ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) - Hockey is set to return to First Arena this fall.  Chemung County IDA Chairman, Mark Margeson tells WENY that effective Thursday, the IDA board has come to an agreement with the FPHL and Elmira's new hockey team.

The new team, who will be called the Elmira River Sharks, will begin their season on October 13th at home against the Binghamton Black Bears. Margeson says the team is on a one-year agreement. The team replaces the Elmira Mammoth, who lasted just one season under former tenant, Mammoth Sports and Entertainment.

The IDA is taking a different approach to the operation of the arena. Margeson says there will be a management team consisting of four to five people who control the operations of the arena and bring different types of experience including people who have worked in the arena business, an accountant, an entertainment manager, someone who is involved with the infrastructure, and a salesperson.

Margeson says the FPHL team will be a tenant in the facility along with youth hockey, junior hockey, and a number of other venues. He discussed why they are taking this new approach.

"The IDA and or the county has never been able to manage the funds that came into the arena, the expenses, or the revenues," Margeson said. "So I felt and the IDA board felt that if we could put together a management team that was controlled by the IDA we could control the income stream and the expense stream and we can have hockey but not have them control the funds. If we could do that, we could potentially be successful in that arena and take care of all of the maintenance and take care of all of the activity in the arena."

"We would like to make it more of a community facility and not just a hockey facility" he added. "We've been doing this for 22 to 23 years and it hasn't worked yet the way that we've done it. I spent a lot of time with county officials, County Executive walking through these things and we felt that this would be a better way to put the program together."