2,700 demand end to Genesis control of Wichita Ice Center; city negotiating extension
As the city manager negotiates a possible extension of the contract for operation of the Wichita Ice Center, more than 2,700 hockey and figure-skating enthusiasts have signed an online petition asking the city to dump its management agreement with Genesis Health Clubs.
The Change.org petition and its signatories have a long list of grievances with Genesis, who they say has poured money into a Genesis Health Club and the Pucks Sports Bar on the second floor of the center, while allowing the city-owned ice rinks on the ground floor to deteriorate badly.
“When you go to the Ice Center, if you go upstairs you’ll see a pristine gym with clean glass, brand new machines, a bar that looks fantastic, even a little dance studio on one end,” said John Ford, a hockey player and referee who started the petition. “You visit the downstairs actual rinks and it’s very much otherwise.”
He said the ice rinks are plagued by blown-out lights, worn out and smudged glass and dasher boards around the rinks, player bench areas with rotted floors, play clocks and scoreboards that either have been unusable for years or break down during games.
Genesis officials declined to be interviewed but issued a response to the petition, largely blaming City Hall.
The statement issued by Genesis vice president Jake McCabe mostly denies responsibility for deterioration at the rink and defends the company’s handling of the health club part of the facility, which is jointly run but considered a separate business.
As part of the management agreement, the city borrowed $750,000 in 2012 to give to Genesis to establish the second-floor health club at the Ice Center.
“Mr. Ford, in his petition, says that Genesis was given a City bond for the Ice Center that was used for the Genesis Health Club. That statement is true,” the company’s statement said. “However, what the petitioner did not state was that per the contract Genesis is 100% responsible for the repayment of that bond. That money was not intended for the Ice Center.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the petition to change the management of the Ice Center had 2,759 signatures.
“The ice rinks have seen little to no improvements in the last nine (9) years of Genesis managing the facility,” the petition says. “The time clocks/scoreboards have not been maintained/upgraded, and what has been repaired is hardly functioning at this point.
“The south rink, known as the NHL ice, has two scoreboards, one of which has not been turned on or used in decades. The north rink, known as the Olympic ice, has a jumbo-tron with only one functioning side a majority of the time. Also, the time clock computers are falling apart with fraying wires, plugs that don’t stay in the outlet, and malfunctions that occur so regularly that players have begun to think it’s normal.”
In a written statement, Genesis said that the current agreement with the city requires the city to pay for all investment, including all of the items the petition lists as needed improvements.
The city acknowledges it’s responsible for capital improvements to the facility, but not routine maintenance.
The petition is accompanied by page after page of online comments criticizing the Ice Center, Genesis and its owners, brothers Rodney and Brandon Steven.
“The majority of the hockey teams, if you read through some of the comments, they’re not impressed,” Ford said. “They’re severely disappointed in the way in the way it’s been run, the way it’s degraded and been run down.”
Tony Reis, president of the Kansas Hockey Officials Association, which provides officiating services for adult and youth leagues at the Ice Center, confirmed the problems listed in the petition and then some.
He said on several occasions, panels of glass surrounding the rink have broken during games and been replaced with sheets of plywood. While that doesn’t render a rink unplayable, it’s not a good look either, he said.
“Do you want it? No,” he said. “But if that’s what we have it’s what we have. There have been times where it’s been about a month or so” before the glass was replaced.
On the scoreboard, “half the time the lights are out,” Reis said. “Sometimes over 50 percent of them don’t even work.
“You pretty much got to guess sometimes what that number is on the board,” Reis said. “There’s two clocks on that (NHL rink) side. One I’ve never seen it work — and I got back in hockey back in ‘05. There’s times when the other clock just goes out in the middle of a game, so then we have to stop the game.”
Genesis’ statement said money taken in or spent at the rinks belongs to City Hall, not Genesis.
“Genesis is not allowed to spend more than $2,500 without City approval (on the rinks)“ the statement said. “Aside from the management fee, the only money Genesis receives is if there is a significant profit. Genesis then receives a ten percent added management fee.”
Genesis gets a $50,000 payment each year from the city to manage the ice center.
The city gets 5% of the membership fees and 20% of day fees from the health club, which totaled about $7,800 in 2019, according to city records.
The original contract for the health club specified that it would not be a Genesis facility.
But in 2016, the city amended the contract, allowing the company to erect a large pole sign in the parking lot overlooking the Kellogg freeway branding the fitness center as a Genesis club.
The sign also has an electronic billboard used to advertise Genesis’ other fitness clubs and season tickets for the Wichita Thunder, one of the three minor-league hockey franchises owned by the Stevens.
The other two are in Tulsa and Allen, Texas, and play in the same league as the Thunder, the ECHL, formerly East Coast Hockey League.
The Thunder practices at the Ice Center and plays its game at the Intrust Bank Arena.
Under the management contract that started in January of 2012, routine maintenance at the Ice Center is supposed to be handled by Genesis and any big-ticket repairs are the city’s responsibility.
City Manager Robert Layton said he’s been in talks with Genesis about a contract extension that would place more of the onus for improvements on Genesis.
“We’ve been discussing with Genesis a revision to the agreement that we’d bring forward, but I’m not ready to do that at this point,” Layton said. “I wanted to clarify the responsibilities for the ongoing maintenance and upgrading of the facility. Right now, day-to-day maintenance falls on Genesis as the operator, but the capital costs, really all the significant capital replacement falls on the city.”
For example, in 2018, the chiller for one of the two main rinks at the Ice Center broke down. A temporary replacement was rented to refreeze the rink and a replacement had to be purchased by the city.
“That turned out to be over a million-dollar expense for the city even though we don’t have any control over the day-to-day (operation),” Layton said.
Genesis’ current contract with the city runs for a 10-year term with a possible five-year extension.
That initial 10 years will expire near the end of next year and the company is not interested in taking on more responsibility without a guarantee of a longer term, Layton said.
“In order . . . for them to justify the capital investment in the facility to prolong its life, they would like an extension of the contract,” Layton said. “I don’t want to get into that until I’ve had a chance to talk to the users and we can address with them any concerns they have before we go forward.”
If the deal goes through, Genesis would agree to invest $1 million in improvements to the ice operation over the next eight years, the company’s statement said.
“The City would oversee these expenditures, but these funds would allow the Ice Center to make the required improvements,” the statement said. “The current agreement requires the City to pay for all investment. This includes all of the items the petition lists as needed improvements.”
No agreement has been reached yet, he said.
“While Genesis and the City have been negotiating a new contract that would make Genesis responsible for all of the Ice Center expenses and revenues, no date has been set as the agreement has not been completed,” Genesis’ statement said.
