Rupp lands new hockey team June 21, 2002

UNIDENTIFIED ECHL FRANCHISE IS COMING

By Travis Hubbard
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

One year after the Kentucky Thoroughblades skated out of town, Rupp Arena has reached an agreement with a minor-league hockey franchise to play there for the 2002-03 season.

Carl Hall, the arena's director of operations, said Rupp had reached a lease agreement with an East Coast Hockey League team for next season, but Hall could not specify which team.

"I don't have any official notification of which team it is," Hall told the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. "Macon is one of the teams that was discussed."

The Macon Whoopee, which has an affiliation with the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, is owned by the Elmore-Tuttle Sports Group. The franchise was leased for a season by Macon Sports Group, which has not announced its plans for next season, making a return to Macon unlikely.

Hall told the Telegraph that the new Lexington team would be owned by Jean Gagnon, who also owns the ECHL's Dayton Bombers and Mississippi Sea Wolves.

Neither Hall nor the ECHL would specify which team was making the move because the league is still conducting meetings. Hall said an announcement is expected in the next 10 days, but the lease is already in place.

The Thoroughblades left town after failing to reach a lease agreement with Rupp in March 2001. Rupp offered free rent, worth $125,000, if the team could sell 3,000 season tickets. But the team sold fewer than 1,700 by a self-imposed deadline.

The T-blades, an affiliate of the NHL's San Jose Sharks, completed their move to Cleveland on June 4, 2001, when the American Hockey League approved the sale and transfer of the team to the Sharks.

In 1996-97, the T-blades' inaugural season, attendance averaged 7,608. The following year it grew to 7,847, but in the next three seasons the attendance fell. An average of 4,461 attended the team's final season.

The ECHL is a less prestigious league than the AHL with less player turnover to the NHL. In baseball terms, the ECHL is comparable to Double-A level as opposed to the AHL's Triple-A.

There ECHL has 29 franchises, with the Cincinnati Cyclones the closest to Lexington.

Rupp Arena, which seats more than 23,000 for basketball, has tried to create a more intimate atmosphere for small concerts by using black curtains to hide empty seats. Seating can be reduced to as little as 2,300, and such a configuration would be possible for hockey.

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