Herb Washington, Mayor Williams meet

By David Skolnick | July 9, 2008 at 12:09a.m.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams

But the SteelHounds remain a minor-league franchise with no league to call home.

YOUNGSTOWN — Herb Washington, owner of the Youngstown SteelHounds’ parent company, described his one-on-one meeting with Mayor Jay Williams to discuss the future of hockey at the Chevrolet Centre “cordial and productive.”

The most pressing issue is hockey at the city-owned building this season, something that “remains a possibility,” Washington said.

“I’m not ready to give up on that,” said Washington, head of Blue Line Hockey LLC, the SteelHounds’ parent company.

With the clock ticking toward the beginning of the minor-league hockey season — and perhaps more importantly, the finalizing of the season’s schedule — there is no resolution as to having a team play at the center this fall.

“We have agreed to meet again and work toward some resolution and have hockey as early as this season,” Washington said.

That meeting will be sometime in the next two weeks.

The two met for about an hour Tuesday in the mayor’s office.

“It was just the two of us,” Washington said. “That’s why it was so efficient.”

The two want to come to an agreement about the future of hockey at the center, Williams said.

“We’re looking at next year and beyond,” he said. “We want to work together to find a path to go forward with hockey.”

The relationship between the two has been strained in recent months.

Washington had accused Williams and the city administration of doing nothing to stop the Central Hockey League from dumping the team June 2 or to intervene before that when the SteelHounds wanted to get out of the CHL. Williams responded saying Washington made “patently false accusations.”

Also, the city is asking a federal court to give it the authority to remove Blue Line from the center should it choose to do so.

“We have a disagreement as it relates to the facility agreement,” Williams said Tuesday. “It will be decided in court or through an agreement by the parties.”

The team plays 32 home games at the center. There are about 100 events held at the arena annually.

If there is no hockey this season, Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director, has said he’s confident the facility could fill at least 20 of those 32 dates.

skolnick@vindy.com