By: Diane Benjamin
Ever hear old socialists claim socialism works, it just hasn’t been “done right” yet?
Hallett Sports & Entertainment out of Indianapolis will be bringing a hockey team to Bloomington later this year.
That story is still calling the Coliseum Grossinger Motors Arena. Grossinger quit paying years ago when they went out of business locally. The City is RIGHT ON TOP of finding a new sponsor or just officially changing the name to generic. This shows how inept government is. State Farm isn’t paying either, but they still get free advertising. https://blnnews.com/2023/11/20/coliseum-freeloaders/
Hockey at the Coliseum has been through many forms. Professional turned into minor league which turned into nothing except Riverman renting ice.
A big reason hockey failed is because what the teams were charged wasn’t recouped by ticket sales. Food and beverage sales made money but that didn’t go to the teams. I’m sure you remember John Butler and the CIAM fiasco.
Details of the lease are supposed to be released next week. It won’t take long to see if hockey is “done right” this time. That will depend on how many fans are willing to pay to watch.
Taxpayers Arena?
Hallett runs a good operation with the Indy Fuel and has plenty of of his own money. He’s Canadian so he knows hockey unlike the local crooks that he city let run wild before. The Fuel currently plays at the old Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. They are currently building their own multi-purpose facility in the north suburbs in Fishers, a town that is financially upper middle class to downright loaded. Many of Indys pro athletes live or lived there, including Reggie Miller. Whether it succeeds or fails, will be up to BN and staying out of the way of Hallett. Hopefully he will bring his own people in and refuse to hire anyone for the front office from BN or Central Illinois. He’ll likely get his own sponsors and steer clear of anything with Illinois on it. He has no interest in owning another arena. The one he and Fishers is building is first class. Such a venture would be impossible in BN.
The biggest component here is that the ECHL team can have an NHL/AHL affiliation. You are more likely to see people who can actually play in the NHL some day. Hallett is willing to invest his own resources to share hockey with others. I hope he succeeds. I can see us going to a few games a season because we’re just not hockey fans, and hopefully other fans will find it good family entertainment and go to.