Snow swirls and blankets the landscape in late February as Craig Billington picks up his phone.
While the weather outside shifts in the wind, inside the hockey world rumors circulate that will change the professional backdrop of the sport. The moment was now.
The Colorado Avalanche’s assistant general manager plucks the number from his contacts and dials.
Martin Lind’s phone rings little more than 50 miles away from his office at Water Valley in Windsor, a piece of roughly 4,000 acres the developer controls just east of Interstate 25.
He answers and Billington’s voice cuts through. “Hey, can you get to the Pepsi Center today?” Billington asks.
Lind peers out his window at the falling snow. “I’m busy, no,” he answers. “But I can meet you halfway.”
The two first met the previous year through common connections, eventually working together to hammer out an affiliation between the Avalanche and the Colorado Eagles, the minor league franchise Lind owns and operates as CEO in the ECHL two levels below the NHL.
Throughout the first year of the four-year agreement, the bond had only grown as the two organizations found their relationship mutually beneficial, even beyond what they’d originally hoped.
When the NHL expanded to a 31st team in Las Vegas, it threw a kink in the minor-league system, which remained at 30. Whispers spread that the St. Louis Blues’ relationship with their affiliate in Chicago had soured and that Las Vegas would take over, leading St. Louis to court San Antonio, currently serving as an affiliate of the Avalanche.
As it stood, one club would be left out in the cold. Anxious to ensure the Avalanche weren’t that team, Billington and Lind met halfway along I-25 between Denver and Loveland to discuss “what-if” scenarios, but only if the Eagles moved fast.
“There happened to be a window of opportunity,” Lind said seventh months later back in Water Valley. “And so we acted fast. We seized the opportunity with the American Hockey League to procure the opportunity (at membership).
“When the dust settled, we got the affiliation with the Avs.”
The two sides announced a 10-year affiliation agreement Tuesday afternoon at the Budweiser Events Center, officially marking the Eagles’ final season in the ECHL and a permanent move to the top developmental league in professional hockey beginning in the 2018-19 season.
“If an ECHL operator says that they don’t want to be in the AHL, they’re lying,” Lind said from the Eagles’ offices in late September. “The AHL is the pinnacle of minor league sports; of any sport. The AHL is the pinnacle. You have The Show in your building. They’re just younger.”
Any conversations between Lind and Billington were simply hypothetical. There were too many puzzle pieces to rearrange.
For one, just because the Avalanche wanted their top affiliate a short drive away, and the Eagles were willing to make the move, didn’t mean the league would allow it or that other franchises wouldn’t also be interested in a transition.
Reports of attempted shifts in Kansas City and Indianapolis fell through, leaving a crack for the two Colorado franchises to drive a wedge. So as winter turned to spring, while the Eagles were in the midst of a franchise-record 17-game win streak, they did.
“There were a lot of moving parts, but every time we looked at the deal, everyone benefitted,” Billington said Tuesday. “It took a lot of time and effort, but it’s really exciting we got to this point.”
With their intentions formally submitted, the AHL subjected the Eagles to a vigorous vetting process to determine if the league was willing to take Colorado on as a member, a process which took a little more than a month during the ECHL playoffs, which ended with the Eagles claiming their first Kelly Cup championship.
“We were drilled into,” Lind said, “and they looked into pretty much everything.”
Initially the league reviews the organization’s business operations, essentially verifying the franchise is fit to represent the league, to which Lind said the Eagles passed “easily.” Next was the club’s financial warranty, guaranteeing the organization is fiscally viable and stable, capable of surviving lean years without going under.
Northern Colorado’s market area was also appealing to the AHL, with strong average household incomes at or exceeding $100,000, along with Lind and partners planning to invest $1.5 billion into new development, much of it around the Budweiser Events Center.
The Eagles’ biggest hurdle to acceptance was the building itself, which Lind said passed “marginally”, with renovations firstly needed to team facilities like the locker room and weight and training areas.
Lind said the building’s facilities will be addressed in the coming year and the rest after that, improvements which he hopes will be financed by a vote to continue the sales tax (15 cents of every $100 in Larimer County) that originally paid for the Ranch, Bud Center and fairgrounds’ development in 1999.
The tax was for 20 years and voters will have the issue on their ballot in November asking to extend the tax another 20 years.
“The Bud Center needs it. It needs to be much more dynamic than it is,” Lind said. “It’s one of the most successful buildings of its size in the nation, so it just needs that investment put into it.”
Size of the building was less of a concern than its ability to offer a more modern game experience for fans, with the Eagles averaging an attendance of 4,751, sitting at 89.8 percent of the Bud Center’s current 5,289 listed capacity.
According to the AHL attendance figures for the 2016-17 season, the Eagles’ average would rank 19th out of the 31 teams, the league setting an all-time record for attendance in 2015-16.
Satisfied with its findings, the AHL approved membership of the Eagles beginning in 2018-19.
“We know the Colorado Eagles have a proud history and proud fan base, and are a well-run, professional organization,” said AHL president and CEO Dave Andrews on Tuesday in a pre-recorded video message. “The American Hockey League is proud to have them as members.”
Approval, however, was only another benchmark reached. The Eagles would need to pay a buy-in fee, an amount which Lind couldn’t specify citing a confidentiality agreement.
But a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal in June cites AHL president Dave Andrews saying it would’ve cost billionaire Bill Foley (who spent $500 million to bring an NHL expansion team to Las Vegas) around $5 million to purchase an AHL franchise.
The Eagles would also have to pay a buy-out fee from the ECHL in order to leave — officially voted on with board approval Sept. 27 in Pittsburgh — bringing the total cost somewhere around $5-6 million, according to Lind, the entirety he would pay in full out of pocket as an investment for the future.
“It’s pure capitalist risk. It’s a business model that has a lot of risk to it, but it’s a business decision,” Lind said. “The AHL gross numbers of the league are about $100 million more than the ECHL, but you basically have the same amount of teams. So if we do a good job and we prove up the value of the entertainment that we’re putting on the ice, our gross numbers should come up. Corporate sales should see it, radio, TV, fans, everybody should see that gross value come up.”
For now, none of the cost in moving up to the AHL will be passed on to the fan base as normally occurs. It was an area Lind and Eagles general manager and president Chris Stewart insisted upon when negotiating the terms of the agreement with the Avalanche.
“Our fans are not going to see that. We’ve sheltered them from that,” Lind said. “We’re going to have to notch it up (eventually), but over time the fans will see the value of what’s happening. The Avs were unbelievable when we wrote that contract. We were adamant we would not do this if we have to hurt our fans.”
If other affiliations had worked better, the move never would’ve taken place. The Eagles were happy with their position.
Affiliation agreements with Calgary and Winnipeg in previous years only lasted short stints. Often times the Eagles operated independently, a status they were quite comfortable with since inception and an eight-year run in the now-defunct Central Hockey League, so far removed from the NHL that affiliations weren’t needed.
Only through a series of personal connections did the Eagles even become linked with the current Avalanche front office last year, two clubs close in proximity but never previously having a working association.
“No, I don’t think there was a chance we would’ve done this (without first having an ECHL affiliation),” Lind said. “We didn’t have any relationship at all.”
Each club’s reasons for making the move are different.
For the Eagles, it was a matter of sound business sense. There is no higher level for a minor league hockey franchise and the monetary gains by reaching it were hard to overlook, even if it means surrendering control of hockey operations.
The Avalanche will have control over the roster, coaching staff and decisions on the ice, while the Eagles remain autonomous on the business side of running the organization. All of the Avalanche-controlled players currently playing for San Antonio will move over to the Eagles starting in 2018-19, meaning the top prospects in the club will be on display at the Bud Center, many of whom could one day achieve NHL stardom as 90 percent of NHL players are graduates of the AHL.
“You always do what’s in the best interest of the company you’re working for. If you stand in line and are told your marching orders, you do them or you get out of the way,” Stewart said, his role in day-to-day hockey operations likely to change after this season. “It’s one or the other. We did what’s in the best interest of this community, what we started 15 years ago. It’s all part of growing, getting better and seeing this thing expand. The big picture is this way.”
Stewart’s function from a hockey standpoint isn’t the only one in question moving forward as the Avalanche may want to bring in their own coaching staff to replace current head coach Aaron Schneekloth and assistant Ryan Tobler after this season.
“My job right now is to coach the Colorado Eagles and that’s where my focus is. It’s not where do I fit in during this transition,” Schneekloth said. “I’ve got to do my job to the best of my ability. I’m young in my career in coaching and that’s part of the risk you take when you are a coach, is sometimes you’ll be looking for a new job. When the time comes, I’ll find out where I stand in the situation.”
Lind said he consulted with both Stewart and Schneekloth before moving forward, and both offered the same response.
“Are you kidding me?” Lind remembers of his conversation with Stewart. “This is where this should go he told me, unselfishly, knowing that his job could change.”
Logistically, the move is a perfect fit for the Avalanche. Front office, coaches and players are all within an hour’s drive, cutting down both time and cost for the litany of movement throughout an 82-game NHL season.
The past year only solidified the Avalanche’s belief in the Eagles’ ability to properly prepare players as professionals and provide a winning environment, a reputation the organization has garnered at every stop since its formation in 2003.
“We know what (Lind) wants to do for hockey and to promote our game. We want to be a part of that,” Avs general manager Joe Sakic said Tuesday. “Coming up here and see your players on a more regular basis and the development here we’re so comfortable with. This is a great market and a great fan base and we want our players a part of that. This is a home run for our organization.”
The Avalanche’s familiarity helped make them comfortable signing a 10-year deal with the Eagles, which would remain in place even should the front office change between now and 2018-19 if the Avalanche ownership went in a different direction from Sakic after consecutive losing campaigns.
Hockey in Colorado is entering a new frontier with the unification of its two biggest entities, a partnership each hopes propels them to a brighter future.
What a difference a year can make.
“I don’t know how to describe it other than it was like love at first sight,” Lind said, leaning back deeply in his chair and smiling. “It just worked; the right chemistry.
“The Avalanche really recognized and respected what we had going in Northern Colorado.”
Cris Tiller: tillerc@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/cristiller
