West Valley, Grizz say they'll score with arena bailout

WEST VALLEY CITY — Some of the most exciting action in hockey comes when a team that is behind pulls its goalie in favor of sending an extra skater onto the ice to try to generate a last-second goal.

It's both decisive and desperate at the same time.

The same might be said of West Valley City's recent surprising bailout of the struggling Utah Grizzlies. In exchange for writing off $600,000 in past-due rent at the E Center, the city takes a 40 percent ownership stake in the struggling hockey club, joining a handful of American communities with ownership ties of varying degrees to professional sports teams.

If there's a positive spin to all this, it's that community ownership, although unorthodox, can work and even flourish under the right circumstances.

The city contends its move from landlord to equity partner can be such a success and is the best option for recouping money owed by the team because it keeps the Double-A hockey franchise from having to seek greener financial pastures or being forced to hang up its skates altogether.

Either action by the Grizzlies would have left the city-owned E Center — home to about 120 events yearly (including hockey) — darkened an additional 36 to 40 nights, according to West Valley City manager Wayne Pyle. Potential lost revenues from parking and concessions, along with the possibility of finding a replacement hockey team and having to negotiate a new, less-favorable arena lease, also factored into the decision-making, Pyle said.

Ultimately, losing a known tenant responsible for one-third of the E Center's yearly operations was unacceptable.

Pyle stressed that no cash payout will be going to the team as part of the new agreement, the E Center will continue to collect rent — albeit at renegotiated rates — from the hockey club and the ongoing inherent risk for the city continues to be its contribution or financing of the E Center.

Utah Grizzlies CEO Kevin Bruder said the debt grew over time, and the team first approached the city about striking a deal last summer. Negotiations had been ongoing since.

"You look at the course of time and a 15-year track record of a team's ongoing operations, and our ownership group came to the conclusion that for us to continue, there needed to be some changes in the operation financially," said Bruder, who dons a second hat as president of Centennial Management, which operates the E Center,