If You Build It, They Will Come

The Story of Hockeytown, USA, and the Massillon Arctic Express

The Saginaw Gears, a minor league hockey team from Saginaw, Michigan, announced in late 1999 that they would be coming to the hotbed of minor league hockey in Ohio, Massillon, to play their games in Massillon's new 6,500 seat civic arena. When the Gears packed up and left Saginaw, they had various unpaid debts of about $80,000 dollars. According to an article in The Repository (12/21/99), the Gears were facing potential losses of $600,000 dollars for the current season, and had already lost 2 million dollars over the past four seasons. Didn't seem like a great business venture, but they found a kindred spirit in Massillon's Mayor for Life, Frank Cicchinelli.

On December 23, 1999, two days before Christmas, it was announced that MG Dove Enterprises would build the new Massillon Arena, and construction would be completed in the Fall of 2000. In January of 2000, In Januray 2000 (hold on, we have to stop laughing), In January 2000, Mayor Cicchinelli asked the State of Ohio for TEN MILLION DOLLARS to help build Massillon's new hockey arena on the site of Agathon Park. The TEN MILLION DOLLARS was to build the parking deck next to the arena. We understand. If you are going to build a 6,500 seat hockey arena for a failing minor league hockey team, you most certainly need a parking deck for all the cars.

In March of 2000, City Council offered to lease Agathon Park to MG Dove Enterprises for the whopping sum of ten dollars per year. Yes, that is ten, as in ten, as in ten dollars. One wonders if Massillon's City Council negotiated the sale of Manhattan for the indians. Any current members of City Council around for this vote? One. Glenn Gamber. We wonder how he voted? The project's opening date was then moved from Fall of 2000 to February of 2001. In May of 2000, Canal Fulton resident Mark Miller won a contest for renaming the team. Mark won 25 tickets to the home opener, a pre-game party for him and his buddies, and an opportunity to meet the players. The Gears were now the Arctic Express, and hockey was coming to Massillon!

(To be continued...)