Hockey returns to Rupp Arena June 29, 2002

OWNERS BRING ECHL TEAM FROM MACON, GA., TO LEXINGTON

By Travis Hubbard
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Jean Gagnon, a Canadian businessman and co-onwer of the new Lexington team, has a history of developing ECHL franchises.

One year and 24 days after the Kentucky Thoroughblades left town, a new franchise and its ambitious owners revived professional hockey in Lexington yesterday.

The East Coast Hockey League approved a franchise for Lexington by a unanimous vote of its Board of Governors during a 10 a.m. conference call.

The approval came only eight hours after Jean Gagnon and partner Michel Cadrin completed a deal to purchase the Macon (Ga.) Whoopee, the franchise that will move here.

The team, still to be named, will begin play in Rupp Arena in October.

The final touches on the deal took place quickly, but negotiations lasted nine months.

Gagnon, a Canadian businessman based in Dayton, Ohio, first visited Lexington last October. He said he believed then that professional hockey could succeed in Lexington, but it took him until May to secure a lease with Rupp Arena. All that was left was a team to fulfill the lease.

"I had different options when I first visited in October, but the Macon team was going to be vacant and I knew the owner," Gagnon said.

Gagnon and Cadrin purchased the Macon club from Elmore-Tuttle Sports Group. Cadrin, who did not attend yesterday's news conference in Rupp Arena, had leased the Whoopee from Elmore-Tuttle when it was the Tallahassee (Fla.) Tiger Sharks two years ago.

ECHL confident in Lexington

Gagnon, who was in attendance yesterday, said the new team's nickname will be determined by polling fans. He said he wants the team to be named after Lexington, not Kentucky.

"I feel that it is a Lexington hockey club and not a Kentucky club," he said.

Lexington's last venture in minor-league hockey, the American Hockey League's Kentucky Thoroughblades, ended when the team could not reach a lease agreement with Rupp Arena for the 2001-02 season. The Thoroughblades moved to Cleveland on June 4 of last year, ending a five-year run in Lexington.

"I am very familiar with the situation with the AHL team in Lexington," said Rick Adams, president and CEO of the ECHL. "But with everything we've looked at, I am confident that an ECHL team can succeed in Lexington."

Gagnon said Rupp Arena was cooperative in lease negotiations, and he blamed the Thoroughblades for leaving Lexington.

"Rupp Arena has made serious rebates in order to be able to put a team in Lexington," Gagnon said earlier this week. "If it was not for their leniency, we wouldn't be able to do so.

"I saw both (leases) and I think the old team needed a reason and found a reason to get out. My vision of hockey in Lexington is I needed a partner and my partner is Rupp Arena."

Rupp Arena President and CEO Bill Owen avoided blaming the Thoroughblades' owners, and instead focused on a new era of hockey in Lexington.

"This is a day to talk about the new team that is coming," he said. "It's an all new product of ice hockey in Lexington."

Gagnon said the ECHL's tighter rein on expenses will make it easier for his team to succeed in Lexington. He said that the Thoroughblades' yearly expenses were between $3 million and $5 million.

"I don't know an AHL team that makes money, because the budget is so high," he said.

Gagnon said an ECHL team's average expenses are less than $2 million, "and that's the reason why hockey will work in Lexington."

That does not mean the level of hockey will be lower, Gagnon said. He said the first two lines of an ECHL team could play with any AHL franchise, but the difference might be in a team's third line. He said the speed and talent level of the ECHL is comparable to the AHL.

'Team will be very successful'

A minimum of 1,500 season tickets and an average attendance of 3,000 will be needed for the team to succeed financially, Gagnon said. A goal of 4,000 fans a game has been set.

Average attendance for Thoroughblades games was 4,461 during their final season, down from a high of 7,847 in 1997-98.

"If I have the attendance they had, then this team will be very successful," Gagnon said.

Gagnon has a history of developing ECHL franchises. He formerly owned the Roanoke (Va.) Express and the Mississippi Sea Wolves in addition to the Dayton Bombers, whom he is in the process of selling. Last season was his sixth with the Sea Wolves, his longest stint with one team.

Mississippi won the 1999 Kelly Cup and Dayton lost in the 2002 Kelly Cup finals.

Gagnon's ownership partner, Cadrin, was an owner and director of hockey with the Sea Wolves. He has a background in scouting and recruiting. He also owns a junior hockey league team with Colorado Avalanche goalkeeper Patrick Roy in Quebec.

Both men have been around the business. But for many Lexington fans that have already seen one team come and leave, the perception might be that this is only a temporary stay.

"Jean's track record speaks for itself," said Adams, the league president. "His track record has been to leave only when a local group steps up to purchase the team."

Gagnon said he needs a challenge, and when he gets a team settled in an area he moves on.

"Look at my history," Gagnon said. "I have not moved a team in my 10 years in the ECHL."

Until now. He brings with him a team that has less than four months to assemble a staff, move to Lexington and sell tickets for a 72-game ECHL season.

His next deadline will be Oct. 11 when the first ECHL puck is dropped on Rupp Arena ice.

Lexington in the ECHL

What we know -- and don't know -- about Lexington's entry in the East Coast Hockey League:

Team name: The Lexington ???? Fans will decide the name in a poll.

Coaching staff: TBA.

Home: Rupp Arena (capacity for hockey 9,000)

The owners: Jean Gagnon and Michel Cadrin

Ticket prices: Average will be $12. Season ticket prices are not set, but fans can apply at rupparena.com.

Schedule: The 72-game ECHL season begins Oct. 11; it will be released July 8.

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