Forget the recent articles about hyped up kids checking the legs out from other kids on Minnesota rinks. Not everyone is a hockey fan.<\/p>\n
I didn’t read the two large opinion pieces on hockey in the DNT over the weekend. I started but then I realized I had a ton of snow shoveling ahead of me.<\/p>\n
I do recall a very knowledgeable neighbor explaining to me a couple years ago how hockey had gotten so expensive that West Duluth youth hockey was going extinct. <\/p>\n
Here’s another critic who emailed me on the subject this morning:<\/p>\n
The two hockey booster articles were perfect metaphors for what is happening in Duluth.
\nOver sold projects based on the old-timers view of the world.<\/p>\nThat Heritage Center was supposed to be an $11mil project but they kept adding on to make it $19 mil.<\/p>\n
All kids want is a good rink. They don’t need the inlaid floors and murals and bricks.<\/p>\n
Peterson should have been rebuilt.A better facility yes, but along those lines. Remember the Kroc? That would have been a huge community asset. And when the community was polled for what they would like to have available there, hockey came in last.<\/p>\n
Hockey is a dwindling sport. The numbers have dropped continuously since 2000. There have been over 100 youth games less this year than last.<\/p>\n
He skips over the financials,doesn’t he?
\nCity and school district each gave over a million dollars. They got insurance money from Peterson.<\/p>\nAnd as far as the savior of West Duluth, Guilliani, he sold a pretty plan and never did any of it except his restaurant. Can’t forget he needed a “bridge” loan from DEDA to stay afloat. And when he has events, he has free use of that city parking lot.<\/p>\n
The Heritage is in debt. They built for the “wow” factor instead of building something that Duluth could support and sustain. And it really falls shy of being a good hockey facility, many design flaws.<\/p>\n