By Kenneth Gailliard, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 11--Proponents of a minor-league hockey team in Myrtle Beach are pushing plans for a new arena at the same time the sport is hitting a slump, according to the latest attendance figures for the East Coast Hockey League.
Attendance dropped last season for 25 of the ECHL's 28 teams, including those in Florence and Charleston. Ticket sales leaguewide were down 9.5 percent from the previous year.
The ECHL isn't the only struggling minor league. The International Hockey League folded last week, and the Western Professional and Central hockey leagues are planning to merge.
The attendance numbers were released as Coastal Arena LLC is trying to keep Grand Strand hockey fans pumped about the prospect of a team. The group is also trying to keep Myrtle Beach City Council interested in helping to build a 10,000-seat arena on about 44 acres at the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.
Events such as arena football, wrestling, concerts and ice shows also would be held at the facility.
Coastal Arena has asked the city for about $18.1 million in tax money to help build the $49.6 million project. The council agreed in April to consider the request after reviewing a feasibility study for the project. The city and Coastal Arena haven't met since then, and the group said the feasibility study is still weeks away.
City officials will carefully inspect the study's financial and attendance projections, including how the Myrtle Beach team will fill seats while others in the league can't, said City Manager Tom Leath.
'If they are talking about making hockey a key attraction, we will have to look at that,' Leath said. 'They will have to convince [the] council that it is a project that will succeed and that will be supported by the marketplace here.'
Andy Green, vice president of marketing and event booking for Coastal Arena, said hockey games would represent about 20 percent of the arena's event schedule.
ECHL teams such as the S.C. Stingrays in Charleston, for example, have seen attendance decline steadily since they began playing in 1993-94. The Stingrays, which spokesman Darren Abbott said has among the best attendance records in the league, attracted a per-game average of about 6,000 spectators last season, down from 8,900 in its first year.
ECHL President Rick Adams told the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper last week that the declines are a concern and that the league must focus on ticket efforts. Adams couldn't be reached for comment by The Sun News.
Average per-game attendance for the Pee Dee Pride in Florence fell to 4,013 last year, from 5,165 a year earlier. The team drew the most spectators in its second season, 1998-99. Sean Cowley, director of public relations for the Pride, said the rise in the team's second year was because it set records for ECHL wins and points in its initial season.
'Some of the novelty wore off,' he said. 'We did plan for a drop. Any time you move into a new market, sooner or later the novelty is going to wear off.'
Despite the declining attendance figures, other cities are interested in joining the ECHL, Adams told the Times-Picayune. He added that the league could grow next year.
The Myrtle Beach team would be named the Thunderboltz if the city gets an ECHL franchise. But the ECHL won't commit to putting a team in Myrtle Beach until arena plans are certain. That can't happen without the city's backing, arena officials have said.
If Myrtle Beach gets a team, it might have to reinvent itself every year to keep fans interested, Green said.
'I think in all sports you will see attendance rise and fall,' he said. 'The Coastal Arena business plan doesn't hinge on hockey alone.'
Green added that even if per-game attendance falls to 2,000 or 3,000 people, minor-league hockey 'would be a plus for the community.'
Coastal Arena first announced plans in July 2000 to build a multipurpose facility on the former Air Force base. At the time, arena officials said they had raised $70 million and wouldn't need public money to cover construction costs. Since then, they have moved the proposed arena site several times and have told city officials the project can't be built without tax dollars.
Arena officials initially told the city they wouldn't provide a feasibility study, but the council made such a study a requirement before the group's financing plan would be considered.
Arena backers have asked the city for $9.7 million in accommodations, property and other taxes that would be generated by the arena. The group wants those taxes pumped back into the arena for up to 20 years.
Another $8.4 million in public money would come from a special tax district the city would create, allowing the arena to charge an extra $1 per ticket sold for 24 years. The rest of the money for construction would come from bond financing and individual investors.
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(c) 2001, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
