Dayton folding

[mfosterftw]

I've been told their staff has been informed the team won't be returning next year.

[brokenglass]

Not exactly folding but going dark. No announcement has been made. I was told last night it might be announced Monday. Apparently there might be an offer put on the table from a local group to buy the team. The rub is the Nutter Center, there is no way to make a good run at breaking even in that place and the new group might want to wait for the new proposed downtown facility to be built to ice a team.

[FWKRTJ]

I've heard the same thing as brokenglass...

My guess is they take the "Toledo Storm" approach and do exactly what they did...

On the other hand, I'd love for a group to go into Hara Arena and field an IHL franchise...strike before this other group can perhaps (unless they want to go to the IHL themselves?) If they get in there and have gather a following, it'll make it awful hard for another group to just plop down another team in a new arena unless they want disaster (IE: what happened in a sense in Cincinnati so to speak).

[brokenglass]

FWKRTJ, as much as I like that idea, not gonna happen. Not with this group. They'll most likely block any attempt. Heard a little more last night. Supposedly if it's a 100 % buy they will go dark, if it's 85% with current owner still running the team, they'll still play next season and continue to focus on the arena downtown. At this point it's up in the air.

[Lower32]

Not exactly folding but going dark. No announcement has been made. I was told last night it might be announced Monday. Apparently there might be an offer put on the table from a local group to buy the team. The rub is the Nutter Center, there is no way to make a good run at breaking even in that place and the new group might want to wait for the new proposed downtown facility to be built to ice a team.

I will confess I do not know a whole lot about the Dayton Bombers... but this thread did indeed catch my interest...

I understand that the Bombers are currently skating at the Nutter center - capacity of 9950, but the bombers are only drawing an average of 3573 (ish).

On the other hand, the bombers used to call the Hara arena home. Hara seems like a better fit with a total capacity of 5500.

An average attendance of 3500 for a "AA" team, although not stellar, is respectable in todays climate.


Questions / comments:

1) If the Bombers are distressed due to the expense of Nutter arena, what makes anyone think that a *New* arena is going to fix the problem?

New arena = $$

Is the general though that a *new* arena would be less expensive than Nutter?

2) Why not just simply go back to Hara - it seats 5500 and seems to be a better fit. It has to be cheaper than Nutter if it is still an option.

3) Crazy talk - go back to Hara and join the IHL.

Lower arena costs + Lower travel cost = possible solvent team.

-Lower32

[amc155]

Costa (the current team owner) has said that he thinks we would be more viable if we had our own arena because then we would have better picks of dates. For instance they told STHs that for the '09-'10 season the Nutter Center is only giving us an option for I believe it was 7 Saturday games. Working with the rest of the league it's doubtful that we would get all 7 of those. That's one of the reasons we played 6 games at Hobart Arena in Troy and are slated to play 6 again next season. It's better money wise for us to play weekend games at Hobart than week night games at the Nutter Center. Also, if we had our own arena we would not have to pay rent like we do at the Nutter Center plus they could generate income by renting it out.

From what I have heard, I will admit I've never been there, it would take a lot of money to make Hara suitable for us to play in. I believe Costa said in the neighorhood of $15 - $20 million. Might as well build a new for the proposed $25M they are talking about and put in suites and what they want, and have our own building.

[FWKRTJ]

It would NOT cost that much to rennovate Hara...that's bologne(sp)

That is, unless you want it to be a sparkling arena that looks brand new inside the shell of the old Hara which it doesn't have to be...

The Toledo Sports Arena was in comparable shape to Hara.