I guess I'm making quarterly updates now?

Life superseded hockey (such a thing can happen once in a while) for a bit, but don't fret kids--I've been keeping tabs on a couple things:

• Marshall is 1-0 after a 5-3 win at West Liberty; Austin German had two goals for the Herd, Steven Macuch and Todd Palmer had a goal and an assist each, and Arleigh Dickerson had 34 saves on 37 shots (Marshall was actually outshot 37-22!). Clay Crabtree had the other Herd goal; for the Hilltoppers, goals scored by Jordan DeMuth, Mike Burch, and Paul Henry. Next game: doubleheader weekend on Dec. 9-10 against Northern Kentucky!
• Current tally on the comments from the Big Sandy Superstore Arena renovation: 26 comments, of which 13 pertain to ice ;^D
• We are on the radar of the Northern Professional Hockey League, which--after having originally tried for a 2011 launch--is shooting for the 2012-13 season. Interestingly enough, they're looking at the old ECHL footprint: Pennsylvania south to the Carolinas, westward to Ohio and Kentucky. I don't know about some of these markets but if they can get eight teams together, the road trips wouldn't be too bad...

Ever wonder what the outside of Iceland looked like?

Here you are. Awesome find, would love to see more of these one from one place or another. Perhaps one from Ice Sports in Kanawha City as well?

How the weekend went

Low turnout, but the turnout we had was very productive.

Bottom line is we have an uphill battle. The city fathers/mothers aren't terribly receptive to the notion of dropping a quarter mil or so on an ice rink if they can't get their money back from it. What we have to do, then, is show them that they will be able to get their money back from it without too much trouble.

A while back I said that other people would have to get to a strategic plan on hockey; as it turns out "other people" ended up being me after all. Inquire within...

Venue locked down

The HISCO shindig will be August 20 at noon at Cabell County Library--CONFIRMED
Big plans will be unveiled--UNCONFIRMED, but I hopefully will be able to take the wraps off SOMETHING
Pittsburgh will get the NHL Draft next year--UNCONFIRMED, but anticipated. Why? Anthrocon had to be rescheduled.

Meeting time!

There will be another HISCO meeting, set for August 20 at noon at the Cabell County Library in downtown Huntington. For all intents and purposes we're going to pretend the first one didn't exist, since only two people showed up (one of them being the press) due to a number of scheduling screwups. Most notably the venue was changed at the last minute, which caught pretty much everyone off-guard; great care will be taken to ensure that this does NOT happen again. Also, the last time we tried this it was right AFTER everyone left Marshall for the winter, and on a Monday afternoon no less; this time it will be on a Saturday, and the weekend students return, so we should have more people in the house.

We'll try and divulge actual information about what all's going on, and are mainly putting this together to get input on what the collective fan base of the Tri-State wants from their hockey team--all topics are on the table. Food will be there too, so consider this your lunch date...

EDIT: July 28, 5:09pm: the Facebook link could be helpful.

Blizzard reunion!

Jim Bermingham is setting up a get-together of all the old Blizzard players/staff/fans/etc. for next summer--stuck it up on Facebook, take a look. Methinks this is shaping up to be an Event...

Smart people may be needed on this

As always, things are never as simple as we want them to be. We may be bumped out for exterior improvements!

Mayor Kim Wolfe indicated that earlier trimmed projects for upgrading the exterior of the building, the conference area, and the sidewalk plaza could be revived.

Wolfe assured there had been “different recommendations”[...] and none of them pertained to ice hockey.

How will we get an ice rink then? Steve Williams wants...

a strategic plan, survey of how an ice attraction would make BSSA a 100 mile “destination,” and a solid business plan[...]

The strategic plan is probably best left to smarter people--of course I'm willing to chip in my .02, if any such people are reading this--I do think Pullman Square would be a big factor. I can say that while there are two ice rinks within 100 miles of Huntington, neither South Charleston nor Athens has the capacity to host a large spectator event like pro hockey or Disney on Ice (or any of the other skating revues).

This is it, feast or famine

Usable amount of the Big Sandy Superstore Arena bond: $4.7mil
Amount the last seating bid went for: $3.8mil
Amount the new seating bid went for: $2.4mil
Estimated amount needed for boiler work: $1mil
Anticipated total of main infrastructure work: $3.4mil
Money left over: $1.3mil
Money that was supposed to go to hockey/ice stuff: $0.3mil

We. Have. An. Extra. Million. Dollars.

If everything goes well with the city of course--the new seating bid is going to the Finance Committee next week, to be prepped for second reading (and possible approval?) the week after.

Let me take this time to apologize profusely for the lack of updates; this page is basically a one-man operation, and unfortunately that man lives on the wrong side of the state. Even when I was in Huntington this occupied a tremendous amount of mental resources, and the physical separation has only made things worse; the historical aspect of this page has ground to a halt, and the up and down nature of following municipal shenanigans--especially being basically powerless to do anything with it--has been, and I hope I don't sound too hyperbolic, but it has been very psychologically taxing on top of everything else I've been dealing with in my life. This appears to be a good sign, and in the time I've been following this there have been so many good signs that have just as quickly been snuffed out; this may be the one we need to really take matters into our own hands.

In the time that I've lived, and observed life, in Huntington I've found that the best parts of the city are those that are created with as little input from municipal government as possible. This is simply the reality of dealing with a particularly ineffective body of government that is at best preoccupied with other matters (like the legality of a city income tax) and at worst stuck in total gridlock (much of David Felinton's first term). With this endeavor we are unfortunately forced to work within the constraints of this municipal government, since it is a city-owned property that games would be played at. When an opening presents itself to be proactive and guide things ourselves... well, we've gotta take advantage of it kids!

Why nothing is happening

On the historical front: I'm simply overworked from everything else. I do have some nuggets that I need to put on here, however.

On the will-we-get-another-team front: there are two major obstacles at this point. The first one I had alluded to earlier, which is that City Council--which dragged its feet so long in trying to get money for the Big Sandy Superstore Arena that the usable amount left shrank from about $5mil to about $4.5mil due to increased interest rates--has an issue with the Arena now taking the higher bid for seating, which actually met the standards that they were seeking, over the cheaper but less satisfactory bid. Let it be stated that I have no problems with the more expensive seats being used, so long as there is still money left over for everything else--and while keeping in mind that technically all the stuff we want/need is NOT included in the bond money, it has been made fairly clear to myself and others that the Arena very much wants to do some ice upgrades. To be quite honest, I'm amazed that anyone has been able to stand the amount of lollygagging going on with the municipal government; as the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day, but this has been dragging on for literally years now.

The second is the annual Minor League Death Pool Silly Season, in which we figure out which shaky teams end up falling apart before next season. This offseason is shaping up to be particularly tumultuous due to recent developments with the Central Hockey League, which I previously had on the shortlist of Places We Should Go. The rumor mill has been all over the place, with sentiment ranging from "keep calm and carry on" to "DEAR GOD THE SKY IS FALLING". Add to that the ripple effects from a potential move of the Phoenix Coyotes back to Winnipeg, and it might be well into summer before we know who will be playing where in what league to even begin to figure where a good fit for us would be. On the bright side, by that time everything with the Arena should be sorted out...

The importance of being comfy

Let's begin by reiterating where we stand as far as fixing up Big Sandy Superstore Arena:

1--they have $4.6mil to work with

2--they will first work on seats, then the boiler, then probably look at ice and such

3--because they took the ice work out of the wording for the bond in the first place.

So of course, first up is the seating. And we already have Steve Williams creating a roadblock. Why? Well the arena took two bids for seating. The winning bid was $3.8mil from Irwin Seating, but the low bid was $2.3mil from Hussey Seating. However, the latter is basically the updated version of the same seats that are presently in there and are presently considered inadequate.

Thusly the seating issue has been referred back to the Finance Committee to find "a more coherent matrix for determining the best choice." Or, basically, they're going to try and convince the arena to take the low bid anyway. I'm torn on this somewhat--naturally with that extra mil-and-a-half sitting around, there should be plenty left over for new hockey equipment. Remember, though, that when the hockey infrastructure segment was originally set aside in the bond measure, it was only $300,000. In other words, so long as fixing the boiler takes less than a half-million dollars, the hockey work should be doable anyway!

My personal preference is to have the nicer seats. My stronger preference, though, is to not have this held up unnecessarily...