Sunday, March 8, 2020 | 3 a.m.
A move to bring minor league hockey to Henderson has been met with plenty of excitement. In the days after the Vegas Golden Knights announced plans to relocate an American Hockey League franchise to the city, they received more than 7,000 season ticket deposits at $50 apiece for the new team.
Southern Nevadans have been bonkers for hockey since the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final two years ago in their maiden NHL season. And this brand of hockey will be significantly cheaper, with season tickets estimated at $10 a game.
“I’m excited,” Henderson resident Steve Bistritz said. “I’m in hopes of seeing some affordable hockey regularly.”
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The plan, which calls for a $25 million, 6,000-seat arena at the Henderson Pavilion site just southeast of the 215 Beltway and Green Valley Parkway, must first be approved by the Henderson City Council. And residents are urging the city to address concerns about parking, potential traffic congestion and road improvements before signing off on the project.
The city will host presentations at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. Monday at the Sun City MacDonald Ranch clubhouse to address community concerns and get feedback. The project will be a joint venture between the Golden Knights and Henderson, with the financing split yet to be released.
Ron Bennett, who lives about 2 miles from the Henderson Pavilion, shares in the excitement of hockey coming to the city. But he also envisions heavier traffic south of the 215 Beltway on Green Valley Parkway during rush hour than now exists and said the planning needs to include a strategy for managing the congestion.
“The proposal to bring hockey to the Henderson Pavilion site is going to happen,” Bennett said. “Residents and merchants need to work with the city and the Golden Knights to develop a final plan that best addresses the concerns and goals of all parties involved.”
Rob Herr, Henderson’s assistant city manager and chief infrastructure officer, said the city understood the traffic concerns, noting improvements to the 215 Beltway/Green Valley interchange have already been discussed. They would likely occur with or without hockey, he said.
The pavilion is an outdoor amphitheater with an adjoining grassy courtyard and promenade. It has about 2,400 fixed seats and room for another 4,000-plus on the grassy areas.
The venue has served as a performing arts center and concert venue — it has hosted the likes of Babyface, LeAnn Rimes and Buddy Guy through the years — but needs costly repairs, city officials said.
The pavilion’s tented shelter was seriously damaged by storms twice in recent years, its plastic seats are failing and the bathrooms and concession stands need to be modernized. That bill could be upwards of $30 million, Herr said.
Herr said the city had been working through different options for the site for nearly a year when the Golden Knights announced last month their plan to purchase the San Antonio AHL team and move it to the Las Vegas Valley. It will play initially at the Orleans Arena starting in the fall.
Turning the complex into an indoor venue in collaboration with the Golden Knights seemed like a great idea, Herr said. That’s especially true considering that the existing structure would need upgrades to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, and the structure that holds the tent in place is also no longer up to code, Herr said.
“We’ve been working for a number of years to find a solution for the pavilion,” Herr said. “What really put us in motion was the damage to the tent fabric structure.”
The city’s to-be-determined funding portion for the project could be backed by the sale of $60 million worth of general obligation bonds, which was discussed during a mid-February City Council meeting and would have to be voted on by the council. Not all the money would be used for the hockey arena.
“I would encourage you to pass the proposed bond with the caveat that none of the money be used to destroy the pavilion,” resident Douglas Stacey told council members during the meeting. “We have a lovely green space on the corner of Green Valley Parkway and Paseo Verde. Once you take a green space out of a city, you can never get it back.”
Others who commented at the meeting, and on the neighborhood social media site Nextdoor, voiced concerns about traffic congestion and the potential switch of a public space to a commercially operated complex.
“This all happened quickly, but we’re wanting to get out and have a discussion with the community,” Herr said.
The Golden Knights are already building a hockey venue called Lifeguard Arena in downtown Henderson, which is expected to be the AHL team’s headquarters and practice facility. The relationship led the team to ask the city if it wanted to partner on another hockey venue.
“With the AHL team announcement, we were a little focused on the hockey side of it, but our goal is to bring those two worlds together — hockey and what the pavilion was intended for,” Herr said.
