[Part 3 of a 3-part Series]

Click here to read Part One

Click here to read Part Two

Deep in the heart of some hockey purists, perhaps under a blanket of snow in Winnipeg or Quebec City, is the belief that their sacred game of hockey cannot survive in a place where you can sunbathe on game day. But Arizona boasts three professional teams – The National Hockey League Phoenix Coyotes, Central Hockey League Prescott Sundogs and ECHL Phoenix RoadRunners –each with unique economic challenges for survival. It’s rare when schedules offer the teams in home games one after another, three days in a row. But in February 2007 the stars aligned and I traveled from Tucson to take the temperature of pro hockey in Arizona, one night at a time. Along the way I hoped to find out how Tucson could again join Arizona’s professional hockey ranks.

Meep, Meep! Running back down the Road

While in the cartoon world the Coyote chases the Roadrunner, in Phoenix’s hockey market the chase is reversed. The NHL Coyotes rule the roost, while the ECHL minor league Phoenix RoadRunners attempt to create a sports foothold Downtown.

But it wasn’t always that way. Hockey fans new to Arizona might forget that a team named the Roadrunners first brought professional hockey to Phoenix 40 years ago, as part of the minor Western Hockey League. The Coyotes can’t even say they are Phoenix’s first major league hockey team; that honor goes to the World Hockey Association’s version of the Roadrunners. While the NHL and WHA merged without Phoenix, the Roadrunners spent time in the old minor Central Hockey League, the Pacific Hockey League and the International Hockey League before leaving town after the 1996-97 season.

A completely new RoadRunners franchise, licensing (and altering slightly) the venerable team’s traditional name and logo, returned to Phoenix for the 2005-2006 season. So why is minor league hockey now feasible in this NHL market?

“We’re owned by the (NBA Phoenix) Suns, and that’s a unique position for an ECHL team to be in, so we’re in good shape,” notes Dan Weiss, director of RoadRunners broadcasting. Weiss says Bloomington, Illinois was an original destination considered for this ECHL team, but the Suns ownership and the existing arena were better options for the franchise and league.

And as they say in real estate, the thing to remember is “location, location, location.” “The goal was to bring back hockey to downtown Phoenix. If you’re in the East Valley, it’s a real pain in rush hour traffic to get over to Glendale (to see the Coyotes),” Weiss says “It can take an hour and a half. The idea was to have an affordable entertainment product for people in the East Valley. We cater to families; they know it’s a safe, fun and affordable environment.”

Weiss says the revitalized RoadRunners average 3,548 fans in a building that is sectioned approximately in half for hockey; the arena’s usual 18,000 capacity for basketball becomes 7,747 for hockey. “We’re smack dad in the middle as far as attendance goes in the ECHL,” Weiss says. “Our goal is to get as much as 4,000-5,000 a night, so we’re knocking on that door. The Phoenix area is so saturated with sports, not only the major teams, but also ASU, that with time as we get our name into the market it will pick up.”

I was able to get what would be considered a best ticket, at $25.50, for the RoadRunners’ Saturday, February 17th game with the defending ECHL champion Alaska Aces, but as in Prescott Valley I moved up into less expensive seats for a better view. Seats on the glass are fun to bang on and see smashed faces; the grace of the game is best seen above the glass.

It’s “ASU Student” night, and while I see little evidence of college kids, the RoadRunners do draw their second-highest total for the year so far, 5,977 fans.

It is an unusually warm February day in Phoenix, and the arena is stuffy. The requisite fireworks, spotlights and thunderous music also don’t hide the fact that this was one of the most docile crowds I had seen at a pro hockey game. Even the vicious cheap shot from Aces forward Ryan MacMurchy to RoadRunners defenseman Chris Cava near the end of the first period didn’t create much uproar from the partisans – though it did result later in a ten-game suspension for MacMurchy.

Thankfully, the tone of play settled down, with the roster-depleted RoadRunners staying focused and competitive until the third period, when Alaska pulled away 6-3. Again, the quality of play varied from minute to minute, but the talent range between players was not as wide as in the CHL contest the night before. The ECHL game was perhaps more physical and showed more speed, at least from the Alaska Aces, but play did not appear head and shoulders over the CHL product, as some might expect.

Another surprise, and improvement, in minor league hockey is the trickle-down effect the newer NHL rules are having on their junior partners.

“The game has changed now, we’re making it a game for the skill players (in the minors), while even just three years ago many of those guys couldn’t get to the NHL,” Weiss says. “So they’re stressing those rules changes here, because it’s a developmental league, and the skill level is greater now and the hockey here is the best it’s ever been. The Coyotes have sent us five or six guys this year, so they understand developing prospects not only at the top (“AAA”AHL) level.

The last Roadrunners game I had seen on TV – 30 years earlier when their namesake was a member of the major league WHA – was a more rambunctious affair than this night’s offering. Still, with a history in Phoenix reaching back 40 years, it was comforting to see the powder-blue RoadRunners jerseys scurrying across the desert ice once again.

And the Coyote might yet chase the RoadRunner – Weiss is curious to see how many playoff-starved Coyotes fans will walk through the turnstiles to see the RoadRunners this spring if they make the ECHL playoffs. Hockey fans are hockey fans, he understands.

“There is a strong passion for hockey here. More kids are playing, there are more rinks popping up. So the fans are developing, and the sate of the game is good here,” Weiss concludes. “Hockey can work anywhere – it’s all about marketing your team and making your tickets affordable.”

While Weiss says he’s not aware of any talk in CHL or ECHL circles about a team in Tucson, he realizes, “It would be great to have a natural rival like that, right down the road. Our closest rival now is Las Vegas.”

The Tucson Tarantulas, Perhaps?

I am not surprised after my three-day tour that all of Arizona’s professional hockey teams were exciting, engaging, and worth watching. But I am surprised that Arizona’s three pro hockey teams all seem to be viable long-term businesses, with fan bases that all have the potential to grow. Many Southwestern cities – including Tucson and Phoenix – have been embittered by the folding of iffy minor leagues in the past decade, but the CHL and ECHL (and NHL) seem to be stable partners. There’s even renewed talk in Tucson government circles of a new downtown arena – with a minor league hockey team as its cornerstone tenant.

If diminutive Prescott Valley can make that happen – and do it the right way – then the million person Tucson area has no excuse. Find the right league, the right owners, and the right arena, perhaps I can soon add a fourth consecutive night to my next Arizona pro hockey tour.

Timothy Gassen is a Tucson filmmaker who was slated to do radio for the ill-fated pro Tucson Scorch of the now-defunct WPHL. His latest book, Red White & Blues: a personal history of Indianapolis Racers Hockey, is scheduled to hit the shelves in Fall 2007. Visit whaRACERS.com for details.