Peoria Rivermen owner and CEO Bart Rogers says the pro hockey team’s new five-year lease extension at Carver Arena affirms their commitment to the River City and allows the franchise to continue to thrive.
The Rivermen and the Peoria Civic Center Authority announced the agreement Tuesday, ending prolonged negotiations and retroactively incorporating a temporary one-year pact to cover the current SPHL season. The new deal now runs through the 2028-29 season.
“We’ve always been committed to staying in Peoria. We’ve been here for over four decades and had no qualms about wanting to leave or move,” Rogers said in an interview with WCBU. “The issue has always been, all along, the ice plant, which has needed to be upgraded and updated for probably the last 10 to 12 seasons.”
For several years, Carver Arena has been in need of a replacement for its outdated and malfunctioning ice plant, the equipment that maintains the rink’s skating surface.
A 2023 agreement with the City of Peoria for $20 million in additional funding toward extensive Civic Center upgrades totaling more than $45 million included a set-aside of $5 million for the ice plant project.
“That’s been always a sticking point, that there was no funding ever to replace that. So now that the funding (has) come to fruition a couple years ago with the city of Peoria, we’re able to finally work with Civic Center Authority and come to agreement on a five-year lease,” said Rogers. “This will keep Rivermen hockey here for at least the next five years and hopefully the next four more decades.”
In August, the PCCA approved a $1.3 million purchase agreement for a new ice plant. The additional money from the set-aside would go toward costs for removal of the current ice plant from beneath the concrete under the rink, installation of the new ice plant, and labor expenses.
The project is currently planned for the summer of 2026 and will require the venue’s closure for a minimum of three months.
“That's the bad part of the business, I guess, from a building standpoint,” said Rogers. “But unfortunately, when you have to put those things in, things have to be shut down to improve the facility.”
Rogers declined to comment on full details of the lease negotiations, but he said the talks ultimately resulted in a deal that benefits both the team and the venue.
“For us, we wanted a partnership. We wanted a commitment from both sides to make sure that we can continue to promote our sport, continue to grow it, which only benefits the Civic Center on the back end,” he said, pointing to the franchise’s success in recent years.
“We averaged almost 4,000 fans last season. We have the best winning percentage in all minor league hockey the last 10 years. We won the championship two of the last three years. We’ve increased our attendance by almost 20% each year the last two seasons, and we’ve set a 15-year record high in sponsorship sales and sold over 355 new season tickets over the summer. So on the ice, I think we definitely do our job.”
Rogers said their mission remains to provide an affordable entertainment option in the Peoria community.
“We’re giving an outlet for families and people to casual fans to come out, to have something to look forward to all winter long,” he said. “We’re happy to be able to continue to do that here at the Peoria Civic Center in downtown Peoria.”
He also said he’s not concerned about any potential drawbacks from the renewed presence of another pro hockey team in the vicinity, with the expansion Bloomington Bison now in their first season as an ECHL franchise.
“All of our season ticket holders and all of our sponsors that are actually from over there have all renewed; we’ve actually signed a few more up,” he said. “We hope they do well. It’s nice to have more professional hockey in the marketplace to promote the great sport it is and to make it bigger and better.
“I know our fans probably will go over to their games when we’re off, and vice versa. Those are the avid fans that enjoy hockey, no matter what team it is and what level it is. You know, ISU has a basketball team and Bradley has a basketball team; they both have coexisted, and we will both coexist, too.”
