Mat-Su Miners stay, Avalanche may go

While one of the Valley’s popular sports organizations ensured its place in the community for the next 13 years, another appears on its way out.

The Mat-Su Miners baseball team and the Alaska State Fair have announced an agreement to guarantee Hermon Brothers Field will be the home of the Miners until at least 2025. And during the same week, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman broke the news that the Valley-based Alaska Avalanche Junior A hockey franchise is on the verge of selling and relocating to Johnstown, Pa.

For the Miners, it’s a check in the win column for the Valley. But the departure of the Avalanche is a loss.

The Miners’ presence in the community is unquestioned. The Miners are regulars at community events and work closely with local youth organizations. The team operates as a nonprofit, but with a goal to provide affordable family friendly entertainment to the community.

More simply, the team’s name says it all — Mat-Su.

It’s not just Palmer, not just Wasilla. It’s Mat-Su.

With the agreement, two of the Valley’s most recognized entities — the Miners and the Alaska State Fair — planted a seed that will help baseball continue to thrive in the Valley. We commend the fair for its commitment to the community, offering a long-term deal that keeps the Miners playing on picturesque Hermon Brothers Field on the fairgrounds.

But as Alaska State Fair director of marketing and communications Dean Phipps noted, the field was constructed in 1976 by a vast volunteer effort. The fair just followed suit.

“Hermon Brothers Field was built in that spirit of community. The people who put time and energy into it, the people who kept it going during the bad times,” Phipps said. “That’s how it was established. That’s how it was maintained for years. The dollar per year (lease) is a statement that recognizes those values.”

While the Miners have a blueprint for success in our community, the Avalanche hockey team’s seven-year roller coaster ride through the Valley appears at its end.

The North American Hockey League team has enjoyed franchise-record success in each of the last three years. But while the team saw success on the ice and bench, the Avs couldn’t seem to make it work in the community.

Declining attendance compounded the team’s financial struggles and fueled its demise.

Still, there was a small, hardy group of fans that continued to support the franchise financially and with their time.

Phipps quoted a fair director from another state saying that “a great fair is a mirror of a community.”

The Miners and the fair mirror the best parts of our great community.

But sadly, our community seems to be in the rear-view mirror for the Avalanche organization.