Promotion Management Inc. buys Gamblers Chief Operating Officer Ken Wachter announces PMI's purchase of the Green Bay Gamblers during a news conference Monday (photo by H. Marc Larson). The junior hockey will be the main tenant of the Resch Center when it opens in the fall of 2002 By Doug Ritchay News-Chronicle For the last six months or so there has been debate on what type of hockey franchise would be best for the new Resch Center, which will open in the fall of 2002. Have the Green Bay Gamblers been successful enough to be the hockey tenant of the new arena, or would a United Hockey League franchise be the way to go? For much of the spring it seemed the Gamblers were on their way out after next season and the UHL was on its way in. However, last Friday the United States Hockey League approved the sale of the Gamblers from owner John Stauffacher to Promotion Management Inc. PMI, which currently manages the Brown County Arena and will manage the Resch Center, then announced Monday the Gamblers would be staying in Green Bay and be the Resch Center's main tenant. "We certainly appreciate the opportunity PMI has given us and our staff to take the Green Bay Gamblers organization to the next level," Gamblers president Rob Nicholson said. "We feel with the addition of the Resch Center, some of the additional marketing people that we have the opportunity to have probably, if not the premier, one of the premier Junior A programs in the country." The idea of buying the Gamblers wasn't PMI's first thought. Stauffacher wasn't looking to sell the franchise, but PMI came up with a deal too good to pass up. "We heard there were opportunities," said Ken Wachter, Chief Operating Officer of PMI. "John's kids were no longer playing in the league. We made a couple phone calls, pursued it, and to be honest, it happened really fast; a week, 10 days. The more we looked at the league and where the league was going, we started talking." "I'm excited with what took place," Stauffacher said. "Two years ago we were in quite a battle to develop a lease agreement in the new arena. The United (Hockey) League is somebody they seriously considered. I didn't know where we fit in, but I felt all along this is the best league for Green Bay, other than a Division 1 program, which isn't going to happen." Not only is the USHL a good league for the Resch Center, the support the Gamblers have received over seven seasons was too much for PMI to overlook. "We went round and round," Wachter said, when asked why PMI picked the Gamblers over the UHL. "We thought they would be a good choice. Part of it was to have an ownership stake with the Gamblers. Part of it was we listened to what people had to say. I got hundreds of e-mails, letters, phone calls, saying, 'Please keep the Gamblers.' We thought there was a base here. "The other thing was we thought they were missing what we could add - more marketing support, more people to knock on doors. The more we thought about it, the more we thought about it being a better match." The Gamblers are thrilled about having a marketing department to increase the advertising of the team. "One of my major concerns the last two years is I would like to know on a percentage basis on a Friday morning how many people know we have at a home game that night," Nicholson said. "With PMI's efforts, we can get those numbers up." Numbers were a point of focus throughout the study for a hockey tenant in the Resch Center. PMI wanted to house a team which would give it its best chance to average 5,000 fans per game. Can the Gamblers do that? History said it will be difficult. Last season, they averaged about 3,100, but in each of the previous five seasons they didn't average 2,800. The Gamblers' best season for attendance 1996-97 when they averaged 3,700 fans. Still, there's optimism. "I think 5,000 is a legit number," Nicholson said. "Is 5,000 a legit number for the average? That could be tough. Time will tell." "That's the number we'd like to see," Wachter said of 5,000. "We're going to do everything in our power to get it there. It's a not a drop-dead number, but we're going to shoot high." The attendance subject, however, wasn't the focus Monday, it was the news the Gamblers are staying. It ends atough six months where the Gamblers heard a lot about their future, mostly with them being in a different city. "Everybody's got a new lease on life, so to speak," Nicholson said. "I never was totally convinced PMI made their final decision that this could be our last year. "It's been tough the last six months. We kept telling ourselves we have to keep plugging along and we're going to get the deal done."