MLN 2005 Business of the Year Award Winner
Central Hockey League
Canadians in the Desert
They made hockey in the desert blossom. Now Global Entertainment and its Flagship Central Hockey League march on to make independent hockey a super business.
Why is the Central Hockey League the 2005 winner of the MLN Business of the Year award? McHockey.
Rick Kozuback, the CEO of the CHL's parent company, Global Entertainment, and Brad Treliving, the President of the Central Hockey League, have applied the thinking behind the franchise restaurant business to minor league hockey.
They are also blazing a new pathway in independent sports. What began as the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) in the mid 1990s has become Global Entertainment Corporation, a publicly-traded, integrated sports entertainment conglomerate with six subsidiaries including:
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The Central Hockey League (CHL), the unification of the old CHL and the WPHL in 2000. This is the entertainment engine of the company;
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International Coliseums Company (ICC) builds multi-use arenas where the CHL's hockey clubs play;
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GetTix.net - Ticketing for entertainment venues;
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Project X - A facilities management company (2005);
Project Y - A stadium food service company is on the drawing boards;
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Cragar - A company making specialty wheels, collectibles, and gear for car buffs;
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If the synergies of Cragar to this tight web surrounding entertainment venues, think the value of a sound business that already trades publicly. The acquisition gave Global a short-route opening to the stock market to become a public company without the risks of an initial public offering (IPO).
This growing empire began almost ten years ago with little more than pucks, pizza, and possibilities.
Puck and a Slice
Rick Kozuback had been coaching for the minor leagues of the NHL Los Angeles Kings with the Phoenix Road Runners, their AAA International Hockey League (IHL) club. Brad Treliving, whose father was a founder in the Boston Pizza chain, was winding up a minor league hockey career playing for Columbus.
So how do a couple of Canadians start a hockey league in the desert Southwest?
"Rick had come up with an idea of potentially purchasing a team," recalls CHL president Brad Treliving. The teams of the older leagues, the IHL, AHL, ECHL, and UHL, though, were all tough business propositions. Teams in some markets did well, but it seemed a very hit or miss proposition. Some owners put out a great product. Others didn't really care what they put on the ice.
Kozuback and Treliving began to investigate the potential for a team. They found that there were a lot of opportunities in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma.
"There was really a void when we looked at it in that central part of the country," said Treliving.
They floated the idea to Brad's dad, Jim Treliving, and his partner, George Melville, founders of the Boston Pizza chain.
"Their idea was: 'Let's look at a league,' but the basis of the league would be a lot unique from what's currently out there."
The different idea was to treat hockey, as a franchise commodity like the restaurant business. The business of minor league hockey at that time went from one extreme, where the old CHL was centrally owned, to the loose federations of teams controlled by governors from each club in the other leagues.
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