By WMBD TV
PEORIA – After several months of uncertainty, the Peoria Rivermen will continue to call the River City home, at lease through the 2028-2029 season.
The Peoria Civic Center Authority and Peoria Rivermen jointly announced the signing of the new retroactive least agreement around lunch time Tuesday. The five-year deal includes the current season.
The deal is supported in part by the realization of some much needed capital improvement projects to the arena where the team plays.
“We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to the venue’s renovations and are thrilled to continue enhancing the fan experience. Our guests are at the heart of everything we do here at the venue. We appreciate their support and are especially grateful to our City and State leaders for making these improvements possible,” said Rik Edgar, the civic center’s general manager.
“We are happy for our great hockey fans and corporate partners in Central Illinois, that Rivermen Hockey can continue for another five seasons at Carver Arena. Our ownership group will continue to strive to offer an affordable, family friendly entertainment outlet for our great fans’ entertainment dollar, just as we have done in Peoria for over 40 years along with a winning on ice product,” said Bart Rogers, the team’s CEO and owner.
Rogers also offered a word of thanks to the city of Peoria for, “stepping forward to help find funding for all of the new amenities fans see when entering the Peoria Civic Center and their continued financial commitment in long term capital improvements to our downtown home.”
The combined statement says, planning for the aged out ice plant replacement is ongoing and expected to happen in summer 2026.
What led up to this?
For years, fans have worried and gnashed their teeth about the uncertainty of the team’s lease which has been on one-year extensions for a while.
In January, the team, which have been anchor tenants at the Downtown facility for more than 40 years, had the option to extend the lease by one year under an agreement reached last year between the two and opted to do so.
The lease has been an issue for the team and fans which attended several meetings of both the authority and the city council to pressure those bodies to work with the team as well as to work on a longer-term lease.
Fans of the team, which has won the league championship in two of the past three years, have repeatedly worried and fretted that the civic center authority wants to get rid of the team. They packed City Hall early last year to express that fear and urge members around the Horseshoe to take action to protect the team.
The Authority countered they were looking out for taxpayers and that repairing an ice plant without a good deal with the team wasn’t a good use of taxpayer money.
And in March 2023, Denis Cyr, who represents the 5th district and also a former Rivermen player, came up with what he thought was a solution. The council would issue $20 million in bonds to cover what was left over after the state had awarded the civic center $25 million for repairs and renovations.
The intent from the council was clear — some of the money was to go to the ice plant.
At-Large Councilman Zach Oyler, a big fan and also a proponent of a longer-term lease agreement, said credit also needs to go to Cyr as well as his colleague on the Horseshoe, Tim Riggenbach, who is the council’s liaison to the civic center authority board.
“Between the three of us, there has been a lot of work in the background to make sure this day happened,” he said, noting the importance of having a professional sports team within Downtown Peoria for both economic benefits and civic pride.
The Ice Plant
A key issue has been the center’s aging ice plant, which is the machinery that makes and chills the ice for the arena.
For years, the team and the civic center have been worrying about how to replace the plant which will cost millions to replace. In August, the civic center authority, the quasi-governmental body that oversees the Downtown facility, voted to replace it in the summer of 2026.
That was seen by all as a significant first step to get the lease done. Both the team and the authority have not commented publicly during the months-long negotiations.
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