Stewart Fisher reports on the increasingly grim prospects of survival

THERE are some people who are forever followed by bad publicity. Then there is Bill Barr. When, after a combined total of six years, the ice hockey team known as the Scottish Eagles ceased trading on Friday, it was perhaps inevitable that some fingers would end up pointed in the direction of the Ayr United chairman, former Airdrie hate figure, soccer stadium builder and all-round philanthropist.

In the next few days, with two intervening fixtures having been postponed, it is understood one senior figure at the Eagles has been told to expect liquidators to be formally called in, while by tomorrow evening the results of a rescue package will be known at Manchester Storm, who were officially wound up in the middle of last week - before a potential white knight arrived in the form of Birmingham Bullets basketball club owner Craig Bown. It could all leave the troubled Ice Hockey Superleague (ISL) tottering on the brink with just five teams left. The end of top-flight ice hockey in Scotland may well just be the tip of this particular iceberg.

This summer, Canadian businessman Bob Zeller - along with Albert Masland - accepted a lease of up to two years from Barr to operate Scottish Eagles Ltd as its managing director. He was to oversee the Eagles switch of nests from Prestwick's Centrum arena to Braehead Leisure Centre near Glasgow, at a time when the disparity between the ice hockey teams' budgets and revenues from the box office have never been wider. This week, only three months after the bright new start, there was the sight of fans returning to ticket vendors for refunds, while Braehead arena owners SMG Europe - not the media group that owns the Sunday Herald and Scottish Television - allegedly barred the players and staff from the arena, even though none has been made redundant. Yet.

Elsewhere, coach Paul Heavey, who missed work due to stress last month, was taking legal advice over a total of unpaid expenses and wages that he claims is more than (pounds) 7,000, while the 18 other staff at the club - who have not been paid for more than five weeks - were being urged to find other clubs.

"The players were definitely asking questions about how the club could have got into this predicament after just three months," Heavey said. "Some asked Bob that if, as a wealthy man, he would show a bit of dignity to the players to compensate them. But that is just not going to happen."

Last night Zeller refused to concede the franchise was already a thing of the past, but laid the onus firmly back to Barr, all the while hinting the prospect of any recovery was remote. "It is entirely up to the owner," Zeller said.

"The team owner is Bill Barr, and it may be that he wishes to carry on. But it is my understanding that that is not possible. I'm not here to cast blame and we are still trying to work our way through it, so I'm trying to retain goodwill on many sides but there are some very complicated and unusual situations here." Others feel Zeller cannot wash his hands quite so easily. Barr, or Barr Holdings Ltd, declined to comment last night.

One of many ironies is that, after a poor start to the season exacerbated by a playing budget reduced from previous seasons and dwarfed by their superleague rivals, things had been starting to pick up. The club are still bottom of the superleague, but semi-finals had been booked in both the Challenge Cup and the Continental Cup. "The turnaround was beginning to happen, but for us there was no way forward, and I don't say that lightly," said Zeller.

"I have spent the last three months trying to make this club a success, and I've worked bloody hard in doing it, but there reaches a point where the costs are so high from what you are recovering that you can't afford to keep throwing money at your problems. I operated the club under the circumstances that were very difficult. There are good reasons behind that, but at this point I am not at liberty to go into those."

Brian Storie, chief administrative officer at the currently sponsorless ISL, shares Zeller's pessimism, and even goes as far to state that the likelihood of Bown's takeover at Manchester being no better than 20%. "We have kept them [the Eagles] in the league structure at this point, and we have postponed their next two league games, to give them breathing space to make whatever decision they have to make. I don't have any particular confidence that this can be pulled out of the fire, in which case we would be down to five unless something dramatic happens regarding Manchester."

There have been reverberations at the Lancashire franchise all week long. Rumours of a closed-doors deal, involving the mass transit of the Eagles' playing staff to Manchester as part of the consortium being put together by Bown to keep a franchise in the 18,000 capacity MEN arena, were fuelled by a recent ISL meeting. During the conference Gary Cowan, the former owner of the Storm, appeared with (pounds) 150,000 which had been raised by fans' donations and business backers to continue with the club - only for news of problems with the Scottish Eagles to place such doubt in his mind that he thought he would be better off returning the fans' money personally. Zeller last night rejected any involvement in the deal whatsoever. "I don't know where that rumour has come from," he said.

Yet, whether it is five or six, Storie says the remaining members can limp on until the end of the season, before ongoing talks over a merger with the part-time Findus British National League - including Scottish clubs Edinburgh Capitals, Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers - come to fruition for the start of next season. "I know the five clubs have indicated that they want to continue, so we are not going to give up," Storie said.

The next meetings are scheduled for late November. That, like everything else in British Ice Hockey, is subject to change.

Copyright 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.