'Hounds owner rejects tourney

Herb Washington has reasons for keeping more hockey out of Youngstown.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Game off!
There will not be a North American Hockey League Tournament in April at the Chevrolet Centre.
Herb Washington, owner of the Youngstown SteelHounds of the Central Hockey League, has declined the request made by Bruce Zoldan, owner of the Mahoning Valley Phantoms of the NAHL, to hold the amateur tournament for 16-20-year-old amateur players at the city-owned Chevrolet Centre from April 24-29.
Washington has exclusive hockey rights at the Chevrolet Centre through his contract with Global Entertainment which manages the facility.
Ed Romero, Washington's attorney, says that the SteelHounds owner has a 10-year lease with Global that gives him the right to deny all hockey events at the Chevrolet Centre for the duration of the contract.
Before Romero's revelation, it was believed that Washington had the exclusive rights only for one year to deny all other professional sports at the Chevrolet Centre.
The clause governing all sports except ice hockey expires in November.
Washington's contract with Global -- which is employed as the facility manager through contract by the city -- has not been publicly released.
Friday, Washington issued a press release outlining more reasons for his refusal. In an earlier press release, Washington said no because the SteelHounds might still be playing postseason games.
But with 13 games remaining, the SteelHounds trail Wichita by 12 points in the race for the CHL's Eastern Conference's final playoff berth. The CHL regular season ends March 25. A team gets two points for a win, one point for an overtime loss and zero points for a loss.
Other reasons
In the latest press release, Washington's bottom line for his rejection is that he didn't like the way that Zoldan and the NAHL presented their requests to him to stage the junior tournament and the manner in which they handled the entire situation.
On Feb. 17, Zoldan offered a counterproposal to Washington's initial rejection based on SteelHounds playoff games, saying that if the NAHL event was staged in Youngstown and the SteelHounds were playing, then the junior hockey tournament would move any conflicting games to The Ice Zone in Boardman.
For seven days, Washington didn't respond to Zoldan's counterproposal.
His lengthy press release listed numerous reasons for his rejection.
"The nature in which the proposal to play the junior amateur hockey tournament at the Chevrolet Centre was presented was unacceptable at best," writes Washington. "At worst it was insulting to the Steelhounds, local hockey fans and the entire community.
False promise
"Local organizers appear to have promised the Chevrolet Centre as a venue without performing due diligence to ensure that the Centre would be available," Washington said. "Should the Steelhounds qualify for the CHL playoffs, no scheduling accommodations were ever proposed to our organization, and, despite vague suggestions made to the media, still have yet to be proposed to our organization.
Then Washington adds, "The promises of widespread economic benefits of this junior amateur tournament are illusory at best, with projections being floated in the millions of dollars. It appears that these grandiose promises of economic benefits were made only to apply pressure in order to force acceptance of the proposal under the illusory deadlines.
"Additionally, instead of fully informing our organization of options, local organizers instead chose to make baseless public attacks."
Washington also pointed out: "Last week, sources familiar with the tournament informed the local media that this tournament had been lost to Bozeman [Mont.], and that it was my fault because I refused to consent to a plan of which I had too little information upon which to make a more informed decision. It is now being reported that the tournament had never been moved [to Bozeman]."
kovach@vindy.com