Professional hockey returning to Findlay with Force

FINDLAY – Citing Findlay a "great market place" for a brand of "clean, fast-paced hockey," a group announced on Monday that professional hockey was returning to the city in the form of the Findlay Force."Findlay is a blue-collar town, and the guys that will be coming here and playing here will be blue-collar guys," said Findlay Force owner Cody Lang.Lang said player making the team will reflect a wide spectrum in terms of years and experience."The age range for teams in this league is anywhere from 18 to 40," Lang said, adding that, "Yeah, there are some guys that, at 40, can still wheel and deal."We'll have guys with some pro experience, guys right out of college, guy coming out of Juniors (hockey), guys coming out of high school …. That's what this league is for, guys coming off the end of their career who still want to play professional hockey, to new guys who want to go out, played at a high level of hockey, and maybe move up."Team tryouts will be held sometime this summer, followed by a training camp for those making the team. The Force will compete in the Michigan Independence Hockey League, an eight-team alignment of teams split into a North and South Division.The team will play a 28-game schedule – 14 home games, 14 on the road – followed by a league playoff. The regular season is fairly spread out, beginning, unofficially, in early October and running through the first of March.In wanting to keep the game experience family-affordable, Derek Whitaker, President of Business Operations for the Force, said season tickets, which go on sale today, will cost $120. Individual tickets will be $10 if bought online, $13 at the door.Findlay has had professional and/or semi-pro hockey teams before, starting with the Findlay Warriors (1983-84) and including the Findlay Freedom (2006-07) and the Findlay Grrrowl (2008-09).With one sheet of ice in Findlay, a question was raised on how adding a pro team might affect the availability of ice time for a facility used by several groups, teams and organizations."That's the big thing we really want user groups to understand, we're not coming in to steal ice (time)," Lang emphasized."Everybody thinks with professional hockey they're going to play 84 games, they're going to come in here and steal our ice, and that's definitely not what we want."We have only 14 home games, so we have a lot of leeway and can be flexible with our schedule. We want to be part of this community, and we really want to be a complement to the arena and to the city."