Tulsan considers professional team in Fayetteville

<br>FAYTTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ A Tulsa man is considering Fayetteville as the location for a new United States Hockey League team. Monte Miron said Wednesday that he has talked with Fayetteville officials

Thursday, September 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FAYTTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ A Tulsa man is considering Fayetteville as the location for a new United States Hockey League team. Monte Miron said Wednesday that he has talked with Fayetteville officials about starting a team in that city.

Miron was a founder of the Central Hockey League with teams in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Texarkana.

Fayetteville's economic development developer said talks with Miron are preliminary.

``The timing has to be right for our market,'' said Alett Little. ``With other projects we've got going, the timing may not be right.''

He said a team and an arena are at least two years away.

But Miron said Fayetteville is the ideal location for a 5,000 seat ice arena. He envisions a partnership with the city as a way to pay for the $10 million to $20 million arena.

``From what I can gather. Northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith, Rogers, the whole sector is booming,'' he said.

Arkansas currently has two minor-league hockey teams. The Arkansas RiverBlades play in North Little Rock and are in the East Coast Hockey League.

Texarkana was awarded a franchise in the Central Hockey League in June and begins play this fall.

A third Arkansas team _ the Arkansas Glacier Cats of the Western Professional Hockey League _ ceased operations in May after playing two seasons in Little rock.