Hockey is only one goal for three arenas

Many reasons and accompanying benefits go along with building hockey arenas. Some of those reasons and benefits have little to do with hockey.

Consider, for instance, the arenas planned for three cities along Hwy. 2, running 266 miles across northern Minnesota, mostly east to west.

Proposals for the new arenas were given a jump start April 7 when Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a $717 bonding bill that included $68 million to partially fund each of them. The same bill provided $6.5 million to expand and fix up the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.

Proponents for the new arenas say one will anchor a regional events complex, another will be a showplace for going green and the third will assist in flood control. All replace facilities at least 40 years old, too.

The cities planning to build new arenas and the key non-hockey aspect of each:

• Bemidji, home of Bemidji State.

The proposed arena for the university's Beavers will be off campus, on the undeveloped south shore of Lake Bemidji. It will be part of a regional events center expected to stimulate economic development. State dollars for the project: $20 million.

• Duluth, home of the University of Minnesota Duluth. The Bulldogs play in the WCHA's oldest arena, the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. The first green or environmentally friendly arena anywhere will be built beside the DECC. State dollars: $38 million.

• Crookston, home of Minnesota, Crookston. The Golden Eagles' arena will be torn down for better flood control. A levee will cut through the site of the present arena, meaning the new arena has to be elsewhere. State dollars: $10 million.

The rinks governor

Pawlenty recommended money for a new Duluth arena on the list of capital investments he wanted passed this session. He first promised the city an arena in early 2006. But the governor's list did not include money for new arenas in Bemidji and Crookston or an arena makeover for St. Cloud State's facility built in 1989.

Pawlenty, as a matter of fact, had said arena projects should not be part of a bonding bill this year with the state facing a huge deficit. Using his line-item veto, Pawlenty crossed out 52 items costing $208 million on the bonding bill but spared four arena projects.

A Pawlenty spokesperson said the governor, a hockey fan who still sometimes plays, wanted to keep his promise to Duluth, realized how important hockey arenas were to Bemidji and St. Cloud and wanted to help Crookston mitigate its flooding problems.

"Pawlenty is going to be known as the rinks governor," former Gophers hockey coach Doug Woog said. "If you do not do it now, those programs [at UMD and St. Cloud State] will fall further behind. Facilities are part of the recruiting process. Kids want more these days, and they will go where they can get it.

"Bemidji State needed a rink to retain any aspirations it had of staying a Division I program. Politically, it's also good to move some money around outstate."

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, a critic of public funding for pro stadiums, said he could support these projects. "These are not for businesses; they are truly community facilities," he said. "Facilities for communities or schools are a reasonable thing. I'm not antisports."

Unease in Bemidji

Everybody seems happy about the new rinks -- all scheduled to be completed at the start or early in the 2010-11 season -- except perhaps some of Bemidji's citizens.

On Nov. 7, 2006, a city referendum proposed Bemidji's half-cent sales tax be extended for 30 years. The money raised was supposed to help pay for a $35 million regional events center. The referendum passed by 43 votes. Pawlenty signed a tax bill, two months ago, authorizing that half-cent sales tax in Bemidji.

But much has changed since that 2006 referendum. Bemidji's City Council switched the site of the regional events center from downtown to the south shore of Lake Bemidji, and the cost of the project has more than doubled to about $75 million.

Conventions, Sports & Leisure International of Wayzata, after projecting the number and type of events the regional center could attract, estimated the city would lose $297,000 annually if it operated both the arena and the convention center, or $236,0000 if a private hotel ran the latter.

"If there was a revote [on the referendum], I think it would be no," community activist Gina Walters said. "The cost has skyrocketed."

Walters was part of a small group called Concerned Citizens for Sane Development that opposed passage of the referendum. Her fear has always been that property taxes might rise if the regional events center loses too much money.

"It just seems in the economic times we live in, this is a foolish idea for our city to take this on," Walters said. "We do not need an events center; we need a community center with a place for the homeless."

"I think our community is really split on this," said Robert Saxton, who plays in the Bemidji men's hockey league. "I think it could be a fiscal mess, a boondoggle."

John Chattin, Bemidji's city manager, has the opposite view. "It's a typical project," he said. "There is always somebody opposed to it."

The regional events center will have an estimated $13 million impact on north-central Minnesota, he said, and will create more than 200 jobs.

The projected operating deficits, Chattin said, could be reduced by selling naming rights to the center and cutting costs elsewhere in city government.

Bemidji State men's hockey coach Tom Serratore is another enthusiastic supporter of the regional events center. "We are kind of like the Green Bay Packers of college hockey," he said. "We're a small town that does good."

Only a quality facility, like Green Bay has in Lambeau Field, is missing. "Now we will have one of the top five in the country," Serratore said.

Duluth going green

Dan Russell, executive director of the DECC, said the Bulldogs' new facility will be first LEED-certified arena in the world. DECC officials made that promise to state legislators to gain their support for a new arena, Russell said.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; it's the standard for quality green buildings.

The DECC, which recently received an environmental leadership award from the governor, is heated by waste from the nearby Duluth city steam plant, and the new arena will be, too.

The goal for the new arena, Russell said, is a 50 percent reduction in energy costs compared with the DECC by using energy-saving lights, for example.

The DECC will remain standing beside it. "We've taken great care of it," Russell said."

WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod remembers the first game in the DECC. He played in it for the Bulldogs; UMD routed the Gophers 8-1 on Nov. 19, 1966.

"It's a great place to watch hockey, and they've done a lot of remodels," McLeod said, "but it does not have any of the amenities needed to run a financially successful program.

"It's extremely important, whether we like it or not, to keep up with the Joneses."

Two-for-one special

Crookston city officials are thrilled with the money they received in the bonding bill to relocate their hockey arena. "Whenever you can meet two objectives with one project, it's nice," city administrator Aaron Parrish said.

A levee, part of a flood control project, will be built on the site of the Crookston Civic Arena. A new arena will be built in another location, probably on the north side of the city.

"The ice arena was functionally obsolete," said Parrish, referring to a facility built in the late 1930s near the Red Lake River. "It was in need of so much repair."

The University of Minnesota, Crookston men's hockey team and Crookston High School's hockey teams will be the primary users of the arena.

Huskies' wish list unclear

St. Cloud State plans to spend at least $14 million to remodel the National Hockey Center. The bonding bill provides $6.5 million for the project; the rest will come from fundraising.

Huskies athletic director Morris Kurtz said the school has a wish list of improvements, including a new lobby. "We'll do extensive fundraising," he said, "then you build what you can afford."