ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) - Hockey is set to return to First Arena. New leaseholders, Tadross Donner Sports and Entertainment, LLC were introduced on Wednesday after signing a 5-year lease. The vision between TDSE and the Chemung County IDA is to turn First Arena into a Sports and Entertainment facility, including the return of hockey.

Steve Donner, who has owned the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League along with other lacrosse and soccer teams, announced in a press conference on Wednesday that they are working on bringing back an FPHL team. Donner says they have a proposal into the Federal Hockey League to join this season in progress starting in January. Previously, the Elmira Enforcers played at First Arena in the FPHL under Robbie Nichols and CAN-USA for three seasons, but Nichols and the CCIDA failed to agree on a new lease, which expired in July. 

WENY spoke with Donner as he discussed the talks with the FPHL on the progress to make this happen.

"They've been fantastic to work with" said Donner. "We've sort of asked them to do the impossible. Most teams have about eight to ten games in, they've got a schedule and so we've been feverishly working behind the scenes for days trying to flip-flop games. We've given them a list, we've got plenty of availability because our building was closed. So we've given them a lot of flexibility in our schedule. The challenges are re-routing the teams that are going to different cities. We were really close to having it done yesterday, but there were a few kinks. So we are hoping over the next 72 hours we can come back early next week and have an exciting announcement that hockey will be back this year. If not, worst case, we'll be back next fall."

In addition to an FPHL team, Donner says they will work with Elmira College to possibly bring the men's and women's teams to the arena for games, and they aim to host an annual college hockey tournament. Donner also says they are committed to bringing a second sports team to the arena, and has been in talks with soccer and lacrosse leagues for the 2022-23 season. Lastly, Donner says they are making a commitment to keep the rec arena open year-round for amateur hockey.

"I've had two sons grow up in the youth hockey process, and today, you have to have a rink open year-round for the kids to really develop their skills on a year-round basis" said Donner. "So we are going to put a lot of attention into amateur hockey. We'd like to see the Junior Enforcers, the Junior-A team come over to the arena. That'll be the top of the pyramid for amateur hockey and hopefully, build great programs underneath it. We'll use the summer months for training, goalie schools, hockey schools, and special skill development."

Donner also had a message to the community who want to see some stability for the arena.

"We don't have a magic wand that's going to change the fortunes of the arena like a light bulb switch" he said. "Hopefully, they'll bear with us and have a little patience with us, but we're going to go at it aggressively from day one, but my guess is where we'll be 24 months from now, will be in a very exciting position. I think where we'll be 12 months from now will be a definite improvement from where we were."

Donner says their goal is to make ice in the recreation arena next week and open the rink around December 10th-12th so they can have family skating over the holidays. They'd also like to have the main arena open by January 1st, and they're hoping it includes hockey.

Click here for more details on the re-opening of First Arena with their plans to host other entertainment, and an interview with Executive Director of the Chemung County IDA, Joe Roman.