Mayor Says Tech Hockey is Finished in Lubbock
By: Lisa Carr
Updated: December 9, 2008
Mayor Tom Martin says Texas Tech hockey is finished in Lubbock. The team failed to pay it's monthly rent for the coliseum and Martin says this was their last chance. The city is putting it's foot down when it comes to dealing with the Texas Tech Hockey Club. They gave the team an extra week to come up with rent money, but when the check didn't come today, they locked the team out of the coliseum, possibly forever.
You may remember about two months ago, the Tech Hockey Club signed a new contract with the city amid controversy. Earlier in the fall, the council had voted to stop working with Tech Hockey because the team was costing the city too much money, but hundreds of hockey supporters stepped up and convinced the council to give the team another chance. The hockey club agreed to start paying a higher rent for the coliseum and the first payment of $10,800 dollars was due December 1st. A week later, the city still doesn't have the rent, and Mayor Tom Martin says as far as he's concerned this is the end of Tech Hockey in Lubbock.
Mayor Martin says, "They're in default on the contract and so we've terminated the contract. We had a new contract with very favorable terms to the club. We delayed the first two months payments to give them a chance to get their finances in order and they haven't been able to do it so, at this point, I don't see any way that that could be renegotiated."
We tried to contact Tech Hockey Coach Paul Fioroni today to get his side of the story, but were unable to reach him. We will try to bring you more details on this story and what it means for other activities on the coliseum ice on Tuesday at 5, 6, and 10.
