Renegades shut down operations
FILE PHOTO
Allan B. Harvie, Jr., President/GM, Richmond Renegades.
After failing to find enough money to remain financially viable, the Richmond Renegades announced last night that they're going out of business effective immediately.
Allan B. Harvie Jr., president and general manager of the3-year-old Southern Professional Hockey League franchise, made it official in a press release.
"I have delayed making this announcement for as long as possible while my investors and I looked at every possible alternative," Harvie said in a statement.
"LIke so many other companies, we are the victim of the current harsh economic conditions. I am saddened beyond words for my team, my staff and especially my loyal Renegades fans."
Harvie, who was not available for further comment, had announced Feb. 24 that the team would suspend operations after the season if a major investor with a large cash infusion didn't come forward.
Without a major investor, Harvie said he needed to come up with around $280,000 through ticket sales or new sponsors in order to stay in business for the 2009-10 season.
"There isn't a financial stone that my business partners and I have left unturned, a phone call that we haven't made, a favor that we haven't called in trying to find a way to continue operations.
"There just simply isn't the money available to make up the $280,000 shortfall we will experience in order to continue operations."
Harvie had hoped to make up some of the shortfall with sellout crowds in the final three games, but fell far short of that goal, managing only to sell about one-third of the available tickets.
The biggest crowd of 6,351 attended Saturday night's season finale but close to a third of that was complimentary tickets, Harvie said.
For the year, Richmond averaged 3,302, a drop of 600 fans per game -- roughly 15 percent -- from the 2007-08 season.
Unless someone steps up soon with the money Harvie needs or another league puts a franchise here, there will be no pro hockey in Richmond next season for the first time in 20 years.
The original Renegades, under Harvie's backing, began operations in 1990 in the East Coast Hockey League and remained solvent until 2003. The RiverDogs took over the Coliseum ice when the Renegades went out of business and remained in the United Hockey League for three seasons. When the RiverDogs moved out of town after the 2005-06 season, Harvie brought the Renegades back.
Harvie's contract with the Coliseum doesn't end until April 30 and he doesn't have to formally ask the SPHL to end operations until the league's summer meeting in Huntsville, Ala., in mid-June.
But Harvie said in the press release that the team's office in the Coliseum will close "around April 4." He said the Renegades have started to refund all season and playoff ticket deposits and expect to have that completed by Tuesday. Richmond didn't qualify for the playoffs for the first time in three years, losing out on the final day of the season.
"If someone were to walk in with $300,000, we would be back in business, but the chances of that happening are one in a million," Harvie said.
Harvie had talked with Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones this week about possibly getting some help from the local or state governments, but none was available, he was told.
Richmond becomes the second SPHL team to cease operations this week. Twin City, which is located in Winston-Salem, N.C., announced Tuesday that it was going out of business as of today.
Without Richmond and Twin City, the SPHL will be reduced to four teams, although the league is hopeful of adding two, perhaps three, expansion franchises for next season.
Contact John Packett at (804) 649-6313 or
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Reader Reactions
I say if we ever do get rid of the Coliseum and build an arena like the size of Consol Energy Arena thats being built in Pittsburgh or the Sprint Center in Kansas City. We definantly could attract large acts then. If we think small again and build another 8,000 capacity dump like we are with baseball here then your most likely gonna have to settle for small acts. But I think a nice 15,000-20,000 seat arena would be nice here.
ECHL/AHL or bust.
SPHL and UHL are jokes for a city this size.
If there is a verifiable and cost-justified need to replace the Richmond Coliseum, the project should be funded by private gifts (such as as I believe to have been the case in case of JPJ Arena at UVA), private developers, or as a regional project in which all regional governments participate equally financially, in the assumption of risk, and in profit sharing.
It is not the job of the City of Richmond and its taxpayers to provide entertainment venues for the region. So far as I can determine, the Coliseum is a City owned and maintained facility.
The reason JPJ Arena gets more shows than the Coliseum is because it’s a far more superior facility. The acoustics in the coliseum have always been horrible. It’s too small for the main stream acts that JPJ gets like U2, Metallica, etc. If I were one of these artists I’d prefer JPJ too. Until Richmond wakes up and realizes that this facility needs to be replaced, this will continue to happen. I’d much rather seen a new arena than a bottom ballpark that only serves one purpose.
The reason for the demise of the Renegades 2.0 is reflected in the handful of comments, half of which were posted by the same couple of posters. At the end of the day there just wasn’t enough interest in the product Mr. Harvie was selling- a 4th tier hockey league that didn’t play particularly entertaining games. Consumers voted with their wallets and obviously felt their discretionary entertainmant dollars would be spent elsewhere. The other valid issue being brought up by some of the posters is why does the City allow SMG to manage the Coliseum when this same outfit is diverting most of the lucrative shows & concerts to JPJ Arena in C’ville. Why does the Coliseum get the “leftovers” from SMG?
Looking at the Coliseum Event Lineup right now. I would say its time to tear down the Coliseum and compete with John Paul Jones Arena as it looks like everything thats going on at the coliseum is either Graduations or the thing that makes me mad every year the Jehovahs Witness Convention. Shows you that the Coliseum is not serious about booking events for everyone at all ages.
Why wouldn’t the coliseum start looking for other acts as soon as the Renegades began hinting that they might not return? I’m in real estate and if I were the landlord at the coliseum I would have done the same thing. Makes good business sense to me.
The team only had 3-4 full-time employees, but then you have 18-20 players each year, it is a definite blow to the economy. I had also heard the rumor that the Coliseum was trying to book different acts immediately after the original announcement in February.
ghgirl: Excellent observations. Seems a small price to pay to keep all of these folks employed and revenue coming in. I have heard that the Coliseum doesn’t care if the Renegades go because they are ready to rent out the venue to other customers on the dates the games were scheduled for in 2009-10. Has anyone else heard that rumor?
I have another angle on this.. the RIR story brought this to mind. What about the lost economic impact from this? What about the people who are losing their jobs.. the players who won’t be here renting appts or spending their money. What about the tax loss on the revenues from the vendors and the ticket sales? The loss of a customer by the Coliseum? Wonder if this cost to the community will be more than 300K? I bet it will!
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