River Rats Go Outside to Get In on the Future

Poor Larry King, the sports promoter, CEO of Roller Hockey International and controlling partner of the Sacramento River Rats.

He canceled the River Rats’ home opener with the San Jose Rhinos because workers were unable to complete the 5,000-seat Rat Park, the outdoor rink being built in a former rodeo arena at the state fairgrounds.

About 2,000 spectators were turned away an hour before the 8 p.m. start as workers cut lumber and pounded tent spikes into supports of polyurethane dasher boards.

Two days before the scheduled opener, King was scurrying about helping construction workers, a cellular phone in one hand, a dog and his young son and daughter underfoot.

King sees his $250,000 rink, with dirt floor, no roof, portable metal bleachers and seats going for up to $15 a pop, as RHI’s wave of the future. Operating costs are lower. Overhead is less, and the outdoors is good for people, he said.

“In lots of areas around the country and in Canada they want to get outside during the summer,” King said. “I don’t think you will see us ever play outside in Southern California or South Florida, probably not in Houston, but in many places this is the way the league is going to go, outdoor arenas.”

King scoffs at those who say bailing out of Arco Arena and playing outdoors in torrid Sacramento in the summer is a big step backward. He says he expects sellouts as the season progresses.

Interestingly, the rink has to be disassembled twice during the RHI season for rodeos. Putting it together again should prove interesting.

The River Rats host the Bullfrogs on Thursday.

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Bullfrog President Stuart Silver wants to build a multimillion dollar, 10,400-seat multiple-use ice/roller hockey/basketball facility in Ontario.

Dubbed the “Silverdome,” the facility is expected to open by the end of the decade, according to Silver, and could host a professional in-line roller hockey club and an ice hockey team from the West Coast Hockey League.

Silver displayed a letter of credit securing $17 million for the project and architectural drawings that show two ice and one in-line hockey rinks, business suites and a health spa. He displayed a guarantee from San Diego Barracuda majority owner Dennis Murphy, a league founder, that “a Roller Hockey International team will be made available to you if you should desire a team in your new building for the 1998 RHI season.”

A similar letter from Western Professional Hockey League President Rick Kozuback also was displayed.

The Silverdome is still in the conceptual stage and could be a fall-back location for the Bullfrogs, if things don’t work out at the Pond, Silver said.

Silver family members are growing increasingly critical of RHI operations and have moved to insulate the team as best they can from RHI woes. They’ve signed independent sponsor and equipment deals and are on the second year of a five-year agreement that allows them to keep the estimated $400,000 a year they make by selling advertising on the dasher boards at the Pond.

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With only 10 teams left, inter-division play, which critics said was long overdue and league management felt was too costly, became necessary to fill out the 24-game schedule when San Diego and Toronto folded two weeks before the season started.

The Bullfrogs got an easy draw, playing a home-and-home series with Ottawa, which had the worst record in the league last year and was taken over by the league June 2. A Canadian newspaper report quoted Coach Jocelyn Guevremont as saying he would reluctantly remain with the club, but that some players might not stay around after the takeover. Ottawa’s name has been changed to the Wheels, because former owners who held the rights to the name Loggers refused to let the league use it.

The Bullfrogs also play at Montreal.

Shrinkage of the league added another inadvertent benefit.

There are talented players available and less spots for them to play this season, which means the caliber of competition is expected to improve. It also freed up some of the league’s best players, like Bullfrog defenseman Doug McCarthy and RHI 1996 leading scorer, Doug Ast, who landed with the Blades.

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Changes for the Bullfrogs include new front-office personnel and a new general manager, Bob Destocki, who is a minor league ice hockey veteran.

No radio coverage is planned. Unique to the league, radio broadcasts were credited with helping the Bullfrogs build a solid youth fan base. But KPLS-AM (830) was not happy when announcer Lew Stowers was fired in the middle of last season. Stowers was later rehired under pressure.