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BC
Icemen |
1997
- 2002 |
United
Hockey League (UHL) |
Broome
County Veterans Memorial Arena |
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No
Need For Negatives, Icemen Have Been A Plus
June
7, 2000
Dave
Pace, BC Icemen Owner
Press
& Sun Bulletin
It
was with great disappointment and frustration that I read Sean
Mayer’s article of May 31 about a tale of two hockey cities.
Although
I believe that Mayer and the Press & Sun-Bulletin have been very
fair in their coverage of the Icemen, for some reason they once
again found themselves compelled to resurrect the past and further
lament the departure of the Rangers.
Instead
of accepting the change, however disappointing it may have been to
the community, Mayer chose to comment on the bad luck of both cities
in having to compromise their standards and be willing to tolerate
what he defines as obviously inferior levels of hockey.
Therefore,
instead of fixating on the negatives, I would ask that Mayer reflect
on the positives that the Icemen organization has brought to the
community over the past three years (I suspect that some of the same
might be found if one were to dig deeper into how the team in
Hartford has adjusted to its new environs.)
The
Icemen were founded three years ago only days after the announcement
of the Rangers’ departure. Despite
the fact we intended to wait a year before beginning game
operations, we bowed to the urgings of local political leaders who
didn’t want to see the city “go dark.”
This
decision caused our organization to race through the process of
hiring a staff, getting a schedule, soliciting sponsors and most
importantly, drafting a team. We
didn’t know if it could be done, but we wanted a team in the Arena
just as badly as the community did.
The city didn’t go dark and we played our first game only
four months later.
Over
the past three years, the Icemen organization has distinguished
itself on the ice by winning the Eastern Division championship in
two of its first three seasons.
More importantly, this organization has distinguished itself
off the ice in many other ways including:
--Working
to build the expansion of the UHL to the East and develop national
rivalries, securing the future of professional hockey in Binghamton
(five teams have been added in addition to the Icemen).
--Initiating
the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame to celebrate our past heroes.
--Promoting
youth hockey in the Triple Cities.
--Heavy
involvement in worthy charitable causes like Mom’s House, Day
Nursery and several local scholarship foundations among others.
--Developing
an extensive outreach program that has our players and staff
visiting schools, hospitals and other organization nearly every day
throughout the season.
This
is the community’s team and it’s important that we reflect on
this, and even more important that we promote it and support it so
that we may reflect on it further for years to come.
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