SMALL BUSINESS : ENTERPRISE ZONE: Lessons and Insight on Southland Business : Rink Operator Shoots to Become a Great One Too

With the clock winding down and his team trailing by a goal, roller hockey player Shawn Favilla took the puck from behind his own net, determined to make something happen.

Eluding two defensemen, he took a slap shot that careened off the goalie’s pads and trickled into the net. Score!

Pumping his fist in the air, he exchanged high-fives with exultant teammates. “I love playing this game,” said Favilla, a 28-year-old Garden Grove resident with a shaved head, goatee and bulky 6-foot-1 frame.

Like Favilla, a growing number of Americans have discovered the joys of roller hockey, making it one of the fastest-growing participant sports in the country.

And Worldwide Roller Hockey Facilities of San Diego, the nation’s largest operator of roller hockey rinks, has positioned itself to take advantage of the trend. The company operates five Wayne Gretzky’s Roller Hockey Centers in the Southland. Over the next two years, it hopes to expand into other states, more than tripling the number of centers.

The Gretzky connection--”the Great One” is one of Worldwide’s five partners and appears at grand openings and other events--has provided a powerful branding tool in an industry that consists largely of mom-and-pop operations.

In a field where location is everything, Worldwide has partnered with local municipalities to gain access to prime locations for its centers. The firm’s multimillion-dollar facilities feature large pro shops, video arcades and concession stands in addition to the rinks.

“They are the standard that everybody aspires to,” said Reggie Winner, editor of California Hockey and Skating, a monthly newspaper.

Nationwide, there are an estimated 1,000 roller hockey rinks, up at least 25% from 1998. Most are owned and operated by municipalities.

Since 1993, the number of roller hockey participants has surged 67% to nearly 4 million, making it the fourth-fastest-growing sport in the nation, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn. in North Palm Beach, Fla.

Business is booming at Worldwide. Revenue is expected to nearly triple this year, surpassing $7 million, and the company should turn its first profit by 2000, President Shael Wilder said. He declined to disclose how much the company has lost since it was founded in 1995. More than 9,100 members, paying $40 annually, have signed up to play, up from 4,500 last year.

Over the next two years, the company plans to open 12 centers in five states, including Nevada, Texas and Arizona.

Worldwide’s best weapon in its battle for the skates and sticks of roller hockey enthusiasts is Gretzky.

“There’s just magic to the Gretzky name,” said David Aaker, a professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and author of “Building Strong Brands.” “He is to hockey what Tiger Woods is to golf and Michael Jordan is to basketball.”

Not surprisingly, Gretzky’s name and likeness are plastered all over the centers. Huge posters cover the walls of the stores. His All-Star jerseys and other hockey memorabilia are featured in shrine-like display cases.

Gretzky sits on the nine-member Worldwide board. His mere presence at grand openings and special events has attracted thousands of people and generated free publicity.

“My involvement has been very satisfying,” Gretzky said in a statement. “The roller hockey centers provide a positive destination for kids.”

Worldwide has been as shrewd about its land acquisition efforts as its branding strategy. The company tries to forge partnerships with municipalities, allowing it to buy or lease quality sites, sometimes at discounted rates. Its facilities in Irvine, Upland and Lancaster are a result of such arrangements.

In Lancaster, where Worldwide opened its newest center in August, the company paid the city $490,500 for a centrally located 3-acre parcel of land, about 25% below market value, said Lancaster Redevelopment Director Stafford Parker. The company paid another $193,300 in development fees. The site is off the Antelope Valley Freeway, near a $14-million minor league baseball stadium and a new multi-screen movie theater complex.

Lancaster earmarked $160,000 for sewer and road improvements around the site. “We wanted this deal,” Parker said.

The cities that struck deals with Worldwide are glad they did, officials said. Upland stands to gain $4 million in lease fees and property and sales tax revenues over a 40-year period, and the Gretzky facility has helped attract blue-chip businesses such as Rite Aid to a once-blighted area, Upland redevelopment director Steve Dukett said.

“We got a beautiful facility operated by experts, and it cost the citizens of Upland nothing,” he said.

Worldwide was founded by Gretzky and four associates: restaurant owner Murray Simkin; attorney Wilder; and brothers Bill and Fred Comrie, furniture retailers.

Simkin, who owns several Tony Roma’s franchises, is Worldwide’s chief executive. He also owns the now-defunct Oakland Skates of Roller Hockey International, a professional roller hockey league.

Simkin noticed in the mid-1990s that scores of fans would play roller hockey before Skates contests.

“You’d look in the parking lot before a game and there would be 15 to 20 games going on,” Simkin said. “The age range was incredible, from 5 to 40. I could see there was a real need for an organized, first-class facility.”

The founders launched Worldwide with $5 million in start-up money, determined not to cut corners.

They spent in excess of $3 million each on the Irvine, Upland and Lancaster centers, which were developed from scratch, and $500,000 to convert a San Marcos bowling alley into a Gretzky facility. Worldwide leases a facility in La Verne from a private party.

The company has a strategic partnership with Hudson Bay Partners, a New York-based investment firm, to help finance the centers.

The flagship Irvine facility, which opened in March 1997, is Worldwide’s most successful, with more than 4,000 dues-paying members. It features three rinks, overhead four-sided scoreboards, grandstands and locker rooms. A giant net, complete with meshing, frames the center entrance, and two huge hockey sticks jut out from either end of the building.

On a recent Wednesday night, two intense games were taking place beneath bright lights in adjacent rinks. Players, drenched in sweat and looking like Robocop extras in all their protective gear, streaked up and down the arena. “This is about the nicest facility around,” said Jay Eskandarian, 33, who plays for Shopping.com, one of the 197 teams at the Irvine facility.

But Worldwide has struggled at times, expanding at a slower pace than anticipated because of the challenges of opening, staffing and developing multiple facilities.

It took the company a while to standardize operating procedures, recruit key personnel and put together training manuals, among other things, Wilder said. The San Marcos and La Verne centers have yet to perform as well as expected.

“It’s a growing pain that we’ve put behind us,” he added.

Competition is heating up, however. In Orange County alone, an estimated 40 public and private rinks have opened. At the beginning of the decade, no centers existed.

In Anaheim, a $5-million facility, Anaheim Hockey Club, will open later this month, said Mike Hearn, president of KDG Investments, which owns the complex and another in Brea.

“I see no reason why [the sport] won’t continue to grow,” said Mike May of Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn. “It’s a relatively new, fast-paced and competitive sport that many people find appealing.”

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At a Glance

* Company: Worldwide Roller Hockey Facilities

* Headquarters: San Diego

* Founded: 1995

* Business: Develops and operates roller hockey facilities

* Ownership: Five partners, including hockey great Wayne Gretzky

* Leadership: Chief Executive Murray Simkin, President Shael Wilder

* Employees: 220, including 50 in Irvine

* Status: Privately held

*

Revenue, in millions

1999 estimate: more than $7 million

Source: Worldwide Roller Hockey Facilities1999 estimate: