From: RealVail.comby David O. Williams
Could the DU hockey team play an exhibition game or two in Vail against Team USA or a Canadian university?
A developer backed by the son of Texas technology tycoon Ross Perot is shopping for land and a public-private partnership in the Vail Valley or Summit County to build a $60 million multi-purpose hockey arena for a Central Hockey League franchise.
Mark Masinter, a principal in Dallas-based Open Hospitality, has signed a letter of intent with the CHL, which has teams in Broomfield and Loveland, and would pay a franchise fee of just over $1 million for the minor league team.
Open Hospitality, backed by Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Capital, is also negotiating with the town of Vail to build a $900 million retail and residential project in Vail’s Lionshead area, where the Eagle Bahn Gondola rises out of an aging ski village built in the 1960s.
Masinter envisions a 4,500 to 5,000 seat arena that would host concerts, conferences and 32 CHL games between October and April, drawing largely on the more than 100,000 people living in Eagle, Summit, Pitkin, Garfield and Routt counties, as well as the thousands of international tourists who record more than 1.6 million skier days at Vail each season.
Rick Kozuback, president of Phoenix-based Global Entertainment Corporation, parent company of the CHL, said a ski-country team would also draw on Front Range guests familiar with the league’s product in Broomfield and Loveland.
“If people are coming to Vail to ski and we know they’re here and they’re staying over, our job is to provide a reason for them to get away from their condo or hotel and get them into this building at least one of the nights that they’re here to stay,” Kozuback said. “That might be a challenge, but it’s a lot better challenge than you have in some of the other markets.”
The CHL consists of 17 teams throughout the south-central U.S., including Loveland’s Colorado Eagles and Broomfield’s Rocky Mountain Rage. Some of the teams are affiliated with American Hockey League or NHL teams.
The CHL champion Arizona Sundogs, of Prescott, Ariz., are partly owned by Colorado Avalanche president Pierre Lacroix’s son, Eric, and singer Celine Dion. Other league owners include Ralph Backstrom of the 2007 league champion Eagles. Backstrom won six Stanley Cups as a player in the NHL and later coached at the University of Denver.
A developer backed by the son of Texas technology tycoon Ross Perot is shopping for land and a public-private partnership in the Vail Valley or Summit County to build a $60 million multi-purpose hockey arena for a Central Hockey League franchise.
Mark Masinter, a principal in Dallas-based Open Hospitality, has signed a letter of intent with the CHL, which has teams in Broomfield and Loveland, and would pay a franchise fee of just over $1 million for the minor league team.
Open Hospitality, backed by Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Capital, is also negotiating with the town of Vail to build a $900 million retail and residential project in Vail’s Lionshead area, where the Eagle Bahn Gondola rises out of an aging ski village built in the 1960s.
Masinter envisions a 4,500 to 5,000 seat arena that would host concerts, conferences and 32 CHL games between October and April, drawing largely on the more than 100,000 people living in Eagle, Summit, Pitkin, Garfield and Routt counties, as well as the thousands of international tourists who record more than 1.6 million skier days at Vail each season.
Rick Kozuback, president of Phoenix-based Global Entertainment Corporation, parent company of the CHL, said a ski-country team would also draw on Front Range guests familiar with the league’s product in Broomfield and Loveland.
“If people are coming to Vail to ski and we know they’re here and they’re staying over, our job is to provide a reason for them to get away from their condo or hotel and get them into this building at least one of the nights that they’re here to stay,” Kozuback said. “That might be a challenge, but it’s a lot better challenge than you have in some of the other markets.”
The CHL consists of 17 teams throughout the south-central U.S., including Loveland’s Colorado Eagles and Broomfield’s Rocky Mountain Rage. Some of the teams are affiliated with American Hockey League or NHL teams.
The CHL champion Arizona Sundogs, of Prescott, Ariz., are partly owned by Colorado Avalanche president Pierre Lacroix’s son, Eric, and singer Celine Dion. Other league owners include Ralph Backstrom of the 2007 league champion Eagles. Backstrom won six Stanley Cups as a player in the NHL and later coached at the University of Denver.
1 comment:
what would the team be called?
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