Dear Fan and Supporter of Ellis Park,
As a fan and supporter of Ellis Park, you will normally not receive an email of this nature, but today we felt it necessary to make an exception.
As you may or may not know, the Owner and President of Ellis Park is also the Owner and President of the professional hockey team in Evansville known as the Evansville IceMen. While the 2 organizations operate as separate companies, in some ways the success of one company helps with the success of the other (in terms of job creation, events and giveaways we can offer to supplement the horse race season and/or the hockey season, ticket prices, etc.).
By the time you receive this email, you may have already heard or read about the Evansville Redevelopment Commission meeting that took place yesterday, August 2, 2011, where both Evansville Arena Project Director, John Kish and Owner & President of the Evansville IceMen, Ron Geary provided statements on the current status of the License Agreement negotiations for the use of the new Evansville Arena for the IceMen’s home hockey games this upcoming season which begins this fall. Mr. Geary felt he needed to attend this Commission meeting and speak out because of the extreme importance of finalizing the agreement as soon as possible and because the current negotiations are a stalemate. Ron was seeking assistance from the Commission to provide an independent look at the deal, and to move the negotiations to a reasonable conclusion.
Although there is a clear difference of opinion on why the negotiations have continued longer than either party had planned on and would have liked, we, the Evansville IceMen, are optimistic and hopeful to bring IceMen hockey to our current and future fans and to the new Downtown Evansville Arena for the upcoming 2011-2012 CHL Season. (And we hope you will consider attending one of the 33 home games this season to watch the fun and excitement of a professional hockey game).
Although negotiations yesterday were described as being at a “stalemateâ€, this does not mean we intend to discontinue discussions. We have been, and will continue to take a proactive approach to seek an agreement as soon as possible to the pending License Agreement between the City of Evansville, VenuWorks and our Organization.
As mentioned above, we normally do not ask for such assistance from our loyal Ellis Park fans, but we are respectfully asking for you to help us in this process and show your support for the Evansville IceMen by calling one or more of the following members of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission as soon as possible and expressing your support for the team. We cannot tell you enough how invaluable this support will be to the IceMen, and how much it is appreciated by our entire organization. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
Evansville Redevelopment Commission
President
Bob Goldman – P: (812) 423-9631
Vice President
Greg Elpers – P: 800-880-7800
Secretary
Jody Phillips – (812) 423-7729
Members
Sara Miller – P: (812) 464-1568
Jay Carter – P: (812) 468-5382
Executive Director for Department of Metropolitan Development
Thomas Barnett – P: (812) 436-7823
Sincerely,
Gregory A. Hardt, CFO
Ellis Park Race Course, Inc.
If “assistance” from the public is not at the level to move this forward, it just could be that mayor Weinzapfel has made a fatal mistake on his arena.
It is becoming apparent that ice hockey does not hold much interest for the majority of the citizens of Evansville.
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