaneer Days, a rodeo show that takes over the lease of the coliseum.
   If the IceRays become one of 12 WPHL teams to make the playoffs this year and they advance to the third round of the five-round playoff system, the team will have to play its home games on the road.
   The Buccaneer Commission has its dates - April 9 to May 2 - secured through the 2008.
   "The fans will have to put up with it this season, but I don't expect them to ever have to tolerate it again," general manager James Garino said. "Moving (this season's potential home playoff) games to San Antonio appears slim, however. We are talking to the league about revenue sharing for wherever we play. That way the team won't have to take such a big financial hit."
   Garino said talks with the Buc Commission regarding the future of the lease are ongoing.
   Joe Ochoa, executive director of the Buccaneer Commission, was not available for comment.
   The IceRays see a new arena as the answer to all of this, for themselves, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which will share Memorial Coliseum with them next year, and the Buc Commission.
   "We put in 35 dates," said Hall, "the university, with two teams, could probably fill another 25, then there's shows, concerts, rodeos, it all adds up."
   Garino said he could have sold, "about 15,000 tickets for the first few games. If we had 10,000 seats, we'd have some sellouts and we'd average about 6,500 a night - and ticxket prices would drop automatically."
   The cheapest ticket to an IceRays game with only 3,292 seats is $13.
   Garino said there are approximately five groups currently talking with the city about funding such a building.
   "It will happen," Garino said. "They might not break ground by the end of this season, but it is going to happen - and a lot sooner than I would have thought two months ago.
   "One thing I have heard," Garino said, "is that if we establish ourselves and prove we have a loyal fan base and that we're an organization with roots in the community - and especially if local ownership comes forward - that the support will be there for a new building. I think we're establishing all those things."
   One upside of playing in such a small building is crowd noise. Corpus Christi has sold out all 21 home games this year and the Igloo has a league-wide reputation of being the loudest arena in the WPHL. The downside is with all those sellouts, the IceRays are under the league's average attendance figure of 3,358.
   "We have the best atmosphere in the league," defenseman Phil Valk said. "The rest of the league has better barns, but I would rather play here. A 7,000-seat arena would be much nicer, though."
   Staff Writer Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613, through e-mail at buttonm@scripps.com or on the internet at www. caller.com.

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