Some form of ice hockey slated for Chevy Centre this fall

Published:Thursday, July 24, 2008

YOUNGSTOWN —It’s highly unlikely the Youngstown SteelHounds or similar minor league hockey team will play its home games at the Chevrolet Centre this season, Mayor Jay Williams said.

But it doesn’t mean there won’t be hockey at the city-owned facility, he said.

Nothing is close to being confirmed, but Williams said, “There is the chance of some sort of hockey at the Chevrolet Centre.”

An official announcement on hockey at the center will be made in a few weeks, he said.

“It’s remote,” Williams said when asked if the SteelHounds, which have called the center home for the past three seasons, would play at the facility this fall.

“It’s going to be a challenge” to field a team this season, said Herb Washington, owner of Blue Line Hockey LLC, the SteelHounds’ parent company.

Without the SteelHounds, the center would have 32 open dates. Eric Ryan, the facility’s executive director, has said he’s confident 20 of those 32 dates could be filled by other events.

“Hockey, as part of a package to fill those dates, remains a distinct possibility,” Williams said.

The mayor didn’t provide details about “some sort of hockey” at the center this season. But when asked about junior league hockey, he said it was a possibility.

Bruce Zoldan, owner of the Mahoning Valley Phantoms, a junior hockey team in the North American Hockey League, said he’s had “a couple of very, very surface conversations” about hockey at the Chevrolet Centre with Ryan.

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.