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But also if you look at the successful teams financially they have a large base of children, teenagers and adults that play hockey or are involved in hockey. We have that somewhat here in both roller hockey and ice hockey, but what we came to learn very quickly is that many of these rinks are in financial trouble, part of the reason being that real estate prices were so high that the higher and better use of some of these rinks was to convert them to condominiums.
So we've stepped in, in a couple of cases, where we've helped a rink take over so they could survive. It's not a profitable enterprise for us but we want hockey to exist. We want people, if they like our team, it sort of goes both ways. If they enjoy watching our games people are going to want to play. We want an opportunity. Or maybe people will learn to play first and then they'll like our team. I'm not sure which it is.
But every great, successful franchise has a large base of ice rinks, and in our case roller rinks. And we're trying to duplicate that. It's not going to happen overnight. You talk about a five-year and 10-year plan. If we're investing in rinks we may not see a return on that for 10 years. So we're really looking out long-term.
So we've stepped in, in a couple of cases, where we've helped a rink take over so they could survive. It's not a profitable enterprise for us but we want hockey to exist. We want people, if they like our team, it sort of goes both ways. If they enjoy watching our games people are going to want to play. We want an opportunity. Or maybe people will learn to play first and then they'll like our team. I'm not sure which it is.
But every great, successful franchise has a large base of ice rinks, and in our case roller rinks. And we're trying to duplicate that. It's not going to happen overnight. You talk about a five-year and 10-year plan. If we're investing in rinks we may not see a return on that for 10 years. So we're really looking out long-term.
LA Times
Not specifically mentioned in the article, but in the past year, the Ducks have invested in Anaheim Hockey Club of Corona. They also recently purchased Coast to Coast. I'm told they're also looking to acquire another rink and there have been persistent rumors that the Ducks would like to build an ice facility in the Irvine area to be utilized as a replacement official practice facility for Anaheim ICE.
This is all great news that the development and survival of local rinks is part of the Ducks plans.
