CASPER, Wyo. — On Tuesday, the Casper City Council approved a rental agreement with the owner of a new junior hockey team to use the ice arena.
Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities Director Zulima Lopez spoke to the council at its work session at its temporary chambers at The Lyric, 230 W. Yellowstone Highway.
Lopez and Recreation Manager Nicholas Whipps detailed the three- to five-year agreement with BladeEdge Ventures LLC to rent the Casper Ice Arena for National Collegiate Development Conference hockey, in a memo they wrote to City Manager Carter Napier.
In March, the Casper Roughnecks junior hockey team announced it would dissolve this year.
The commissioner of the U.S. Premier Hockey League and the owner of a new National Collegiate Development Conference then approached the Casper Ice Arena about having the franchise in Casper.
The BladeVentures team would play in the conference’s Rocky Mountain Division with teams from cities including Rock Springs, Ogden and Provo, Utah, and Pueblo, Colorado.
Owner Chris Reeves requested a five-year agreement with a three-year term ending in May 2027, with two automatic one-year extensions unless either the city or BladeVentures requests a termination of the agreement.
Lopez said the rental agreement, besides its longer term, would include some notable changes from previous Junior Hockey agreements, including what it learned from the one with the Roughnecks. She listed these in the memo:
- Escalating rental fees at 3% annually
- Escalating office, storage and locker room and rental fees at 3% annually
- Escalating fees of 3% annually for use of certain city equipment
- Releasing the city of liability losses incurred from disruption or closure for the construction of a second sheet of ice
- Establishing an enforceable code of conduct
Mayor Steve Cathey asked if Reeves has any local owners or if he is the sole owner, because previous teams had local co-owners.
Reeves, speaking by videoconference, said he is the sole owner through his holding company.
“The big difference between the team that was here and the team that’s coming is the kids pay to play,” Reeves said. “We have to do a really good job in the community, we’ve got to go with the local and corporate sponsorships; and so we’ve got to do our due diligence to make this work.”
