Corridor Cross Checks: Uptick in Iowa Heartlanders attendance, with Xtream Arena lease restructuring expected

CEDAR RAPIDS — Attendance has perked up for the Iowa Heartlanders since Christmas, which is a positive thing for the ECHL hockey club’s future, obviously.

It’s a future that apparently includes staying in Coralville long term.

Heartlanders President Matt Getz said Tuesday the third-year franchise is renegotiating a new lease with the city of Coralville to keep the club at Xtream Arena. The original eight-year lease is in its third year.

Michael Devlin, a New York-based businessman who also owns the United States Hockey League’s Des Moines Buccaneers, bought the Heartlanders this past summer from original owner Dean MacDonald, a Canadian businessman.

“When Michael Devlin purchased the team, there was a proviso in that contract that we would get to renegotiate the lease,” Getz said. “I can say the conversations have been very, very good, and that we are very close to finalizing something that will keep us here for multiple years.

“We have no plans on being anywhere other than Coralville. Quite frankly, we have put zero effort into even considering a home other than Xtream Arena.”

Getz, in his first year as team president, said he has been encouraged by recent home attendance figures. Though the Heartlanders remain last in the 28-team ECHL in that category, averaging 2,025 fans per game, that’s an increase from last season’s average of 1,851.

The club was second to last in league attendance in its inaugural season (1,961 fans per game).

Iowa had crowds this past weekend in excess of 2,000, including 2,769 for its Saturday game. Earlier this month, it had its biggest weekend back-to-back attendance figures: 2,344 and 3,990, the latter being the third-largest crowd in franchise history.

“I am certainly enthused about where our numbers are,” Getz said. “Our January 20 game, having 3,990 (fans), the fourth-largest crowd we’ve had, was certainly great, and I think hopefully stumbled upon a little bit of a reasoning behind that. We had a nice theme night on a weekend, and we turned it into a full-scale event, instead of just throwing a title on the game.

“(Mascot) Dash’s birthday, we brought out a lot of mascots, a princess group, we had $5 youth tickets, we had a photo area, games for kids. I think some of the success we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks has happened with kind of that same kind of concept. Where it’s not just the game. there’s more than that going on.”

Getz, who spent 11 years working in event and project management for the University of Iowa athletics department, said the franchise has focused on increasing its social media footprint and group ticket sales. He expressed excitement for upcoming promotions such as March 16’s St. Hat Trick’s Day in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, as well as a late-March promotion that celebrates the team’s 100th home game.

“We’re playing much better hockey than people, I think, are used to seeing from the Heartlanders over the past couple of seasons. Certainly more competitive,” Getz said. “But even if you’re not (into) hockey, it’s a fun place to be. We’re continuing to improve what the environment looks like. I think by taking that recipe and applying it more regularly, I think we’re going to create something that hopefully is pretty sustainable for us.”

On the ice, the Heartlanders have picked a bad time to be on a losing streak. They lost three games last week at home to Indy: 3-1, 7-1 and 5-2.

That’s four losses in a row for Iowa, which hosts Wichita on Wednesday night (6:35 puck drop), then plays Friday and Saturday nights at Cincinnati. The club has a 19-23-5-2 record for 45 standings points, seventh and last in the ECHL Central Division.

Toledo leads the division with 65 points. The top four clubs make the Kelly Cup playoffs, with fourth place being owned right now by Kalamazoo and Fort Wayne, with 53 points each.

Kalamazoo has four games in hand on Fort Wayne.

Louis Boudon, who has since been promoted to the AHL’s Iowa Wild, had the only Heartlanders goal in this past Wednesday’s 3-1 loss. Casey Dornbach had the lone Heartlanders goal in the Friday 7-1 loss.

Pavel Novak got Iowa on the scoreboard first in Saturday’s game, and it was 2-2 after two periods, but Indy scored three goals in the final 4:56 for the win.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

Back to the Carly Watch.

Mark Carlson of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders is one from tying and two from breaking the United States Hockey League’s all-time coaching record for victories.

The only coach/general manager the club has had since its inception in the 1999-2000 season, Carlson has a 782-587-138 career record. P.K. O’Handley, who coached North Iowa and Waterloo, has 783 career victories.

The RoughRiders have three games this weekend: Friday night at Des Moines, Saturday night at Waterloo and Sunday afternoon at home against Madison (4:05 first puck drop).

The club dropped two of three games last weekend. It lost this past Friday night at Dubuque, 6-3, won at home against Waterloo the following night, 3-2, then lost Sunday afternoon at Des Moines, 5-1.

Cedar Rapids scored first against Dubuque on a Colin Grable goal, but the Fighting Saints scored four consecutive goals to win going away. Drew Stewart, Joel Kjellberg and Jack Larrigan had goals against Waterloo, with goaltender Rudy Guimond stopping 22 Black Hawks shots, including a penalty shot, to get the win.

Stewart had C.R.’s only goal against Des Moines, with the Buccaneers scoring three goals early in periods: 1:21 into the game and 10 and 37 seconds into the third. The Riders are 17-21-4-2 for 40 standings points, which is seventh out of eight teams in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

The top six teams in the division qualify for the USHL playoffs. Madison has that sixth and final spot, two points ahead of the RoughRiders, with two games in hand.

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