DAYTON — RG Properties and Mandalay Sports Entertainment said Friday, April 25, they have commissioned a study to determine whether the region would support a minor league hockey team and sports arena at the proposed Austin Pike interchange.

The companies haven't decided whether to bring an American Hockey League team to Dayton, but they are weighing it as one of several options for the interchange, said Greg Sample, vice president of development and chief operating officer for RG Properties.

"No one should assume that we are down the path of bringing an AHL team to the area or to Austin (Pike) specifically," Sample said.

CSL International, a Plano, Texas consulting firm, is conducting the survey. Sample said they should have data from results by mid-May.

Mandalay Sports owns and operates the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team, which played its first season in 2000. RG Properties, a local developer, owns or has options to buy more than 400 acres around the proposed Austin Pike interchange, which would branch off from Interstate 75, south of state Route 725.

Dragons President Bob Murphy said the survey results should indicate how the public will receive another team.

"We're hoping we get some good solid data that gives us some indication as to the viability of this product in this market," Murphy said.

Dayton has one minor league hockey team, the Dayton Bombers, a member of the ECHL.

The region has had other hockey teams, too. Most recently, in 1996, a second team, the Dayton Ice Bandits, played a single season at Hara Arena after the Bombers relocated from Hara to the Nutter Center in Fairborn. A Colonial Hockey League team, the Bandits went out of business in 1997.

Bombers President Costa Papista said it would be hard for Dayton to support two hockey clubs.

"Each team kind of cannibalizes the other," he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7317 or ttresslar@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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