Ice Garden/ Beer warehouse

BozCatFan · Post by **BozCatFan** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:24 am

I bet all of the Ice Dog employees are probably looking for work. Perhaps MSU should call them and ask who the mascot is and get him/her to be Champ. They should consider hiring some of their marketing folks as well.

gocats · Post by **gocats** » Wed May 24, 2006 3:35 pm

I work with the guy who does Rex the Wonderdog, and have asked him before why he doesn't do Champ and they said that nobody has ever asked him too. I'll let him know you guys want him to do it. I'm sure he would love it..

BobCatFan · Post by **BobCatFan** » Wed May 24, 2006 4:53 pm

Maybe the founding fathers of Bozeman can step in and stop the purchase. They did with the money pit called the Story Mansion, while not invest in a nice building. Come on Bozeman, you can not loss an asset like the Ice Garden.

Post by **rtb** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:01 pm

BobCatFan wrote:Maybe the founding fathers of Bozeman can step in and stop the purchase. They did with the money pit called the Story Mansion, while not invest in a nice building. Come on Bozeman, you can not loss an asset like the Ice Garden.

From the articles in the paper it sounds like things could turn out better for everyone in Bozeman if they can get a new smaller less costly arena built at the fairgrounds. It sounds like people are envisioning having two sheets of ice available so that will be a huge benefit for the youth programs.

BozCatFan · Post by **BozCatFan** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:17 pm

I tend to agree that a fairgrounds situation might be better. It would be a less expensive facility to operate, therefore less expensive to play/skate at and more convenient. I also think that a combined usage between those who skate at the VIG versus those who skate at the Fairgrounds would be beneficial to everyone.

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:54 pm

kmax wrote:Speaking of which, with the Ice Dogs gone could someone, anyone, who knows who was beyond the Rex mascot please get him/her to go work as Champ???

No kidding! Rex would be an awesome Champ. If only he didn't have to wear the new "leopard suit"...

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:08 pm

News on the status of all the Junior hockey teams in Montana:

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -metra.txt

G.W.Bush · Post by **G.W.Bush** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:28 am

grizzh8r wrote:News on the status of all the Junior hockey teams in Montana:

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -metra.txt

From the article:

"Losing Billings was the first leg that broke to make the stool tumble, for sure," said Jason Martel, owner of the IceDogs and Bozeman's Valley Ice Garden.

This article makes it sound like Jason is blaming the Metra for losing the Ice Garden and the Ice Dogs. In other interviews Jason has said he has been trying to sell the Ice Garden for years...

JASON YOU ARE THE BAD GUY IN BOZEMAN, NOT THE METRA!

Post by **kmax** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:44 am

G.W.Bush wrote:
grizzh8r wrote:News on the status of all the Junior hockey teams in Montana:

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -metra.txt
From the article:

"Losing Billings was the first leg that broke to make the stool tumble, for sure," said Jason Martel, owner of the IceDogs and Bozeman's Valley Ice Garden.
This article makes it sound like Jason is blaming the Metra for losing the Ice Garden and the Ice Dogs. In other interviews Jason has said he has been trying to sell the Ice Garden for years... JASON YOU ARE THE BAD GUY IN BOZEMAN, NOT THE METRA!

No, actually he is not. That quote may have been taken out of context, but what he was talking about was the fact that losing the Bulls as a Junior A hockey team was the first step to losing all Junior A hockey in Montana. It's the truth, not blaming Metra, it's just the way it is. Without the three teams close together to be able use for the majority of road games, travel costs were just too prohibitive. The same things likely could have happened if Helena or Bozeman were the first to drop Junior A.

While on the surface of things it appears that Jason Martel and the Martel family are the bad guys here, they really aren't. Remember, they didn't ask to be in the business of running an arena and a hockey franchise, they got it by default when the original owner couldn't pay for the building. To be sure, the Gallatin Valley is losing an awesome facility, but no one can blame them for not wanting to continue to lose a ton of money. The Martel's have been amazing supporters of Ice sports in the Valley, and will likely continue to be. The Martel's are donating over 1.2 million dollars of equipment, yes donating, to help get a new rink built to house all of the programs that will be displaced from the ice garden. The Martels are not the bad people here, and neither is Cardinal Distributing for that matter. This is just the end of one era for ice sports in the valley, and with a little help from the community can be the beginning of a new and even better one.

BozCatFan · Post by **BozCatFan** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:15 pm

Scott Carson might be trying to recruit some of the marketing staff from the Ice Dogs to go to work with him with the CBA team in Butte. A friend of my wifes who has a daughter in a skating camp at the rink overheard him out there talking to their marketing guy in the lobby today.