La Verne gets out of expensive hockey business

by Chrissy Zehrbach
Sports Editor

After four years of declining enrollment and mounting losses, the city will close the doors on the La Verne Hockey Club.

The club will officially close its doors May 31. The last activity at the club will take place May 16.

At an April meeting, the City Council decided to get itself out of the hockey business and close down the facility for good.

In 2000 the city took over what was then the Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Center, hoping to turn it around, but only succeeded in losing increasingly more money each year.

According to the staff report presented at the April meeting, the city lost $60,000 the first year, $120,000 the second year and $132,000 in year three.

“This year we’re looking at losing $250-300,000,” said Bill Aguirre, director of Parks and Community Services.

The decision was made to shut down the club before more monetary losses.

Community members are not happy about the decision.

Club participants have voiced their opinions. Some even attended the April 5 meeting to try and sway the decision, but with no avail.

“Parents as well as the participants spoke to me” City Manager Martin Lomeli said. “Their concern was that it’s a good activity, obviously a positive activity, and they would have to go to Upland or West Covina. It’s been a good facility and a good environment for kids to be involved in.”

Although the lease on the building ends in 2008, it was not feasible for the city to continue.

California’s state deficit is more than $50 billion, Lomeli said.

“The city is looking everywhere it can to reduce operational costs,” he said.

The club has also had to deal with competition from new hockey facilities in the area.

“With the increase in competition with Upland and West Covina, we would have to be in the hundreds team-wise to break even,” Aguirre said.

The building owners also have expressed a desire to sell the facility, the report stated.

New management instated at the club in June 2003 was helping bring business back up, but came a little too late.

General Manager Kevin Nash relocated his family from San Diego to manage the club. He said at that point they discussed plans in terms of 12 to 15 months down the line.

“We’ve more than doubled business and they’re closing it only eight months since I’ve been here,” Nash said.

Nash said there were only 42 teams at the time he took over and there are now close to 85. The club had also begun to implement tournaments, which they had never done before, as well as birthday parties and open skating time.

“Bottom line, we just didn’t have enough teams at the facility to offset the cost,” Aguirre said. “Some of the things they were proposing weren’t realistic.”

Nash said he felt the club just needed more time.

“I understand they’re losing money, but at the same time ...they really didn’t give it a chance. We were where we needed to be,” he said. “People were looking forward to returning to playing. This facility has had problems in the past, but everyone was pretty satisfied.

“But they have to do what they have to do,” he added.

Some recognized that participation was on the rise from the previous year.

“When Kevin first took over they gave him a time frame, but they didn’t allow him to get there,” said Bonnie Parker, a La Verne resident and mother of three, who has played at the hockey club with her family since it opened. “They shortened his timeframe and that wasn’t fair.”

The decision has not gone without opposition from other parents.

“We did meet with some opposition. They felt that the facility was on the right road and they should be given more time,” Aguirre said.

Nash said the parents’ main concern was that there is “no place for the kids to go. They’ll end up on the streets.”

Out of the 750 people who participate, 500 are kids, Nash said.

The participants themselves are concerned about the club closing.

Dustin Newton, 16, called the closing of the club “a complete outrage.” He and his friend Justin McAulay, 16, started played hockey at the club before it was taken over by the city, back when it was the Gretzky Center.

“It didn’t change much, I don’t know why they’re closing it,” McAulay said.

Like many participants, they will have to seek out one of the competing clubs in the area to continue playing hockey.

“The location helps because it’s here in La Verne. It’s hard to travel to the other facilities,” Parker said as she sat watching her son play in a championship game.

“It’s been really good for the high schools and middle schools in the area because it’s so close. Not all kids play football, basketball or baseball. All the other kids who want to play hockey are at a disadvantage,” she said.

While it was an advantage for the kids, the club was not a financial advantage for the city that funded it.

“The thing is, Kevin is a great manager and hockey is a great sport, but we were losing too much money and something had to be done,” Aguirre said.