Dean Snock’s Blog

In a country with multiple professional sports leagues with hundreds of millions of dedicated followers, the National Football League remains the most popular – bringing in an average of 16.5 million people watching a typical game throughout the 17 week season. While most of its massive audience watches on television or through online streaming, the NFL also has some of the largest, most expensive stadiums where fans can watch the game unfold live. With 32 teams playing in 31 different stadiums, each stadium has an average capacity of 70,653 with the largest being the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – home of the Los Angeles Rams – with a maximum capacity of 93,607.

Having some of the largest stadiums in the United States also means they are some of the most expensive. There are a few stadiums that don’t apply such as Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Soldier Field in Chicago and the Los Angeles Coliseum in L.A. which all originally opened over 50 years ago and each cost less than a million dollars to build. Compared to the older stadiums, stadiums that have been built after 2000, can cost anywhere up to a billion dollars with MetLife Stadium – home to both the New York Giants and New York Jets – cost a whopping 1.6 billion dollars to build before opening in 2010. How do they pay for these incredibly expensive stadiums? As the Taxpayers Protection Alliance points out, 29 of the 31 NFL stadiums have been receiving public funding from taxpayers for construction and renovation since 1995, while the NFL just shed its non-profit label and its tax-exempt status in 2015. 

This leads to the argument of whether or not receiving public funding for constructing and renovating NFL stadiums is good or bad business. Out of the 29 stadiums built with taxpayer money, I will focus on four: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, and examine their financial impact on the community whose taxpayers were forced to pay for them.

Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, PA

Built in 2003, Lincoln Financial Field serves as the home to the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and is also used as the home field for Temple University football. In total, the 67,000 seat stadium built in the Philadelphia Sports Complex on Pattison Avenue cost $512 million to erect. Of that $512 million, $188 million came out of the pockets of the people of Philadelphia area. For comparison, the city of Philadelphia asked for $500 million from its taxpayers in 2015 to build over 1,200 housing units in the Sharswood-Blumberg community. The largest housing project in Philadelphia history is still undergoing a multi-phase construction and when it is finished it is projected to provide housing tens of thousands of poverty-stricken people in North Philadelphia.

When ground was broken to construct Lincoln Financial Field in June 2001, the unemployment rate of the Philadelphia area was at 6.2 percent, while the median household income was $41,087. By the time the stadium was opened in August of 2003, the unemployment rate had increased to 7.7 percent, while the median household income decreased to $36,918. The people of Philadelphia, along with the rest of the country, continued to struggle through economic crash of 2008 with the unemployment rate hitting its peak at 12 percent in July 2012. At this time, renovations of the stadium were taking place; these renovations added an additional 1,600 seats, enlarging the stadium store, as well as adding multiple video boards around the stadium. All together, the $125 million of renovations to the now 14-year-old stadium brought the total cost of the stadium to $637 million. Since the renovations that finished in 2014, things have stabilized financially for Philadelphians with the unemployment rate sitting at 6.7 percent as of last month, while median household income was found to be $41,223 according to a 2015 study. 

Serving as the home to the Eagles since its opening in 2003, the stadium has seen tremendous attendance from the large Eagles fanbase. To see the Eagles play live, fans will have to dish out an average of $106 – an increase of $7 from last season.

Heinz Field – Pittsburgh, PA

5 hours west of Lincoln Financial Field, sits Heinz Field – home to the Steelers. The stadium sits adjacent to where the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela Rivers meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Opened in 2001 after two years of construction, the stadium originally could hold up to 65,050 people, but after renovations in 2012, the stadium can now seat 68,400. The stadium which is used as the home stadium for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh football team, and recently has been used as the venue for two Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey games, cost $357 million to construct. Of that $357 million, the Steelers brass put up just $76 million, leaving taxpayers on the hook for $281 million. The owners then received $70 million from Heinz to name the stadium which they kept for themselves. The funding for Heinz Field was a part of a larger public project which also included the construction of a baseball stadium for the Pittsburgh Pirates and tripling the size of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. In total, the entire project cost taxpayers $809 million.

For comparison, the taxpayers of Pittsburgh will have to pay out $1.65 billion over the next 25 years – $67 million per year – for a massive ethane cracker plant that is under construction in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The ethane cracker plant will produce massive amounts of ethylene which is used in making plastic and over 90 percent of manufactured materials. When the plant is finished construction, the site will also provide over 6,000 construction jobs and will employ over 600 workers permanently.

When construction began in the summer of 1999, the unemployment rate of Pittsburgh citizens sat at 4.5 percent with median household income just above $39,000. When the stadium was opened in August 2001, had increased slightly to 4.9 percent while the average household income bumped up to $40,799. For the next four years, the unemployment rate rose; hovering between 5 and 6 percent before dropping back under 5 percent in 2005 where it stayed until the economic crash of 2008. From April 2008 until November 2013, the unemployment rate stayed above 5 percent with the peak coming in February 2010 when 9.5 percent of Allegheny County residents were without a job. In 2015, Heinz Field underwent $35 million of renovations which added 2,600 seats along with a new suite level plaza in the South End of the stadium.

Since its opening in 2001, Heinz Field has sold out every Steelers home game with the average price of admission averaging $203 in 2017 – the highest ticket cost since Heinz Field opened.

Paul Brown Stadium – Cincinnati, OH

Another 5 hours southwest of Heinz Field, Paul Brown Stadium has served as the home of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals since 2000. The 65,535 seat stadium cost Hamilton County – where Cincinnati is located – $455 million to construct and will another $258 million to pay off the interest on the loans used to finance the stadium’s construction. Since 2000, the deal to build and operate Paul Brown Stadium has cost Hamilton County taxpayers over $920 million dollars and that number is only going to increase.

With eight more years left on the 26-year lease which will end in 2026, taxpayers will now have to pay for gamely operating expenses which will add another $2.7 million in 2017 and is expected to continue to rise. Since 2015, Paul Brown Stadium has also received $25 million from the county to install a new scoreboard and make the stadium energy-efficient. To go along with that, the stadium also receives another million dollars from taxpayers each year for stadium improvements.

At this rate, by the time the lease ends, it is projected that Hamilton County taxpayers will have spent over $1.1 billion dollars to build and maintain Paul Brown stadium to keep the Bengals – who threatened to leave the city in the mid-90s – in Cincinnati. The cost of the stadium was so great that the city twas forced to sell off a local hospital. While many of their tax dollars were going into paying for Paul Brown Stadium, the Cincinnati area saw a huge spike in unemployment rate – experiencing a continual rise from 3.9 percent in 2000 to 11.1 percent in January 2010 before dropping off in recent years.

The cost of Paul Brown Stadium greatly overshadows another public project in Cincinnati: restoring the Union Terminal – a feat where taxpayers will be on the hook for $151.7 million of the $212.7 million project. The project will be funded using a five-year half-percent sales tax hike that will expire in 2019 unlike Paul Brown Stadium which has required funding for  almost 18 years and will continue through 2026.

Edward Jones Dome – St. Louis, MO

Unlike all the other stadiums I have discussed, Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis is no longer home to any NFL team. From its opening in 1995 until 2016, the dome-style stadium was home to the St. Louis Rams who left the city to return to Los Angeles where the franchise played from 1946 until 1994. Now, not only has St. Louis lost the Rams, but they still have to finish paying off the remaining $100 million in bonds that were used to construct the $280 million stadium that coaxed the Rams to St. Louis in the first place; a feat that likely won’t be completed until 2021.  

Since the Edward Jones Dome was built in 1995, the city of St. Louis has seen its unemployment rate undergo big changes. In 1995, unemployment rate was 4.5 and over the next five years, dropped to 3.2 percent. Succeeding the drop, the unemployment rate nearly doubled over the next five years – peaking at 6.2 percent in August 2004. Like many other cities, St. Louis’ unemployment rate skyrocketed during the economic crash – reaching 10.4 percent in October 2009.

To compare the cost of the stadium, Missouri taxpayers pay a combined $70 million for five of the region’s cultural institutions: The St. Louis Zoo and St. Louis Art Museum receive $20 million a year. The Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri History Museum and St. Louis Science Center each receive about $10 million annually.

A One-sided Deal

This leaves the question: should taxpayers continue to pay for NFL stadiums? In my opinion, absolutely not. The main reason being that a stadium which will hold at most 11 home games in a season just simply isn’t worth the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that are shelling out. The NFL simply doesn’t give back to their community; the NFL team must pay a modest rent to the city; for example, when the Rams were in St. Louis paid just $500,000 annually for the land the stadium was built on. Now, with the Rams in Los Angeles and St. Louis with $100 million of debt in the Rams’ former stadium, there has still been no assistance from Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke – who has a net worth of $8.1 billion – to help the city pay off their debt. The lack of NFL owners paying back their city is also shown by the Rooney family – owners of the Steelers – keeping the $75 million Heinz paid them for naming rights of their stadium instead of giving it back to the city that gave $281 million for the construction of Heinz Field.

Another example of a lack of gratitude for their city is Seahawks’ owner Paul Allen who pays just $1 million annually to the state of Washington after state taxpayers paid for $390 million of the Seattle Seahawks $560 million CenturyLink Field. After having the stadium paid for to go along with hundreds of millions of revenue from fans by way of tickets, concessions, and parking, to only give back a million dollars back to the city is purely unacceptable.

As for the taxpayers of Hamilton County, they are perhaps the biggest victims of the NFL’s ability to use taxpayer money to build their stadiums. Not only have they put $455 million towards constructing Paul Brown Stadium in the first place, but they also must pay off the interest from the loans used to fund the stadium – another $258 million. On top of all that, they will soon have to pay for game-day operations and possibly even clean-up of the stadiums after each game.

After much research on the funding of NFL stadiums, I believe it’s easy to see why the use of public money to fund NFL stadiums is bad business for everyone but the NFL who are looking to make the biggest profit they can and using public funding to build massive stadiums while the NFL and their team owners make all the profits, maximizes their income. The revenue teams make will usually go towards the government, while taxpayers that are giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the 29 NFL stadiums that use public funding and taxpayers get only a small portion of the team’s revenue in return. It’s a deal that taxpayers will always get the short end of the stick. 

With the NFL being as successful as they are, taking advantage of its fans to fund their stadiums where the league will collect all the revenue generated by the fans. It’s an obviously unfair deal that the fans never agreed to in the first place.

Featured Image courtesy of Philadelphia Eagles

References

Beyer, Scott. “Philadelphia To Seize 1,330 Properties For Public Redevelopment.” Forbes. June 26, 2015. Accessed October 01, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2015/06/26/philadelphia-to-seize-1330-properties-for-government-redevelopment/2/#1cdeb16f7339.

Gregory, Sean. “NFL Gives Up Tax-Exempt Status.” Time. Accessed September 23, 2017. http://time.com/3839164/nfl-tax-exempt-status/.

Harvey, Coley. “Paul Brown Stadium upgrades coming soon.” ESPN. April 17, 2014. Accessed October 02, 2017. http://www.espn.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/post/_/id/7009/bengals-paul-brown-stadium-upgrades-cincinnati-hamilton-ohio.

Hunn, David. “St. Louis Zoo says it needs money; will you pay more?” Stltoday.com. August 28, 2015. Accessed October 02, 2017. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-zoo-says-it-needs-money-will-you-pay/article_02fae734-dd5c-5611-9802-67ecf669ba9a.html.

“Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission History.” Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission. Accessed October 01, 2017. http://lamcc.lacounty.gov/History.

May, Lucy. “Union Terminal restoration to cost about $900,000 more than originally expected.” WCPO. September 13, 2016. Accessed October 03, 2017. http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/union-terminal-restoration-to-cost-about-900000-more-than-originally-expected?page=2.

Panyard, Jim. “$1 Billion And Counting For State’s Taxpayer-Funded Stadiums.” Watchdog.org. September 17, 2010. Accessed September 27, 2017. https://www.watchdog.org/pennsylvania/billion-and-counting-for-state-s-taxpayer-funded-stadiums/article_d5f040af-fd5e-5272-8a5b-aac4b41f1dd4.html.

Seitz, Amanda. “County has spent $920M in deal to build stadium, keep NFL team in town since 2000.” WCPO. January 21, 2016. Accessed September 27, 2017. http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/county-has-spent-920m-in-deal-to-build-stadium-keep-nfl-team-in-town-since-2000.

“Stadium Facts.” Lincoln Financial Field. Accessed October 03, 2017. http://www.lincolnfinancialfield.com/stadium-facts/.

“Unemployment Rate in Hamilton County, OH.” FRED. September 27, 2017. Accessed October 04, 2017. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OHHAMI1URN.

“Unemployment Rate in Philadelphia County/City, PA.” FRED. September 27, 2017. Accessed October 04, 2017. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAPHIL5URN.

“Unemployment Rate in Pittsburgh, PA (MSA).” FRED. September 27, 2017. Accessed October 01, 2017. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PITT342URN.

“Unemployment Rate in St. Louis, MO-IL (MSA).” FRED. September 27, 2017. Accessed October 02, 2017. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/STLUR

Waldron, Travis. “St. Louis Taxpayers Aren’t Finished Paying For The Stadium The Rams Abandoned.” The Huffington Post. April 05, 2017. Accessed October 04, 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rams-los-angeles-st-louis-taxpayers_us_5696955ee4b0778f46f7c330.

“What’s An Ethane Cracker?” NPR. Accessed September 29, 2017. https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/ethane-cracker/.

Williams, David. “NFL Subsidies: Taxpayers Left High and Dry After Rams Move to Los Angeles.” Taxpayers Protection Alliance. January 26, 2016. Accessed October 04, 2017. https://www.protectingtaxpayers.org/blog/a/view/nfl-subsidies-taxpayers-left-high-and-dry-after-rams-move-to-los-angeles.

*Interview and article originally from March 2020

Everyday life has changed vastly over the last month. With the coronavirus pandemic, many are stuck in their homes, businesses are closed, facemasks are needed just to go to the grocery store. Almost everything has been affected in some way. Sports are no exception.

Since the National Basketball Association became the first major sports league to suspend their season on March 11^th, the rest quickly followed. The NHL, MLB, and all NCAA sports.

For the NCAA, March and April usually mean playoffs. For college basketball, it’s March Madness and for ice hockey, it’s the Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament followed by the Frozen Four. Both cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it was extremely upsetting for fans to accept the circumstances forced on to the NCAA, it was just as tough on the players. Especially, when they saw professional leagues one-by-one postpone their season causing a lot of uncertainty for their season.

Ohio State University goaltender Ryan Snowden was one of the many players competing for the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship when the league decided to cancel the rest of the tournament in early March.

 Snowden, a freshman at Ohio State University, and the tenth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes were getting ready to take on the University of Michigan Wolverines when the news that the rest of the season was being cancelled.

“We were in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament and getting ready to play Michigan at Nationwide Arena. After sweeping Wisconsin were feeling really good headed into the semifinals.”

It was an unprecedented move by the NCAA who had to cancel the Division 1 Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament for the first time in its 72 years of existence.

“The team was starting to assume the worst when the professional leagues were canceling their seasons. On the Thursday before our semifinal game we got called into the rink and had a meeting with the whole staff, just informing us of the situation. Then an hour later we were called back to the rink and were told the season was done. It was kind of expected but that didn’t take away the shock factor.”

For student-athletes like Snowden, it was a tough pill to swallow after a long season where the team had clawed its way to a top ten ranking in the country and looked poised for a deep playoff run.

“I think the weirdest part of it all was how it happened,” Snowden remarked. “When the NCAA decided we were going to stop our season I was in shock. I really didn’t know how to react. I just went home and then packed up my stuff and went home for the semester and never really acknowledged what has just happened.”

With players usually playing only four seasons before graduating, the cancellation of one of those seasons is especially tough and the idea of a fifth-year eligibility for student-athletes has been tossed around but is supposedly still up in the air.

“As far as I know the NCAA has not provided a 5th year option to any hockey schools. I heard it was an option at first but that has since changed. I heard they are giving 5th year options to all the spring sports.”

While the eight seniors on the Ohio State roster will have to wait and see if the NCAA hands out a fifth-year eligibility, the rest of the team faces the challenge of how they will move forward and approach this extended offseason.

“The pandemic really hurts the offseason routine I have. Usually I am supposed to be in Columbus for May and work out as a team all month and then we skate when ice is available. This pandemic isn’t allowing us to go back and do these team workouts.”

Residing in Chester County, Pennsylvania which is scheduled to be on lockdown through May 8^th, Snowden is left with little options in regard to training.

“With no public to private gyms being open, it’s hard to get into a solid gym routine even though we have a program provided by our trainer.”

Making the situation even more difficult is the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic timeline. While the status of the pandemic remains fluid, it calls into question the status of the 2020-2021 season for NCAA fall sports which begin in mid-October.

“The only thing I have heard about next year being affected is through rumors on social media. Saying next season could be delayed or shortened due to the Coronavirus.”

All in all, it’s an unfortunate situation for everyone, players and sports fans. As their only option is just to wait and hope that come October, players will be back on the ice, stadiums will be filled, and normalcy will be restored to the sports world.

Featured Image: OhioStateBuckeyes.com

Serving your country is one of the biggest sacrifices you can make. Every year, 180,000 Americans make that sacrifice and join the United States of America’s military, according to Military.com. These brave individuals choose to leave behind their everyday lives, family, and friends to put their bodies on the line and take on the job of protecting their country.

Many of those soldiers never come back from the service as the same person once they experience the trials of war. Whether mentally or physically injured, veterans often face a lot of problems and find it difficult to cope with the huge change in their everyday life when returning home from their military service.

With the sheer number of veterans, there are many organizations in the United States created to help veterans by holding events that support bonding and help with transitional skills to help veterans make the change from service member. The Warrior Hockey League combines those necessary transitional skills with the love of ice hockey.

“The team has given me a sense of purpose,” says Eric Drennen, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and Flyers Warriors player. “It rekindled the military brotherhood that many of us are in search for after completion of our time in the service. The program gives us an outlet and surrounds us with like-minded individuals who are currently dealing with service connected disabilities.”

Drennen plays for the newest addition to the Warrior Hockey League, the Flyers Warriors, who are based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and are directly affiliated with the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers.

How It Started

In founding the Flyers Warriors team, it was important to not only put together a competitive team but create a community. “The main goal of the team was to establish a community and network of disabled veterans who could use each other through the game of hockey to enhance their lives and to fulfill the burning desire to be a part of something greater than oneself,” says Drennen.

            Leading the way was former Flyers Warriors President Rick Stabeno, who relayed a short and sweet message to the Philadelphia Flyers in late 2018.

            “The call was very simple: ‘I’m a Flyers fan, I’m a veteran, I’m a hockey player, I would like to start a team in the Philadelphia area. Can you guys help me?’ As it turns out, that was all it took as the Flyers helped jump start the team with a $50,000 donation.

“The donation allowed us to get the ball rolling for ice time and equipment. The affiliation is certainly important because the exposure of the team is greater than if we were independent,” Drennen remarked.

The team was officially formed in early 2019 and launched with a ceremony in the Flyers locker room days before the Flyers Stadium Series game at Lincoln Financial Field against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brad Marsh and the help of former NHL players

The exposure from the NHL affiliation has helped the team grow to 65 players of varying hockey experience, from recreational to college-level. However, it’s been the dedication of former NHL player Brad Marsh has helped the team continue to stay true to the organization.

Marsh, the current coach and alumni president of the Flyers Warriors, spent 15 years in the NHL from 1978 to 1993 and spent seven of those years in Philadelphia with the Flyers.

 “He has been monumental in our growth. His dedication to our cause is the reason many of us show up to practice and skate our bodies to death,” Drennen remarked. “He is a well-respected man that we all idolize and appreciate more than he will know. He provides us with an insight to the game that only a former player can give. He tells stories and shares insider information about his experience as a professional hockey player. It is both hysterical and applicable to life. It is a true blessing.”

Along with Marsh, many former players have played a role in the growth of the team and players. Former Flyers Bob Kelly, Bobby Clarke, Dave Brown, Mark Howe, Bill Clement, Keith Jones, Todd Fedoruk have all spent time with the Warriors team.

“The cycle of former players is seemingly endless,” says Drennen.  “It was always an amazing experience meeting players that you grew up watching. It is equally amazing to hear behind the scenes stories and to have the ability to ask them questions about memories from childhood. Many of the players have shown up to practice and just recently we literally had a former player or coach on a zoom call every week during the COVID crisis shutdown. They present us with life advice, hockey advice, and basic support just by showing up and being there.”

Creating a support system for veterans

While time in the military has pushed many service members to their limits mentally and physically, returning home is also a major obstacle for veterans to face.

Drennen refers to the return home as “by far the biggest obstacle that we face as a community.”

According to Drennen, the ability to build relationships proves to be tough for him and most veterans. “It is nearly impossible to feel a wholesome connection to anyone who didn’t serve upon returning and to those who haven’t seen and been affected by the gruesome, unnatural, and evil nature that is warfare, the warrior program provides us all with the missing connection.”

This is one area that the Flyers Warriors has really been able to help most veterans adjust. It gives them a place to build meaningful relationships.

“My wife and son give me reason to live but it is the program that gives me the necessary outlet and void-filling spark that is needed by many veterans to sustain a purposeful life.”

Another one of the other hardest transitions to make is leaving a structured life in the military and transitioning to a less-organized life outside the military.

“In the military, there exists a ton of structure, hierarchy, and purpose, Drennen states.  “After getting out, all of that is essentially stripped away leaving many veterans lost and unsure of the future-especially those with a disability.”

While the Flyers Warriors players all share in their military experience and a love of ice hockey, some also share in the struggle of dealing with disabilities from their time in the service. 

According to a 2019 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 25 percent of veterans suffer from some type of disability.  With disability being such a large obstacle in many veteran’s lives, the Flyers Warriors have provided a space for disabled vets to play hockey and find others dealing with similar situations.

When it comes to disabilities, the Warrior Hockey League requires that each player is dealing with at least a 10 percent disability, but it does not necessarily mean a physical disability.

“The majority of the players do have physical disabilities but not in terms of missing limbs on our team specifically,” says Drennen. “There are veterans who are amputees that play on other warrior teams and there are many programs that assist those individuals. Although we are all disabled it is not something that is routinely discussed during official team events. We have conditions such as PTSD, hearing loss, and other various mechanically based issues that we deal with internally, with the support of our fellow veterans and with the help of outside veteran assistance programs.”

Helping the Veteran Community

While the Warriors program does a lot for its players, it also allows players to find time to help other veterans in the community. Drennen believes that it is key to help all vets, saying that “the Warriors biggest and most fulfilling accomplishments have been its willingness to participate in many events throughout the year. Everything from raising funds for a fallen or injured warrior, assisting at the Flyers Wives Carnival, being part of the Veterans Day parade, assisting with alumni events, and organizing special at home visits for other veterans.”

“While we all love to play, the program truly is a veteran outreach program that simply uses ice hockey as the medium to do so.”

Success on the Ice

Though the results on the ice are certainly secondary to the importance of building a support system for veterans, the team has actually had some great success during their short tenure in the Warrior Hockey League.

 In their first-ever tournament, the team posted a 5-0 record at the Tier 3 Warrior Classic Tier in Las Vegas, Nevada, beating out fellow Warrior teams from Iowa, Nebraska, Washington D.C., Colorado, and finally North Carolina in the championship game as they took home the title.

“The national Las Vegas tournament last October was by far the biggest team accomplishment,” Drennen reflected. “I had joined the team after the win but that was an amazing story. The biggest obstacle with that was simple. We had just formed the team a few months prior and without playing with each other much, went on to win a national event-impressive for sure.”

“It was a remarkable run,” said Drennen. “We were a very new team going against guys that had been playing together longer than us but we really found our groove during those 5 games. It definitely wasn’t a cakewalk though. Our second game against Nebraska we ran into a hot goalie who just seemed to stop everything but we got it done. We trailed by a goal three different times in the championship game against Carolina. It was a battle, but we proved that we were ready for it.”

Unfortunately, the Flyers Warriors will not get the chance to defend their title in 2020 as the Warrior Hockey Classic has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.      

“It’s definitely hard being away from all the guys and getting out on the ice. We were really looking forward to defending our title this year but I guess we’ll have to settle for being the champs for another year,” Drennen joked.

A Look to the Future

The Flyers Warriors team has been a huge success on and off the ice despite their short existence. Winning a championship their first year while providing local veterans with something they desperately crave after leaving the service – brotherhood.

 But their work is definitely not done yet. With problems amongst the veteran community such as homelessness, unemployment, and mental health, there is still room to grow for the Flyers Warriors.

These issues still plague the veteran community and are areas the Flyers Warriors hope to improve in their community along with the rest of the Warrior Hockey League.

“The biggest goal for us as a program is to touch as many lives as humanly possible,” says Drennen. The veteran community is a small but very close-knit community. We understand each other and have more respect for each other than any other occupation in the world. It is our goal to use the game of hockey and the desire to be once again part of something greater than self to promote and reinstate the special bond between service men and women.”  

Featured Image from the Flyers Warriors Facebook Page