Pride still waiting on new arena

FLORENCE — Fred DuBard is still waiting.

After moving the Pee Dee Pride ECHL hockey franchise to Myrtle Beach at the end of the 2005 season, the team’s co-owner has yet to see his team play a game.

At the league’s meetings in July, the franchise, known as the Myrtle Beach Thunderboltz, was granted its third year of voluntary suspension for the 2008-09 season.

“It’s been nauseating at times,” DuBard said recently. “It’s been like a ping pong ball going back and forth.”

Arena issues

At the heart of the problem is the proposed $48 million 7,000-seat arena at Coastal Carolina, which has yet to break ground. The only progress made in the construction was the widening of the road off U.S. 501 into the University.

In October, the Coastal Education Foundation, which owns the land for the arena, terminated the ground lease with the Coastal Carolina Arena LLC, the developers of the proposed arena, after 18 different violations.

The arena project appeared all but dead last month when Coastal’s Board of Trustees approved the re-allocation of the $550,000 for the arena into other athletic projects for the school.

But there appears to be some hope.

Two weeks ago, the school released the names of 12 different companies, including Coastal Carolina Arena LLC, who have come forth to be a partner in the project.

Still, Dubard, a former CCU board member, is cautiously optimistic something will eventually get done.

“I hope to see it my lifetime,” the 73-year-old joked. “But it’s been one thing after another. I don’t understand why they can’t get a deal done.“

DuBard said there is no Plan B and hasn’t been approached about selling the franchise but would “always be willing to listen.”

No regrets

Despite the setbacks, DuBard said he doesn’t regret moving the franchise from Florence adding, “we were just pitching money away.”

The Pride, who moved from Knoxville, Tenn., before the 1997-98 season, enjoyed success in their early years, winning games and introducing the Pee Dee to hockey for the first time.

But the novelty of hockey in Florence wore off and attendance suffered. The average attendance had dwindled to 2,660 in the Pride’s final season a far cry from the 5,719 it enjoyed during its second season.

The team’s season ticket numbers also suffered and were at 1,100 in the team’s final season. That’s when the decision was made to the move the team to the Grand Strand.

“It boils down to lose money there or lose money here,” Dubard said. “We would have had to pay rent, salaries and injuries. So that’s why we shut down operations.

“But we thought we would be playing here by our second year.”

The Pride’s departure left the Civic Center without a hockey tenant. The Pee Dee Cyclones of the Southern Professional Hockey League, followed the Pride but never got the backing and enthusiasm from the fans the Pride had.

The Cyclones lasted two seasons before relocating to Winston-Salem, N.C., last year.

“We miss not having them as a tenant,” Florence Civic Center general manager Kendall Wall said. “The Pride put together 10 great years here and this was the place to be.”

Wall said he empathizes what DuBard is going through because he oversaw the Crown Center in Fayetteville while that was under construction.

“It took almost seven years to get that done,” he said. “Sometimes these things take time.“

Wall said he hasn’t received much interest in getting hockey back in Florence except from a group in Virginia, which talked about possibly bringing another SPHL team.

“If that’s what the community wants, we will definitely look into it,” Wall said of bringing another team to Florence.

ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna said the league has no plan to return Florence at this time and hasn’t been approached, but if they were then they would “take a look at any proposal and take it to our board to examine.”

Patience

Until the arena issues can get resolved, Dubard and the ECHL will have to wait.

McKenna said the league has taken a hands-off approach to the situation, hoping the arena issue can get resolved.

He also added there is no limit on how many times a franchise can ask for voluntary suspension as long as it keeps paying its league fees, which Dubard said are around $4,500 a month.

“Fred has been a terrific partner and has done all you can ask,” McKenna said. “He has been patient through this process and hung with it.”

Both Dubard and McKenna believe if the arena issues get solved that the Myrtle Beach area is a perfect fit to support a hockey team. Dubard pointed all the tourists, who come in the winter are from the North and grew up around hockey.

“You got people coming and going all the time,” Dubard said. “And a lot of them grew up where there was hockey … so it will be a good market.”

McKenna agrees and believes the Myrtle Beach area would be a plus for the league.

“It’s a larger market and it’s growing at a robust rate,” he said. “Hockey would be a good fit and a viable tenant for the new arena.”