USA Hockey to make announcement Wednesday in Fargo

[ozzie679]

Is this old news? This was in the St Cloud paper today.

St. Cloud could be out of the running for the 2009 International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-18 Championship if a site is awarded during a USA Hockey news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday in Fargo, N.D.

According to USA Hockey media and public relations director Dave Fischer, a “major announcement” will be made at Scheels sporting goods store in Fargo. USA Hockey Executive Director Dave Ogrean will be on hand with several dignitaries. The others will be North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, the general manager of the Urban Plains Center, Lance Johnson, and Dean Blais, general manager and head coach of the Fargo Force, a USHL expansion team that will call the arena home beginning next fall.

“This is the first I’ve heard about it,” said Kelly Karras, sales manager for the St. Cloud Convention & Visitors Bureau and director of an 11-member committee trying to land the Under-18 tournament for the National Hockey Center. “I know Fargo has been bidding on a few other things, but this sure makes it look like (they’re getting the tournament).”

St. Cloud and Providence, R.I., are the finalists with Fargo in competition for the Under-18 tournament.

Fargo’s application is centered on a new rink being built for the USHL franchise. While it’s under construction, the $44 million Urban Plains Center in South Fargo is expected to be complete by next fall and include five arenas, 37 locker rooms, 40 luxury suites, 300 club seats and a capacity of about 5,000 for hockey.

Providence already has the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, a facility that seats 11,000 fans for hockey and is home to the Providence Bruins of the AHL and the Providence Friars of Hockey East. It was purchased two years ago from the City of Providence by the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority for $28.5 million and will have undergone a $62 million renovation by next fall.

By comparison, the Hockey Center has only been cosmetically changed since opening in 1989 at a cost of $9 million. SCSU has been lobbying for state money to help fund a renovation, which would cost about $12 million to $13 million, but those efforts have stalled the past two years. While officials remain hopeful it will happen soon, there’s no guarantee they’ll get approval in time to impact the Under-18 tournament.

[Hammersmith]

Nope, it's not old news; the preliminary article just hit the Forum a couple hours ago. A more detailed article like the one you posted will be in the paper tomorrow morning. It looks like Fargo beat out St. Cloud and Providence for the tourney. It won't be nearly as big as the tourney GF hosted a few years back, but it should take full advantage of the finished facility. On the local upside, getting this tourney will force the arena owners to stick to their plan of finishing the four practice sheets on schedule.

[dakotadan]

UND hockey blog

Here's another interesting note: This is the same group of players who will be contending for spots on the 2011 World Junior team (World Juniors = players under 20). The 2011 World Juniors also will be in America and Grand Forks is bidding on it. So maybe the players you'll see in Fargo next April will be back to the area in two years.

Will we be seeing the Ralph put in a bid that has the UP Center as the partner arena instead of TRF? It would make alot more sence. Easier travel right down I-29, alot more/better hotels, good sized airport, etc. If Fargo has recent experience with this tourney it should only help with experience and to boost fan interest.

Or will USA hockey see giving the area two tournies right in a row (3 if you count the last U-20) as a bad thing?

[roper1313]

UND hockey blog

Will we be seeing the Ralph put in a bid that has the UP Center as the partner arena instead of TRF? It would make alot more sence. Easier travel right down I-29, alot more/better hotels, good sized airport, etc. If Fargo has recent experience with this tourney it should only help with experience and to boost fan interest.

Or will USA hockey see giving the area two tournies right in a row (3 if you count the last U-20) as a bad thing?

I know that the UP Center is hoping that the people at REA will use them as a secondary site instead of TRF. It seems like some people in GF don't think anything was wrong with the TRF site, and there probably wasn't anything wrong, but IMO having Fargo and GF partner on this would only make sense. Heck, a ton of people were staying in Fargo last time around.

[The Sicatoka]

Call me silly, but USA Hockey is going to a facility in April 2009 that today, Feb 13, 2008, is ironwork and nothing more.

And it's a facility that still doesn't have all of its financing rock solid in place ....

Main rink financing almost secured

The Urban Plains Center's $25 million main rink is nearing the financing finish line.

The Metro Sports Foundation and a consortium of banks have agreed to the terms of a financing package for the main rink that essentially assures the building will be completed, MSF President Todd Berning said Tuesday.

"This is what you shoot for," Berning said. "This is everything. Essentially, we've got it figured out."

Berning said the Metro Sports Foundation hopes to officially close on the financing package in March. All that remains to finish the deal is "a mountain of paperwork," Berning said.

Essentially, what they have left are the nitty-gritty details. You know those: the Devil lives in them. And they tend to not be so little at times and break deals.

I hope USA Hockey knows what it's doing.

Closed Circuit to REA: Keep those April 2009 dates open .... just in case.

[so.cal.sioux]

With Berning and Lance Johnson, old REA regime, running the UP Center, don't expect the REA and UP to hold hands and get along.

[roper1313]

With Berning and Lance Johnson, old REA regime, running the UP Center, don't expect the REA and UP to hold hands and get along.

I know there is some history between them, but IMO it would be better for the tournament. THe little REA is a great facility, but TRF is well TRF.

Maybe Fargo and GF could work together as cities, oh wait, never mind. It is going to be cold out in the next couple of days, but I don't think hell has froze over yet. Both cities need to grow up, IMO.

[CVCL]

Call me silly, but USA Hockey is going to a facility in April 2009 that today, Feb 13, 2008, is ironwork and nothing more.

And it's a facility that still doesn't have all of its financing rock solid in place ....

Essentially, what they have left are the nitty-gritty details. You know those: the Devil lives in them. And they tend to not be so little at times and break deals.

I hope USA Hockey knows what it's doing.

Closed Circuit to REA: Keep those April 2009 dates open .... just in case.

Ok Silly, you asked for it. Understand that the several of people behind building this thing have done a couple before. And don't spend any of their time on message boards so they have plenty of time to get this thing done. Skeptics are good though and it drives many people so thanks for helping them out. I guarantee the rink will be ready.

[The Sicatoka]

And don't spend any of their time on message boards so they have plenty of time to get this thing done.

Shoot. I got trumped by the old "you put your observations on-line" thing. :D

I guarantee the rink will be ready.

I hope you're right, but the financing methodology to date appears haphazard. You'd figure Ace Brandt (a fairly well to do man with wealthy family) would be able to better line up financing on this scale of project. I don't recall Kevin Christiansen and his team having these issues in developing the Osgood area (and golf course) of Fargo.

[roper1313]

Shoot. I got trumped by the old "you put your observations on-line" thing. :D

I hope you're right, but the financing methodology to date appears haphazard. You'd figure Ace Brandt (a fairly well to do man with wealthy family) would be able to better line up financing on this scale of project. I don't recall Kevin Christiansen and his team having these issues in developing the Osgood area (and golf course) of Fargo.

While I'll certainly agree with you that the financing has been a disaster. You can blame who you want, but the biggest problem was the fact that the USHL wanted the team for 2008 so the whole project was pushed ahead a year. I'm not going to make any excuses for how it was handled. It was done poorly.

I really don't know how you are comparing a residential development and city owned golf course with the building of a privately financed (kinda of) arena/events center. Plus, if you don't think Kevin Christiansen had any problems, you should ask the city who had to take possession of quite of few lots in the early 2000s when his development company couldn't make the property tax payments on many of the golf course lots. From what I understand this is a fairly common practice in residential development, but to say things went smoothly for Osgood is a gross understatement. I don't think you can say anything negative about the Urban Plains developement (sans UP Center) up to this point. It should be very impressive when things start to fill in.

Back on to the topic at hand. Here are some articles from this mornings Forum:

Announcement

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...;section=sports

McFeely's reaction

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...;columnist=Mike McFeely

[Hammersmith]

I know it's fashionable to bash the UP project, but I just can't bring myself to muster much anger and distrust over it. Mainly, it's because I can see what happened, and I understand the decisions that got them to this point. When this project was conceived, the economy was still reasonably good, and, more importantly, the lending industry still appeared healthy. On top of that, the original timetable for the project had a completion date of late 2009 for the whole thing. Then, two unrelated events occurred. First, the USHL pressured Brandt to push up the timetable so that the expansion team could begin play in 2008. This necessitated the splitting of the project into two parts: the main arena and the four practice sheets. The main arena needed to be complete by late 2008 to satisfy the USHL, and the practice sheets needed to be completed by the original due date of late 2009 to satisfy the park board and the school districts. Alone, that acceleration of the timetable shouldn't of mucked anything up; except that the lending industry imploded shortly after. Prior to the meltdown, a project such as this, led by a established businessman like Brandt, would've been put together on a napkin in a golf course bar and sealed by a handshake on the 18th hole. Post-meltdown, lenders belatedly began to insist on every i dotted and every t crossed, even with known money makers. This "new" layer of bureaucracy tacked time onto the financing phase of the project that was no longer available.

I think the UP project could've handled either one of these problems with nary a peep in the press, but the combination of the two caused Brandt and Co. to have to scramble to lock in the financing in a very public way. Considering the USHL team will probably make-or-break the project, I can't really blame Brandt for agreeing to accelerate the timetable. And the lending meltdown was completely out of his control. So, the financing is a little more ragtag than any of us would've hoped for, it's still getting done, and the whole project should match the original goals in spirit, if not excatly in fact. I can live with that.

edit: this was supposed to come right after Sic's post, but roper beat me to some of the same points while I was typing this up

[hermit]

Shoot. I got trumped by the old "you put your observations on-line" thing. :D

I hope you're right, but the financing methodology to date appears haphazard. You'd figure Ace Brandt (a fairly well to do man with wealthy family) would be able to better line up financing on this scale of project. I don't recall Kevin Christiansen and his team having these issues in developing the Osgood area (and golf course) of Fargo.

Divorcing Ron Offuts daughter lost him his financial backing I heard. No RDO assests to back loans no longer.

[roper1313]

Divorcing Ron Offuts daughter lost him his financial backing I heard. No RDO assests to back loans no longer.

Offut is his step-dad not father-in-law. Ace's mom and Ron are still married. I hate to flame, but try to get you facts straight when talking about personal issues such as divorce.

[hermit]

Offut is his step-dad not father-in-law. Ace's mom and Ron are still married. I hate to flame, but try to get you facts straight when talking about personal issues such as divorce.

I said what I had heard.

[roper1313]

No problem. Sorry if I got a little defensive.

The fact is that there is/was no RDO money in the arena. I think that Ace's mom may have bought a suite, and she may have put some money into the main arena. RDO Equipment assets were never backing the financing.

IMO, corporate Fargo is waiting to see the main sheet get finished, and they'll step forward to help with the 4 additional sheets. I think there are many big money people who think the main arena is Ace's deal, and it is for the most part, but when it comes to building the 4 additional sheets they'll step up big time. At least I hope.

[Matt]

No problem. Sorry if I got a little defensive.

The fact is that there is/was no RDO money in the arena. I think that Ace's mom may have bought a suite, and she may have put some money into the main arena. RDO Equipment assets were never backing the financing.

IMO, corporate Fargo is waiting to see the main sheet get finished, and they'll step forward to help with the 4 additional sheets. I think there are many big money people who think the main arena is Ace's deal, and it is for the most part, but when it comes to building the 4 additional sheets they'll step up big time. At least I hope.

I've worked with Erv Inninger over the years on some fundraising projects, and he's commented on many occasions just how many folks approach the Fargo business community (or corporate Fargo) for money. Bison, Sioux, Dragons, Cobbers, high schools, park districts, the arts, charities, library fund, on and on and on. It's understandable that a business would take a bit of a wait and see attitude toward this new project. Also makes you realize just how much corporate money there is in this town.

[nodakvindy]

Norway Qualifies for U18 in USA

This is a little bit of extra good news. Nice to have another team to cheer for.