ShawneeDispatch.com

With the ice at their Overland Park home melted, the Kansas City Stars youth hockey league is relocating to Shawnee.

But the Stars aren’t just moving into Ice Sports, team leaders have created a partnership to manage the facility and — potentially — expand it to include a second rink.

“We are pleased for this opportunity to serve the hockey and figure skating community,” Stars President Tom Tilley said in an announcement Thursday. “We look forward to meeting and working with Ice Sports teams, associations and customers.”

Tilley and two other men formed Stars Facility Management LLC. Mike Curry, a hockey parent and Stars chairman of the board, and Bill Fromm, a hockey parent, are the other partners, according to a letter Tilley sent to Stars parents and friends.

Tilley said his organization reached an agreement with Ice Sports, 19900 Johnson Drive, to lease the facility long-term, with an option to buy. The Stars plan to take over management of the facility March 1.

The group will operate Ice Sports “as is” until May 22 and conduct a complete spring hockey program in that time, Tilley said in the letter.

After that, the changes begin.

Tilley said plans include repairing the rink, replacing dasher boards, fixing up locker rooms and restrooms and improving the heating and air conditioning system.

The Stars are looking “very seriously” at the possibility of adding a second rink, Tilley said in the letter.

“Our goal is to ensure that every hockey player and family in Kansas City who wants to play the great game of hockey has the opportunity to do so,” he said.

Ice Sports owners pledged to preserve the facility as an ice-related sports complex for youth development. Ice Sports currently offers hockey and skating programs, plus open-skating time for the public.

“Transition activities will begin immediately to facilitate and ensure customer service during this transfer of daily operations,” Ice Sports President Brett Allison said Thursday in the news release. “We recognize the critical nature of managing the ice schedule during this time, and we are working closely with the new group to create an inclusive schedule.”

In January, a major piece of equipment, essential to maintaining the ice surface, broke down at Ice Midwest, 135th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park. While other events at the facility are ongoing, there’s no ice for the Stars, or any of the other ice activities that used to take place there.

Tilley said the Stars’ decision followed weeks of looking at what he considered every possibly scenario for continuing their hockey program.

He said he hoped the opportunity would help bring the entire Greater Kansas City hockey community together.

“This is an exciting time,” he wrote to parents and friends. “We can finally see a situation where we will be in control of our own destiny.”

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