The CHL's next stop: Denver.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: SPORTS biz

A BOULDER BUSINESS EXECUTIVE IS BETTING that the Central Hockey League can play in a big-league market. And that market happens to be Denver.

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Ball Corp. CEO John Haws is putting up a significant persona] investment to reintroduce prolessional hockey to the Denver Coliseum on the faith that hockey's popularity among youth will translate to ticket sales.

The last time they laced up the skates at the venerable Denver arena, perestroika was in the news and Michael Dukakis was running for president. Then. in 1988, it was the Denver Rangers of the International Hockey League who took the ice. Starting this October, it will 1w a new CHL team with the supposed name of the Colorado Cutthroats. The actual name unveiling hadn't happened by our press date, so there was still some mystery surrounding the identity.

No matter what the team is called, Hayes and team president Brad Lund, former GM of the CHL's Bloomington (Ind) Blaze, will lace challenges in cultivating a loyal fan base in a geography when' competition comes not just from the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, but. the ECM L's (.1olorado Eagles. who frequently sell out the .5,300-seat Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, and the University el Denver Pioneers. who muinely top the 5,000-Ian mark at home games.

At a press conlerence to introduce the (then-name-less.) team, Haves talked about youth hockey players and their families as a main market target, noting that in the Denver area, there are more than 9,000 members or the player/coach organization USA Hockey who are 18 or younger.

On the "plus" side for the CHL team, Denver has been extraordinarily supportive of professional sports, with each of the four major U.S. leagues represented in the metro area, along with a healthy array of secondary leagues and teams, including Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids. the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and Major League La-crosse's Denver Outlaws.

At the $16 average ticket price that Hayes mentioned as a target, the team is following an afford-ability formula that has been used successfully by teams including the Colorado Mammoth, which hinged its introduction on tickets that cost little more than the price of a movie.

II the Learn can work its way toward the top levels of CHL attendance. the mathematics...