Anchorage Assembly awards ice arena contract after audit found $360,000 owed

The Anchorage Assembly voted 12-0 to award management of the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson ice arenas to Anchorage Community Ice Management, a nonprofit, paying it $10 a year plus up to $450,000 up front. The for-profit contract it replaces cost the municipality about $100,000 a year. The same vote gave All In 49, LLC a $2,885,928 contract for the George M. Sullivan Arena. Three proposals came in under the February request for proposals.

A February audit found the prior operator, O'Malley Ice and Sports Center LLC, owed $360,000 in unpaid maintenance subsidies. The city issued a notice of default, the formal step before termination.

The five-year agreement, with five one-year renewals, hands ACIM scheduling, ice allocation, concessions, maintenance, security and financial administration. It suspends ACIM's 5% gross-revenue capital-reserve contribution until Jan. 1, 2029, freeing it for rehabilitation work.

ACIM is a new subsidiary of the Anchorage Hockey Association, which Dempsey Anderson founded in 1961. ACIM says it will put all net revenue back into the arenas.