Breaking News: No Hockey This Year at Ford Arena

KFDM News has learned there won't be a hockey team playing at Ford Arena this year, but SMG General Manager John Hughes says the owner of the Austin Ice Bats is still intent on finding a local investor and fielding a team in Beaumont for the 2009 season.

In March, the owner of the Texas Wildcatters announced he was moving the team to Ontario, California.

The owner of the Austin Ice Bats, Randy Sanders, wants to move his team, and he visited with SMG officials several weeks ago and said he was trying to find a local investor to help him find a home in Beaumont for his hockey team.

But SMG General Manager John Hughes says it won't happen this year.

"We're not going to have hockey in Ford Arena this year," Hughes told KFDM News in a telephone conversation Wednesday afternoon.

"I spoke with Randy Sanders late Wednesday morning, and he told me the Ice Bats will sit out the season.  It wasn't a matter of terms. It's just he was unsuccessful in the time frame he had, which was a month, in finding a local investor."

Hughes says he'll talk with Sanders in the near future.

"He expects to be back in Beaumont in the next few weeks to look for a local investor, so he might do something here in the 2009 hockey season."

Despite the loss of hockey, Hughes says Ford Arena is in good shape for the coming weeks and months.

"We have a lot of activities going on at Ford Arena and Ford Park, " said Hughes. "We wanted to have hockey, but it wasn't just about filling event days - we don't want to lose money. We won't have the utility costs and other costs associated with hockey. We have other things in the pipeline. We still have events filling a majority of those days."