Minor league ice hockey coming to Savannah's new arena

The new Savannah Arena will be home to a new sport for the Hostess City —professional ice hockey, the team's president Bob Ohrablo told the Savannah Morning News.

The company hired to manage and operate the new Savannah Arena has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. Wednesday, when it will announce an expansion team in the minor league ECHL starting with the 2022-23 season.

Members of the management company, Oak View Group Facilities, will be in attendance along with officials from the ECHL and the city of Savannah, including Mayor Van Johnson and Savannah Sports Council director Rob Wells.

Eagles in SAV:Georgia Southern plans for more athletic events in Savannah

"This is a first for Savannah," Wells said Tuesday. "I’m incredibly excited about it. I think it’s a great addition to the city."

Ohrablo will serve as team president while holding the same title with the league's Jacksonville (Florida) Icemen, of which he is part owner. The to-be-named Savannah franchise is owned by Roo Hockey, LLC, headed by Jacksonville businessman Andy Kaufmann, CEO of Zawyer Sports. Kaufmann also is a majority partner of the Icemen as well as the owner of a minor league baseball team, the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels of the Single-A Florida State League.

Ohrablo, who has more than 30 years working in pro hockey front offices, including the NHL, said there will not be a conflict with owning two teams in the same league.

"It’s something we’ll be very sensitive about. The hockey operations will operate as two separate entities," he said.

Fans will be able to participate in a name-the-team contest, Ohrablo said.

The ECHL is regarded as a Double-A level developmental league affiliated with teams in the National Hockey League and American Hockey League (Triple-A). In a normal regular season pre-pandemic, teams play 36 home games from October to April.

Formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League before a merger with the West Coast Hockey League, the ECHL has 13 of its 26 current franchises active while others have suspended play this season because of COVID-19 with the expectation to return to full status for the 2021-22 season, when it would add two expansion teams. The league could operate as normal, adding Savannah in 2022-23.

"That’s the idea," Ohrablo said. "We’re putting a lot of stock into that vaccine."

While Kaufmann now owns 100% of the team, Ohrablo said that ownership could include more of a Savannah-area ensemble. Shares of the Icemen, for example, have been purchased by local business people as well as Jacksonville's own Tim Tebow and Jaguars star linebacker Myles Jack.

"At some point in time, before we start playing probably, we’ll open it up to people who want to talk to (Kaufmann) about becoming local partners," Ohrablo said. "We feel some aspect of local ownership is crucial."

Among the teams in the ECHL’s South Division that are geographically close to Savannah are the South Carolina Stingrays in North Charleston; the Greenville (S.C.) Swamp Rabbits; the Jacksonville (Florida) Icemen; the Orlando Solar Bears; and the Florida Everblades in Estero. The Atlanta Gladiators are one of the teams on pause for the current season.

Project update:Savannah arena project construction on time

While there has been no pro ice hockey in Savannah, the Civic Center has put down ice annually since 1999 for the popular college hockey tournament. The 2021 Enmarket Savannah Hockey Classic — featuring its recurring lineup of club teams from Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida and Florida State — was canceled for this Jan. 15-16 because of the coronavirus pandemic, with plans to return in 2022.

"If you look at some of the other franchises in the South that have been successful and you see the popularity of our own (two-night) Enmarket Savannah Hockey Classic, I really have no doubts that hockey will be successful on more nights of the year,” Wells said.

Pros and cons

Savannah has been called home over the decades by pro baseball, basketball and indoor football minor league teams, among others. The most recent pro baseball team was the Savannah Sand Gnats of the Single-A South Atlantic League. The ballclub was affiliated with the New York Mets when it left Grayson Stadium after the 2015 season to become the Columbia (S.C.) Fireflies.    

"Quite honestly, that doesn’t scare us," Ohrablo said of Savannah's checkered minor league sports history. "When I came into Jacksonville with the Icemen, some people thought I was crazy, that Jacksonville had a really sour history of hockey. They had some successes but mostly not successes.

"I studied the market here before I asked investors to invest in it. It was very obvious we could fix some of that. I’ve been doing this for 38 years and we know what we’re doing. You create a family-fun atmosphere at a reasonable price and then you really focus on group sales."

Ohrablo said the Icemen broke league marks for group sales.

"That’s how you’re going to expose people to a new sport," he said. "I think we’ll do very well in Savannah. We’re excited about it. It’s a brand new opportunity."

He said it will be the first team he's managed that will play in a new arena. According to OVG, the arena will have a capacity of 9,500 seats (7,300 for hockey), 12 luxury suites, five lodge boxes and a party suite. 

Ohrablo said ticket prices have not been determined, and said ECHL game tickets average around $21.

On Savannah’s current sports landscape, the regular professional sporting event is an annual golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club. The fourth edition is scheduled for March 25-28 at the Deer Creek Course.

Great place to work:Savannah Bananas named top employer in sports industry

"I think it’s a growing market, it’s growing quickly," said Ohrablo, noting hockey-loving transplants from the North. "That was the same reasons that appealed to us about Jacksonville when we first started. To be one of two teams in town. We see the success of the Bananas, obviously."

One team's appeal

The Savannah Bananas play in a collegiate summer baseball league, the Coastal Plain League, and tickets have been in great demand since they started in 2016. The Bananas organization is creating an additional traveling club to feature professionals, the Premier Team, with several games scheduled beginning in March. The open tryout is Feb. 20 at Grayson Stadium.

"I think it's going to be very exciting for Savannah, and I think we're going to work together," Bananas owner Jesse Cole said on a podcast with the Savannah Morning News' Adam Van Brimmer. "There'll be some unique ways that I think we can partner together."

Cole said he didn't view the new hockey team as competition in the local sports and entertainment market. Cole said he has spoken with the hockey team's owner and it's been supportive. They both want to provide a fun product for families, young professionals, people of all ages.

"The only competition we have is ourselves," Cole said. "And we need to get better every day at a better experience for our fans. So I see it as an opportunity to say, 'All right, let's draw more people out to sporting events. Let's bring more people from all over the country to come see us and then give something for this community to be proud of.'

"And so we will work together. I don't know what it looks like. I don't know if the Bananas are going to try to play hockey over there. Or if they're going to try to play baseball over here, we'll see. But there'll be some fun opportunities ahead, I'm sure."

Ohrablo stressed the importance of the franchise reaching out to help local nonprofit and youth organizations, a point of emphasis for his teams in Jacksonville and earlier in Orlando.

"My belief is when you own a team in any sport, I don’t care if it’s major league, minor league, whatever, two things have to be in the back of your head," Ohrablo said. "One is you’re going to win the championship. You’re going to strive each and every day to do that. Two is that team has to give back to the community, has to benefit the community in many different ways."

Another way to involve the community is establishing youth hockey leagues, with the ice time available at the arena or, perhaps further into the future, at a separate practice rink.

"You’ve got to ingrain the sport into the community," Ohrablo said, noting that plans would take into account the COVID-19 pandemic. "You’ve got to get kids to play. Our goal over the next few years is to figure out how do we develop a rink in town that kids can play at, that we can have a junior program. In the meantime, there’s street hockey. Kids can play street hockey without even knowing how to ice skate. We’ll be working on all those things for the next six months or so."

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Contact him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz