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It appears junior hockey is coming to the OmniCenter. Mark Motz, chairman of the North American Hockey League’s board of directors and co-owner of the North Iowa (Mason City) Outlaws, said recently that he believes lease negotiations with representatives of Onalaska’s OmniCenter will go smoothly and a junior hockey team will open play in September.
“It’s just a matter now of putting everything that we’ve discussed into lease form and getting that signed,” Motz said. “That’s really all there is to it. I don’t see any hurdles in that at all.”
Onalaska’s Community Development Authority board cleared the way for Motz to relocate his Mason City team to the OmniCenter at its regular meeting Jan. 20, approving up to $200,000 for new locker rooms.
The next step is agreeing on terms of a lease, which both sides believe will happen by Feb. 1.
“It is just making sure it is X or Y dollars we’re going to charge for ice,” CDA chairman Mike Gargaro said. “I don’t think we’re that far off. He’d like it done by Feb. 1 and then we’ll have that out of the way and worry about what’s next.”
Said Motz: “We’ve (discussed) the lease where we sent our proposal, they countered and we sent back a third one. We’re within cents. We’re very close to that.”
NAHL teams play 27 home games from September through March. Many of those dates are Fridays and Saturdays, and Motz said he is willing to work with the other groups that currently use the OmniCenter.
“The first thing we’d like to do there is sit down with youth hockey and make sure everything that we do does not interfere with anything they do,” Motz said. “We want to complement them and we don’t want to cause any disruption.”
Gargaro has received a mostly positive reaction from the youth hockey community.
“I’ve been getting a lot of people asking about it,” Gargaro said. “Some youth hockey people wanted to know about home tournaments, and those are all scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays, not Fridays. We’re going to partner with the (junior) team once they’re here; that’s part of the package.”
A junior hockey team would be “one piece of the puzzle,” building manager Tom Hammill said, as the emphasis of the OmniCenter’s business plan shifts to ice usage from “dry floor” usage.
A cash flow projection put together by Gargaro last summer estimated the OmniCenter would bring in $49,500 from the junior hockey team in ice rental fees alone.
“When everything comes together, it’s going to be win-win for everybody,” Hammill said.
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