Getting In on the Game

Schoenborn may not have been a puckster, but the USHL roused his entrepreneurial juices, and along with two other investors, he and Bill Sexton—a minority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves whom Schoenborn had met through his law practice—formed Central Ventures, the S corporation that founded the Stampede in 1999. Two years later, Schoenborn was recruited by Leonard Street & Deinard; he’s now the managing partner of the firm’s St. Cloud office. In between, Schoenborn and Central Ventures bought the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers and worked with the Iowa community on construction of the $53 million Tyson Event Center before selling the team for a profit. In 2003, Central Ventures bought the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers franchise.

So how does the co-owner of two USHL teams avoid the appearance of impropriety, especially when he also provides legal representation for the league itself? League rules help. They allow each owner, regardless of how many teams he owns, only one vote in league matters. “In reality, my influence is less than it would be if I were involved with just one team,” Schoenborn says. “My time and energy is split among a number of things.”

Like any entrepreneurial venture, establishing a USHL hockey franchise requires some risk taking. Stampede CEO Weckwerth recalls that when his team was being started, the market for it could have gone either boom or bust. “Hockey wasn’t a known commodity here,” he says. “It’s never been a big sport in Sioux Falls, not nearly like it is in Minnesota.”

The Sioux Falls ownership group faced another challenge—finding a place to play. The only option was the then-38-year-old Sioux Falls Arena, which was less than ideal. “It was a basketball arena, and they’d been trying to figure out how to put ice in it for years,” Schoenborn recalls. “The day I walked into it for the first time, it was set up for a rodeo.” Still, he found himself looking up at the stands and saying to himself, “I think we can do this.”

The resulting facelift cost $2.5 million, with Schoenborn and his partners covering about $1 million. The renovation created a rink that is more than 10 feet shorter and slightly narrower than a typical NHL rink. “It cuts down on the neutral zone,” notes Schoenborn. “It provides a heck of a home-ice advantage.”

So far, Sioux Falls has embraced its USHL team. “I’m amazed to be averaging 4,000 people a night in a 4,600-capacity arena,” Weckwerth says. “We’ve had to tell our corporate sponsors that they can’t have premium seats, because the season-ticket holders won’t give them up.” Weckworth ascribes the team’s success chiefly to two factors. Sioux Falls citizens unfamiliar with hockey have discovered that it’s “fast moving and exciting to watch,” he says. In addition, Weckworth notes the city is growing, and many of its newcomers have been moving in from hockey-playing areas.