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Saturday, Mar. 22, 2008
Notebook: Three years later
By Annie Fowler, Herald staff writer
Three years ago, Darryl Porter wanted to move the Tri-City Americans across the border to Chilliwack, British Columbia.
The team’s former owner said hockey could not survive in the desert with an average attendance of 2,200 fans per game.
Just one week ago, in front of a standing room only crowd of 5,969, the Americans won their first U.S. Division title with a 2-1 victory over the Spokane Chiefs, and captured the Scotty Munro Trophy for the best overall record in the Western Hockey League.
Needless to say, Porter no longer owns the team and hockey is thriving in the desert. On April 22, 2005, Stu Barnes and Olaf Kolzig — National Hockey League players and former Americans players — plunked down a reported $3 million to keep the franchise in Kennewick. It came with the blessing of the WHL.
“This franchise has had a lot of uncertainty. They rescued it and put it on solid footing,” said WHL commissioner Ron Robison, who was in Kennewick on Friday to award the Americans the Scotty Munro Trophy. “They are developing a program people in the Tri-Cities can be proud of.”
Add a division banner and the league’s regular-season title under the coaching of Don Nachbaur, and Robison see nothing but good things to come for the Americans.
“I’m very, very happy for everyone involved,” Robison said. “There’s no substitution for a good hockey program. They have demonstrated to everyone in the league that the fans support this team and we can build on that. Don had done a great job with this group of players. This is not a one-year situation.”
For Barnes, it has been a worthwhile investment.
“For those of us involved, we believed that it could work here,” Barnes said via telephone the day after the Americans won their first banner. “Tri-Cities is a great setting, things have been positive and it’s super the way things have happened over the last few years.”
During the past three years, the Americans attendance has nearly doubled. This season, the team averaged 4,245 fans per games, an increase of 8 percent (or 303 fans) from last season.
During the “unofficial” U.S. Division title game with Spokane, Chiefs GM Tim Speltz looked out over a packed Toyota Center and remarked, “I can’t believe they ever wanted to move this team.”
