AHL opens while Iowa team waits in wings
Three hundred sixty five days and counting.
October 13, 2004

That's what's left for Iowa Stars owner Howard Baldwin and his staff to get Des Moines ready to become the 29th city in the American Hockey League - the oldest professional minor league in North America.

The AHL opens its 69th season tonight , but Baldwin and his staff have their attention centered on what's ahead as they prepare for the opening face-off next October at Wells Fargo Arena. The Iowa franchise will be the top farm team of the NHL's Dallas Stars.

"A year is the perfect amount of time," said Baldwin, who owned the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1993 until the franchise entered bankruptcy in 1998. "I wouldn't want to do it any quicker. You need time to set up your marketing and your office foundation."
The response to the announcement in August that AHL hockey was coming to Des Moines has been encouraging, and a little surprising, Baldwin said.

Almost immediately, the Iowa Stars received 500 deposits for season tickets.
Now that figure is pushing close to 2,000 deposits, Baldwin said.

"We are very pleased by the interest and not all that surprised we are at this level because we certainly believe we will sell more season tickets," he said. "But we have been surprised about getting that kind of response so quickly."

Baldwin, a Hollywood movie producer, anticipates that the Stars' front office will be in full operation by early November. At that point, he said, the team will begin a slow, but deliberate marketing buildup to sell season tickets as well as to raise the club's name identification.

"So far so good," said Baldwin, who shares ownership of the team with Robert Schlegel of Dallas. "We have a lot of work to do, but I think we have made a very good start."

Baldwin said he doesn't believe the five-week old labor dispute between the National Hockey League Players Association and the NHL will be a stumbling block in generating hockey interest in Des Moines.

In September, NHL owners ordered a lockout of their players after the sides failed to make progress on a new collective bargaining agreement.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and club owners contend they need to bring escalating player salaries under control with a salary cap. Management has said that most NHL teams lose money largely because of high player salaries.

Baldwin, who said he was one of the owners who allowed salaries to skyrocket when he owned the Penguins, doesn't believe the lockout will last more than one season - if that long.

But if it did, Des Moines fans would benefit, he said.
"The difference for us is that we are 100 percent certain there will be hockey in Des Moines next year," Baldwin said. "If the lockout would go into next season - and it won't - then there would be a number of Dallas roster players in Des Moines."

As evidence, he pointed out that five players who were on Dallas' roster last season for at least one game - goalie Dan Ellis, defenseman Trevor Howard, forwards Antti Miettinen, Steve Ott and Gavin Morgan - are on the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs roster this season.

Under the five-year affiliation agreement between Baldwin's company - Hockey Holdings and Management Group - and Dallas, the NHL team covers all payroll expenses for players, coaches, equipment and training staff. Dallas general manager Doug Armstrong and his staff will direct the on-ice operations of the Iowa team.
Baldwin's group will pay an annual affiliation fee, cover team travel and be responsible for all operational business decisions.

"Our costs are controlled," Baldwin said. "Because of the relationship we will have with Dallas we will be able to have cost certainty."

Armstrong agreed with Baldwin that the NHL's problems don't apply to the AHL.
"The American Hockey League has a pay scale that is much different," he said. "We want to keep those salaries in check so that it is an affordable price for the fan in those markets. And that is what we are going to do."