Trashers 'here to win'

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, June 4, 2006

DANBURY - The real battles in the United Hockey League don't take place between gladiators on ice skates.

The real battles, the ones that determine the life and death of a UHL franchise, take place in front offices, punched out on calculators and spreadsheets and bank receipts.
Just ask the folks in Fraser, Mich., where the owners of the Motor City Mechanics suspended operations in April, after bleeding money for two years in a near-empty arena.
"For a team like Motor City, where you're playing in the Great Lakes Arena that seats (3,400) and you're only drawing 1,500 - maybe 600 or 700 of them paid - attrition is probably the right way to go," said

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Richard Brosal
, the UHL's president and chief executive officer.
"You always try to hold onto your weak sisters, but when you're losing $1 million, $1.5 million a year, how much money can you afford to lose? I feel very secure knowing the 12 teams we have for next season are financially sound."
Count the Danbury Trashers among them, at least for now.
Brosal said the Trashers fit perfectly into the UHL's geographical footprint that stretches from the Midwest into the Northeast.
Just as importantly, Brosal said, the Trashers have extended their fan base and played deeper into the Colonial Cup playoffs ever since their UHL debut in October 2004.
"Danbury has done a fantastic job during its two years in the league," Brosal said. "To reach the semifinals in their first year, and then, make it to the finals in their second year - with standing room only attendance for their three home games in the finals - is a testament to their great fan support.
"Whenever a league can have a team like that, with a city that really embraces its team the way Danbury does, it's always an asset."
And yet, the Trashers could be skating on thin ice.
Trashers owner

James Galante
, who also owns Automated Waste Disposal (AWD) in Danbury, is the target of a federal racketeering investigation by the FBI, the
Internal Revenue Service
and other authorities. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
At least part of the federal investigation centers around the UHL's $275,000 salary cap. Federal investigators want to know if Galante paid players under the table from AWD to circumvent the league's salary cap.
If it's determined that Galante broke the law or used the Trashers for money laundering or other "illegal enterprise," according to court documents, Galante could go to jail, lose his business, or both.
If Galante loses his business, it's hard to imagine he could make payroll, let alone, pay the other expenses related to running a minor-league hockey team.
Although there have been growing whispers the Trashers won't be back next season, team president A.J. Galante said shutting down the Trashers isn't even an option.
"My father and I wouldn't be involved in something that we're not 100 percent behind. We're here to win. We're here to win a championship," Galante said. "I wouldn't be talking to you right now if I didn't think we'd be back. The day after we lost to Kalamazoo in the finals (May 27), my dad told me to go out and start signing guys."
Galante didn't waste any time.
Forty-eight hours later, at the team's end-of-season dinner, Galante met briefly with every player on the roster, including several Trashers who are high priority targets for next season: goalie
Sylvain Daigle
, forward
Shawn Collymore
, left wing
David Beauregard
and left wing
Jean-Michel Daoust
, among others.
"We're looking to re-sign many of the same guys we had this year," Galante explained. "But we also have our eye on 16 or 17 other guys we think can help us. We think we have a pretty good shot to sign a few of them, too."
But only if the money keeps flowing from AWD to the Trashers.
Despite deep runs in the Colonial Cup playoffs, the Trashers have suffered six-figure deficits the last two years, according to sources.
Ticket sales, for example, don't have much more room to grow. The Trashers play in the
Danbury Ice Arena
, the smallest rink in the league with 3,005 seats.
According to Galante, the Trashers have already sold "a good number" of season tickets for next year. At present, season tickets cost $494 for reserved seating and $570 for premium seating.
After Aug. 31, season ticket prices increase to $532 for reserved seating and $627 for premium seating.
In fairness, the Danbury Ice Arena was built before the Trashers joined the UHL. In addition, the arena was never designed as anything more than a recreational facility, although James Galante has spent about $3 million of his own money to improve the rink, sources said.
"If you talk to fans, our product on the ice is one of the more entertaining ones in the league," Galante said. "Ideally, we would like to draw between 3,000 and 4,000 fans. But we also know this rink probably isn't going to get any bigger.
"On the one side, behind the big screen, you can't blow out the wall because the street is right there. On the other side, you can't expand because the practice rink is right there and everybody uses that, not just us."
At the same time, Galante didn't rule out moving the team to another location in the city at some point if a suitable parcel became available.
"You never know. We always want to keep our options open," Galante said. "But at the same time, we've seen an increase in our attendance every year. We want to make coming to a Trashers game the best possible experience for fans.
"When I look around the league, I think Elmira has the perfect arena and theirs isn't that much bigger than ours. But they average more fans and that's what we're trying to do with our fan base."
The Elmira Jackals, who just finished their sixth season in the UHL, play at the First Arena. The building seats 4,000 fans, about 1,000 more than the Danbury Ice Arena.
Still, the Trashers aren't the only ones trying to make money in this league, let alone, balance the books.
Of the 14 teams that played in the UHL during the 2005-06 season, four of them will not be back next year:
-- The Motor City Mechanics suspended operations in April after two years in the league. The franchise is leaving the door open for relocation after the 2006-07 season.

-- The Virginia-based Roanoke Valley Vipers folded in May, after completing just one season in the UHL.

-- Another Virginia-based team, the Richmond RiverDogs, folded in April after three years in the league. The franchise will resurface next season as the
Chicago Hounds
in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

-- The Missouri River Otters, based in St. Charles, folded in April after seven seasons in the UHL.

The trend isn't nearly as troubling as it might seem, although the league isn't exactly known as a model of stability.

Every year, it seems, a few teams close up shop or relocate to another UHL outpost. Next season, the league will add two expansion teams: the Chicago Hounds and the Bloomington Prairie Thunder in Bloomington, Ill.

Unlike smaller arenas in Danbury and Elmira, the Hounds will play at the 9,500-seat Sears Centre and the Prairie Thunder will play at the 7,000-seat U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

As recently as the 2002-03 season, however, the UHL operated with only 10 franchises. A few years earlier, during the 2000-01 season, the league played with a record 15 teams, including the old New Haven Knights.

According to league figures, the UHL has drawn more than 18 million fans over the last 15 years.

With team owners scheduled to meet in the next month, the long-term future of the league, if not the Trashers, is sure to be addressed.

"We're definitely taking notice of the other teams," Galante said. "Obviously, there are some struggles going on in the league right now. To be honest, it's a little bit nerve-wracking when two of the teams that aren't coming back (Richmond and Roanoke) are from your conference.

"But if you've followed the league before, it always does a great job of figuring out a way for it to work."