ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Aces of the ECHL will shut down after the current season.

Terry Parks, managing partner of the Aces ownership group, says the Anchorage-based minor league team is losing money and the state's declining economy means the trend is likely to continue. He says the Aces have lost more money this year than the past two years combined.

Parks says the league has granted the Aces permission to voluntarily suspend operations.

He says sponsorships are down $600,000, season ticket sales are down $262,000 and attendance is down about 1,500 spectators per game.</s>The state’s only professional sports franchise, the Alaska Aces, will fold after this season. The decision was announced Thursday, Feb. 23.

After years of declining revenue, Aces managing member Terry Parks said the choice to fold was a business decision.

“We bought this team out of bankruptcy almost 15 years ago and certainly turned it around and now we have to suffer the consequences of closing it down because of lack of attendance to the games and we believe it’s all kind of based on the Alaska economy,” Parks said.

The team plays in the Mountain Division of ECHL’s Western Conference.

The team’s sponsorships are down $600,000, and ticket sales have dropped more than $250,000.

The past couple seasons, attendance is down, too: about 1,500 fewer people are showing up for any given game — more than a 25 percent drop over the past three seasons.

Others expect to take a hit, as well.

Chris Schutte directs the office economic and community development for the Municipality of Anchorage. The city owns the Sullivan arena, and Schutte said the Aces account for about 60 percent of the facility’s revenue.

“In 2016, we did about $1.5 million of revenue from Aces-related activities,” Schutte said. “So that’s renting the building, box office ticket sales, food and beverage sales, parking, things like that.”

Though the departure leaves a huge gap, Schutte said SMG — the company that operates the Sullivan Arena for the Municipality — is already working to fill in space left by the Aces.

“It’s weird, there’s a silver lining almost in the loss of the Aces in that the building itself becomes more available,” Schutte said. “That gives SMG broader latitude in booking the facility for other types of events … concerts, comedy shows, things like that.”

Aside from the drop in revenue, Schutte said the largest loss is to Anchorage’s hockey community, and the generations of kids who have long been inspired by the Aces.

“The hockey community is certainly sad to see the Aces go, we’re sad to see it go, we’ve been involved with it going on 22-23 years as a sponsor before we purchased it,” Parks said. “We all have a lot of energy and effort into it, but you can’t continue to run a business that’s losing a significant amount of money.”

The team will play out the remainder of the season, wrapping up in early April.

All of the players will become free agents.
The Alaska Aces ice hockey team announce that the 2016–17 ECHL season will be the team's last after 28 seasons of play, following a downturn in the Alaskan economy and sagging ticket sales.