Growing frustration over the lack of available playoff dates and the perception that local politicians don't feel the need for a new arena provoked the IceRays coach and general managers to verbalize their feelings at a media luncheon. There's a real need, not just for the IceRays, but the for entertainment in general, for a new arena here. There's no lack of land and with a hockey team and the university's basketball teams next year, there's no lack of events.
Somebody has to step up and take the bull by the horns.
The size of the arena is only part of the IceRays' concerns. Dates have become a more immediate issue. The 1998-99 Western Professional Hockey League playoffs are still 29 games away, but the Corpus Christi franchise is already thinking about next year's postseason. If the IceRays become one of 12 WPHL teams to make the playoffs this year and they advance to the third round of the five-round playoff system, the team will have to play its home games on the road. We are talking to the league about revenue sharing for wherever we play.