Thank hockey for that

Once upon a time when March rolled around in these parts, there was only one meaning for post-seaso: Hockey.

March madness was still decades away from being a trademarked phrase and meant it was time for raucous regional rivalries between Spokane with tiny communities in British Columbia to reach a boiling point. And if the post-season reached April, as today, it meant things were going well.

April playoff opponents were likely Calgary or Edmonton as the Jets of Flyers traveled the proverbial “Allan Cup trail.” Outside of the Stanley Cup — hockey’s holy grail — a half-century ago, playing for the Allan Cup was a pretty big deal.

For the past quarter of a century, however, it’s “hoops” and not hockey that captivates and corners chatter when it comes to sports this time of the year.

Monday conversation in the office or one’s favorite “watering hole” used to be about Saturday nights at the old Spokane Coliseum and that wild hockey game with maybe the Nelson Maple Leafs. The one where a bench-emptying brawl meant the police had to become the ultimate referees.

Now, we’re “hoop town” where many of the area’s sports fans live and die as area college basketball teams win or lose.

This season has been especially good across the board on the winning side, however! Teams from Eastern Washington, Gonzaga and Washington State all are pointed towards their conference tournaments and — fingers crossed — the NCAA Tournament.

That’s “March Madness” with a registered trademark, mind you!

And maybe that even means our favorites are playing close to home March 22-24 when the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena hosts first and second round tournament play.

Let’s journey back a few decades to see how we got to today where Spokane was part of the machine that helped the NCAA earn its biggest chunk of change.

That’s “$1.14 billion in revenues in 2022, with roughly a billion of these earnings made from March Madness,” according to Investopedia.

It was 1948 and a group of local businessmen who were hockey enthusiasts decided to invest in the local team that played in a true barn of a facility in West Central Spokane known as the Elm Street Arena.

The rink was the city’s first and hurriedly built in 1916 to host the Spokane Canaries of the Pacific Coast Hockey League — outdoors!

One of Spokane’s opponents that year would be the Seattle Metropolitans ,who would go on to become a top-notch Jeopardy trivia answer as in: “What was the first U.S. based team to win the Stanley Cup?

Building owners slapped up corrugated steel siding and a roof in the mid-1930s, but those who ventured to games said it was often colder inside the 3,000-seat arena than outside.

That 1948-49 Spokane Flyers team, stocked with top-notch talent, not only captured the affection of city’s sports fans but the first of eight true national championships with a U.S. Amateur Hockey Association Senior title.

Hockey’s successes in the late ‘40s and ‘50s served as a catalyst to revive interest in building a quality “civic auditorium” for Spokane. Defeated at the ballot box multiple times since 1925, voters finally approved a $2.5 million measure to build Spokane Coliseum; construction commenced in September 1953.

It took just over a year to complete and opening December 1954 the building was a success, particularly because of hockey, which routinely filled its nearly 6,000 seats.

It didn’t take long for a growing community to outgrow what would affectionately later be called “The Boone Street Barn” and discussions to build a nicer, bigger building started in 1990. Like its predecessor, voters rejected the Spokane Arena four times in six years before agreeing to build it in 1991.

The $63 million, 10,500-seat facility — 12,000-plus for basketball — opened in September 1995 and Spokane was now able welcome big named concerts and sporting events like the NCAA Tournament.

But it was Spokane Chiefs hockey that regularly put big crowds in the seats seven months a year that was the building’s prime tenant. The Chiefs added to six championships won by past teams like the Flyers and Spokane Jets with a pair of Canadian junior hockey Memorial Cup titles in 1991 and 2008.

And despite some struggles the past few seasons on the ice, the Chiefs are routinely among the teams leading the Western Hockey League in attendance.

Now as you enjoy the local edition of the NCAA Tournament in the days to come, remember to thank hockey for helping that happen hoops’ fans.

— Paul Delaney is a Free Press sports reporter. Email him at [email protected].