Years ago, Saperstein almost brought hockey to Florida

By Jim Sarni Staff Writer – Fort Lauderdale News

The Miami Screaming Eagles never dropped the puck. Bill Putnam's phantom hockey team skated into oblivion and bankruptcy.

South Florida hockey teams, it seems, have always fallen through a crack in the ice.
Remember the Florida Icegators? No, you probably don't.

The Florida Icegators never played a game at the Hollywood Sportatorium. They never even got their name in the paper.

But the Icegators, for an instant, were real. They belonged to Jerry Saperstein, who had agreed to purchase the San Diego Mariners of the World Hockey Association from Ray Kroc in 1977.

Saperstein had hired Les Patrick as his general manager and was planning to play the following season in the Sportatorium.

But then the WHA began merger talks with the National Hockey League. The NHL wanted to buy out only four WHA teams — New England, Edmonton, Quebec and Cincinnati — leaving the San Diego-South Florida franchise out in the cold.

“The Icegators is a dream that never happened,” said Saperstein, 47, who is now the president of the entertainment division for the Mizlou Television Network after spending seven years as a senior vice president at Madison Square Garden.

“I did everything I could to bring a hockey team to South Florida. In the end, the WHA prevented it. The league was gun-shy. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I would have got killed, trying to play 41 games at the Sportatorium. People would come out once but they would never go back. I didn't realize that at the time.”

Saperstein, whose grandfather Patrick was one of the founding fathers of the NHL and whose father Abe owned the Harlem Globetrotters, brought pro basketball, World Team Tennis and track to the Sportatorium. The New Orleans Jazz and the Atlanta Hawks played the first National Basketball Association game in Broward County on Oct. 7, 1977.

“South Florida will have every pro sport someday,” Saperstein said. “It has to. The market is there, the desire is there and the demand is there. There are 40-50 potential ownership groups in South Florida who are serious about sports. The only thing missing is the facilities.

“South Florida will be just like Los Angeles with L.A. and Orange County. I see two football teams and two baseball teams and all the other pro sports.”

Saperstein, though, won't be one of the owners. He says that the common man has been priced out of the game.

“I don't know a franchise outside of the National Football League that I would want if they gave it to me,” he said. “Half the NHL doesn't make money. The reason so many teams make the playoffs is because the guys can't make a living during the regular season.

“My family has been in pro sports for 75 years and, like Calvin Griffith and George Halas, we've lived off the income generated from pro sports. We don't have real estate to fall back on. We've used pro sports to make a living. Now there's no opportunity to earn a living in sports.”

Saperstein's last fling with a pro team was in the International Football League, another dream that never happened. He bought the New York franchise in the proposed spring league that included Fort Lauderdale in its lineup.

In addition to his attempts to promote hockey and football, Jerry Saperstein helped form an indoor ‘Super Soccer League' in 1978. The league, which was to have 16 to 24 teams, fell through.