Following a vote by the Reno City Council, plans to bring an ECHL team to the Nevada city are moving forward.
A group known as the Reno Puck Club has been floating a plan to bring professional hockey to Reno, with the team playing out of the Reno Events Center. This would mark a return of the sport to the city, which has not hosted professional hockey since the Reno Rage played their last game at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in 1998.
The vote last week allowed that plan to move forward. The conditions of the term sheet approved by the city council call for upgrades to the Reno Events Center, and provide a path for the city to land a team by the 2018-19 season. More from the Reno Gazette-Journal:
The council voted, 6-1, to approve the term sheet and to direct staff to negotiate with the Reno Puck Club.
The Reno Puck Club would spend up to $5.7 million for a professional ice surface at the Reno Events Center through public-private partnerships. It would also add locker rooms, a new elevator and be responsible for other repairs to the REC.
The hockey team would begin play in the ECHL starting in October 2018, if approved by the ECHL.
The ice rink could also be used by youth and adult hockey leagues and for public skating. The rink would be 200-feet long by 85-feet wide.
If/when the Reno ECHL franchise arrives, it will provide another professional team in downtown Reno. The Reno Events Center is a short distance from Greater Nevada Field, which in 2017 will be home to Minor League Baseball’s Reno Aces and the United Soccer League’s Reno 1868 FC.
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