Bullfrog Owner Tries to Add Hockey Team

A proposal to place a minor league hockey team in the Anaheim Convention Center as early as the 1998-99 season looks promising, according to a Canadian sports agent brokering the sale of the Tucson Gila Monsters of the West Coast Hockey League to Stuart Silver, president and CEO of the Bullfrogs.

“Mr. Silver is committed to bringing a professional minor league ice hockey team to Anaheim, and to that extent I am trying to work out a deal,” Al Howell said Wednesday. “By no means is this deal done, but I would say that we are 70% [complete] for this year.”

Howell said lawyers for both parties are reviewing the deal and he expects to know within 10 days if it can be accomplished.

WCHL President Mike McCall said the chance of a team in Anaheim playing in 1998-99 is “a long shot,” but added he would not rule it out. He said the league has had its eye on expanding to Orange County.

“We have always felt that Anaheim is a possibility down the road, but, clearly, it’s late [for next season],” McCall said.

Silver, however, said he was only interested in purchasing the team in time for the start of the 1998-99 season in October. He said the team would not need a lot of advance marketing, as McCall contends, because he could cross-promote the ice hockey team with his Bullfrogs, who play in-line hockey each summer at the Arrowhead Pond.

Silver said Todd Gordon, the Bullfrogs’ coach, and his assistant, Richard Ropchan, have agreed to also coach the ice hockey team. Several Bullfrogs who play ice hockey in the off-season, including goaltender Rob Laurie, have expressed interest in remaining in Southern California to play for the proposed Anaheim team, Silver said.

Greg Smith, executive director of the convention center, said he is intrigued by the idea of a minor league ice hockey team playing in his facility because it “seems to make a lot of sense.”

“It sounds good,” Smith said, “but in this business we deal with a lot of ideas and proposals. Until I have a contract, I’m not certain of anything.”

The master plan for the 7,700-seat convention center, owned by the city of Anaheim and former home to the Amigos of the American Basketball Assn. in the 1970s, calls for more public use of the building, Smith said.

“The direction I have received from the city council is to try to get more sporting events into the arena,” he said. “We’re adding a huge addition of 765,000 square feet, which will allow us to move all of the convention business now being done in the arena, out.”

The next scheduled sporting event for the convention center, Smith said, is a 16-team high school basketball tournament in December.

Smith said a minor league ice hockey team would provide an affordable alternative to the NHL’s Mighty Ducks, who charged $15-$23 for the least-expensive seats in the Arrowhead Pond during the 1997-98 season.

But McCall isn’t eager to ruffle any feathers.

“We would want to have discussions with the Ducks before we do anything, and we have not talked with them yet,” he said.

Tim Mead, spokesman for Anaheim Sports, which oversees the Ducks and Angels, said Wednesday the organization had no comment on the current proceedings.

The last sporting event at the convention center was on Jan. 27, 1994, when the Clippers lost to the Knicks, 103-101. That NBA game had to be moved out of the Sports Arena because of damaged caused by the Northridge earthquake.