If You Build It, They Will Come... Part 5

As we left off in our last chapter, The Arctic Express had fled to Canton, the arena construction site was nothing more than a sand lot with an empty construction trailer, but Massillon's Mayor for Life was confident that hockey was coming to Tigertown. So confident in fact, he turned over the $1 million dollar state grant the city received for "site preparation" to the developers, MG/Dove. He was confident they would be good custodians of our tax dollars and actually really, really planned on building a 6,500 seat arena in Massillon for minor league hockey. After all, we handed them one million dollars when they had never actually secured the necessary bank loans to build it in the first place. That's OK. Massillon Councilman Glenn Gamber, free thinking, independent, government finance expert that he is, was "satisfied that MG/Dove Enterprises has the financing to get the Arena built" (The Repository, March 16, 2002).

While our beloved Arctic Express had left for greener pastures in Canton, MG/Dove rustled up a new hockey team for Massillon. It was a junior hockey team. Nothing fills up a 6,500 seat arena like teenagers playing hockey. No, this wasn't turning into a scam. We were going to build a twenty million dollar plus arena so teenagers could play hockey.

In early May, 2002, it was announced that construction would begin any day now. As a matter of fact, Mayor Cicchinelli told The Repository that he has "no doubts the arena will be ready for use this year" (The Repository, May 7, 2002).

One June 19, 2002, The Repository reported that American Buildings Company filed a lien against the project. They had not been paid for the steel that was delivered to the construction site in March. Oh yeah, construction was supposed to start up in June.

On July 29, 2002, Massillon's Mayor for Life told city council to stay the course and keep supporting the $20 million dollar arena project.

And as we rolled into November, 2002, there was still no construction. MG/Dove had spent our million dollars. Even The Independent had sued MG/Dove for unpaid advertising bills. But our Mayor would not give up. He would stay the course. The Massillon Arena had been up against sinister forces. MG/Dove hadn't scammed us. It was the work of Osama Bin Laden.

Cicchinelli blamed the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks for the arena's slow development. Seriously. For real. He did. (The Repository, November 3, 2002). He hadn't been swindled out of a million dollars. It was Al-Qaeda.

As Christmas, 2002, approached, the dream of Hockeytown, USA, was three years old. All we had to show was an empty lot, a rusting pile of unpaid steel, an empty construction trailer without phone, or electricity, and a million dollars of taxpayer money spent. We also had the unwavering faith of one man. Mayor Frank Cicchinelli.

To be continued...