Magic owners to buy Solar Bears
The Orlando Magic and the DeVos family will buy minor-league hockey’s Orlando Solar Bears. The current Solar Bears owner had been unable to find a buyer and planned to shut down the team, Magic CEO Alex Martins said. The move gives mascots Stuff (left) and Shades more to cheer about.
The Orlando Magic and their owners, the DeVos family, will purchase the Orlando Solar Bears minor-league hockey team, Magic officials announced Wednesday.
Magic CEO Alex Martins said the Magic were informed six weeks ago that the Solar Bears’ current owner intended to shut down the team because he could no longer sustain the business and had not been able to find a buyer for the franchise.
“After that conversation, we had an internal conversation about what potential impact that could have on our sports community and on the Amway Center,” Martins said. “And we made the determination that we didn’t want to see the team go out of business.
“Part of the rationale in making the decision to purchase the team was to keep it in the Amway Center and to keep those events and those fans continuing to utilize the Amway Center as its home. So we have no intention of
moving it anywhere else.”
Joe Haleski, the Solar Bears’ owner, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Martins said the purchase agreement prevents him from disclosing the price for the hockey team.
The Solar Bears play in the ECHL.
The DeVos family owned and ran the Solar Bears from 1995 to 2001 when the team played in the International Hockey League.
The IHL stopped play in 2001.
The current Solar Bears franchise started play in the ECHL in 2012.
“We are excited and grateful the DeVos family has agreed to purchase the Solar Bears to continue to grow the brand and expand the growth of the sport in Central Florida,” ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna said in a statement.
“A track record of successfully operating professional sports franchises, an in-depth knowledge of the Orlando sports environment and as creators of the original Solar Bears brand, the Orlando Magic and the DeVos family are the ideal owners for the professional hockey team."
The Solar Bears, an affiliate of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, posted a 36-26-7-3 record during the 2016-17 regular season and lost a first-round playoff series in seven games.
Martins said the Magic will keep the Solar Bears’ name.
He added that the Magic intend to retain the Solar Bears’ front-office staff.
“We’ll meet the staff for the first time next week sometime and we’ll do a complete evaluation of who’s there,” Martins said. “But our intention is to maintain the same and separate front-office staff from the Magic front-office staff.”
The Magic will build a $200 million entertainment complex across from Amway Center, but Martins said the Magic would have purchased the Solar Bears even without the entertainment complex.
“This was really about keeping a professional sports franchise with a strong fan base operational and maintaining those 35-plus events per year in the Amway Center,” Martins said.