Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Trio hopes to change ice dream into reality

Tampa Bay Sportsplex Inc. proposes building a hockey arena that would also include an Olympic-sized pool, an arcade and a restaurant.

By RODNEY THRASH
Published March 20, 2005

NEW TAMPA - At least for soccer, football and baseball, New Tampa has some practice facilities. The same can't be said of ice hockey, and in a Stanley Cup championship town, that's inexcusable, Arbor Greene homeowner Jim Mennie said.

"There's pent-up demand," he said.

At least that's what people tell him in private e-mails and telephone calls.

So in October, Mennie teamed with Timothy Chase, who the Montreal Canadiens drafted in the seventh round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, and Todd Perrin, a coach for the youth-league Tampa Bay Titans hockey club, to form the nonprofit Tampa Bay Sportsplex Inc. Last week, Mennie outlined the nonprofit's plan for an 80,000-square-foot ice hockey arena and aqua center across from Hunter's Green. He did so at a March 14 meeting of the New Tampa Park & Recreation Needs Assessment Task Force, of which he is a member. The Hillsborough County Commission formed the group so it could hash out where New Tampa could potentially build additional recreational facilities.

"It's something that I think the area needs," Mennie told the task force. "It will be privately financed. We are not looking for any type of assistance from any municipality" except for land, he said.

Mennie is not worried about where the organization will get the money to construct the building. AMong Mennie, Chase and Perrin, they've already committed $500,000. They know that's not nearly enough for the estimated $12-million to $16-million it would cost to build the arena; they're hoping to secure loans and private donations to cover the balance of the cost.

But they can't do that without first getting land for the arena. That's where Hillsborough County comes in. Mennie has his sights set on 82 acres across from Hunter's Green. Last year, the county bought the land from St. Joseph's Hospital to deal with the widening of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. But the county doesn't need all of the acreage. It has already promised the proposed New Tampa Cultural Center 6 acres, but not without a litany of conditions, including a $10-million endowment.

County real estate director Mike Kelly said that he anticipates there will be additional parcels apart from the land already set aside for the cultural center but that he doesn't know how much that will be. The county, Kelly said, is awaiting the results of an engineering study to determine how much land is developable and how much is not.

"Once you have the land, then the ball starts rolling," Mennie said. "Then you can begin to tap into the nonprofit organizations, the foundations."

But how do you sell an ice hockey arena in the middle of New Tampa?

"Many of the Tampa Bay Lightning players live in New Tampa," Mennie said. "There is a market and a desire to have this kind of center."

Kelly Rubin, a parks task force member and president of the New Tampa Little League, agreed.

"A lot of kids are getting into the ice skating," she said. And their parents must make long commutes to Brandon, where the nearest arena, Ice Sports Forum, is located. With the Sportsplex's proposed facility, "parents don't have to drive all the way up to Brandon," she said.

Rubin lives in Hunter's Green, across from where Mennie is proposing that the Sportsplex build the ice hockey arena. She doesn't see any harm in having the complex in such close proximity to her bedroom community.

"I don't think it would hurt the value," Rubin said. "If anything it will help the value of Hunter's Green assuming (the arena) would be set back and landscaped properly."

The facility wouldn't cater to hockey players only, Mennie said. Plans call for a diving facility, a full-service restaurant, an exercise gym and spa, meeting rooms, a sports shop, an arcade, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

"It's not just for hockey," he said. "It's for swimming, it's for ice skating, it's for families, it's a restaurant, it's a sports shop. It's something we don't have."

In its first year, Mennie estimates the arena will take in $4-million in revenue. That's based on the cost of ice time, advertising, admission and tournaments, among other things. The center also expects to earn money from leasing out portions of the facility.

-Rodney Thrash can be reached at 813 269-5313 or rthrash@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 19, 2005, 08:39:05]