The first professional hockey team to call the valley home in the past decade made its debut in late October before more than 6000 fans at the Berglund Center. That’s when the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs of the Southern Professional Hockey League took to the ice for the first time.
It is new ice too – the Berglund Center replaced its ice making plant underneath the concrete; there’s also a new scoreboard with video screens, new dasher boards and seating replaced a year ago. In short the former Roanoke Civic Center – also called the Roundhouse back in the Express days – really does look like a new building.
The Rail Yard Dawgs – the name chosen by majority owner/team president Bob McGinn and his hockey-playing sons – are an expansion team in the SPHL. They lost that home opener 2-0 but righted themselves at 2-2 on the season before returning on November 4 for a pair of games. The key now for the Dawgs is to get most of the people who were there on opening night – when there was a fight on the ice 30 seconds into the game – back on a consistent basis.
Rail Yard Dawgs head coach Sam Ftorek – this is his first year as the head coach anywhere – was a long time minor league player who transitioned into coaching several years ago. His father Robbie, who was in town for a while during training camp at the Berglund Center to help his son, played in the National Hockey League for a while. Ftorek has said previously that Roanokers can also expect to see his players out in the community on off days, spreading the word about hockey – perhaps with mascot Diesel in tow at times.
Vice President and General Manager Mickey Gray, recruited from another SPHL team – the Peoria Rivermen – to help get the Rail Yard Dawgs off the ground, said he “wasn’t really that excited at first,” until he landed in Roanoke and “saw the local support,” for the game of hockey from fans. “You don’t pass up a buzz like that. It’s not often that such a quality market in minor league sports comes around. When it does you really have to jump on it.”
The enthusiasm of Bob McGinn – who lives in Ontario, Canada, and Berglund Center general manager Robyn Schon – a diehard hockey fan who once worked for the Detroit Red Wings –, helped Gray take the plunge. Gray also believes that the handful of local minority owners on board – giving Roanokers some real skin in the game – is also important for the health of the franchise.
“When I first spoke to Bob about coming out here the first question I asked him was about local ownership,” said Gray. “If you don’t have that it just doesn’t work. You need to have people that are invested in the community on a personal level, [people] that are passionate about making this work.”
Gray also commends the City of Roanoke and the Berglund Center staff, led by Schon, for changes at the Berglund Center that should make the fan experience that much better. “The ice is high quality [and] it looks like a brand new arena on the inside.”
As for the reception so far from hockey fans – season ticket sales above projections, social media chatter, Dawgs merchandise flying off the shelves at official outfitter Sports Haven or at the arena and the overall enthusiasm: “it’s exceeded my expectations. We have surpassed every one of our [goals]. For a franchise just starting out to have that kind of reception is phenomenal.”
Gene Marrano
