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OMAR ORNELAS/THE DESERT SUN Seattle Kraken AHL a!liate will still play in valley ARENA ON Shad Powers Palm Springs Desert Sun USA TODAY NETWORK Hockey fans in the desert will still have a team to call their own, they’ll just have to wait another year to see them. As "rst reported by The Desert Sun, the arena that was planned to be built in downtown Palm THE MOVE Springs as the home to an American Hockey League team a!liated with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken has Planned Palm Springs sports, entertainment venue been nixed. moving near Palm Desert; tribe no longer involved See HOCKEY TEAM, Page 8A Amanda Ulrich, Melissa Daniels and Shad Powers short drive from both the internationally renowned es- Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY NETWORK tate Sunnylands Center & Gardens and Agua Cali- ente’s Rancho Mirage casino. A little more than a year after the Agua Caliente Oak View Group (OVG) is moving ahead on the pri- Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Los Angeles compa- vately funded arena with a new partner: the H.N. & ny Oak View Group announced plans for a $250 mil- Frances C. Berger Foundation, a local nonpro"t that lion sports and entertainment arena in downtown owns the land and will lease it to OVG. Live Nation En- Palm Springs, o!cials con"rmed that the site of the tertainment, a leading global event producer, remains project is moving to the mid-valley — and the tribe is a partner on the project to bring touring artists and live no longer involved. events. The 10,000-seat arena is now planned for an unin- Groundbreaking and construction are scheduled corporated piece of land just north of the city of Palm for next year, and the arena is slated to open in the last This rendering shows the proposed arena planned Desert, on roughly 43 acres between Interstate 10 and for an unincorporated site north of Interstate 10 the Classic Club golf course. The new location is a See ARENA, Page 8A near Palm Desert. COURTESY OF OAK VIEW GROUP Q&A PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT CALIFORNIA, 7A What does state’s Vaccine strategy aired COVID-19 reopening amid political questions The government outlined a sweeping plan Wednes- framework mean? day to make vaccines for COVID-19 available for free Mark Olalde Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY NETWORK to all Americans, assuming a safe and e#ective shot is developed, even as top health o!cials faced ques- After spending a long summer "ghting to "x a tions about political interference with virus infor- stalled coronavirus testing regime, a broken public mation reaching the public. Federal health agencies health data collection system and recovering from a and the Defense Department laid out complex plans post-Memorial Day surge in COVID-19 cases, the for a vaccination campaign to begin gradually in Golden State appears to once again be headed in the January or late this year. 11A right direction. California had 7,170 hospitalized patients who were con"rmed to have COVID-19 on July 21 — a low point — but that number, as of Sept. 14, had dropped Observatory spared from wild!re La Quinta residents rally to 2,887. After two spikes in cases over the summer, Fire!ghters have stopped a wild!re from damaging A group of residents is urging the city to install a the average number of newly con"rmed infections the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, which played crosswalk at Adams Street and La Palma Drive. has dropped to a level not seen since mid-June. a pivotal role in con!rming that galaxies exist They say motorists ignore the 25 mph speed limit Harnessing that momentum, Gov. Gavin Newsom outside the Milky Way. PWREN/ALERTWILDFIRE VIA AP and posted signs warning of pedestrian tra!c. 3A recently unveiled a new framework that moves coun- ties through four color-coded stages of reopening desertsun.com Weather Volume 93 | No. 337 based on their recent per-capita case counts and re- SERVING THE COACHELLA cent positivity rate, which is a measure of how many Subscribe: Access to all High 110° ❚ Low 80° VALLEY SINCE 1927 $2.50 of our content every day. Sunny. Forecast, 14A QEAJAB-08201z See Q&A, Page 10A 8A | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 | THE DESERT SUN Arena Continued from Page 1A Arena quarter of 2022. The Seattle Kraken’s American Hock- ey League team will play in the facility once construction is complete. In an interview with The Desert Sun, OVG CEO and co-founder Tim Leiweke explained how the company’s partner- ship with Agua Caliente “ultimately un- wound” and discussions began with the Berger Foundation, a group that Lei- weke said he’s known for years. Con- cerns about parking and tra"c also bogged down the Palm Springs plans. The tribe faced “a moment of truth” when coronavirus !rst hit in March, Lei- weke said. As the virus forced the tribe’s casino properties in the Coachella Val- ley to close alongside other local busi- nesses, the arena project also paused. Around April, Agua Caliente “came back and just said, ‘This is not some- thing we can commit to today. Because of what’s going on (with COVID), our priorities have changed,’” Leiweke said. “So, we acknowledged that and said, ‘Okay, but we can’t sit around and wait A cyclist rides his bike along Varner Road near Classic Club Boulevard in Palm Desert on Sept. 15. Oak View Group and the because unfortunately for us, we got the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation announced their plans to build a sports and entertainment arena on unincorporated clock ticking on an American Hockey land between Interstate 10 and the Classic Club. PHOTOS BY TAYA GRAY/THE DESERT SUN League team.” The tribe declined a request for com- ment Wednesday from The Desert Sun. couldn’t come up with a path forward Agua Caliente Chairman Je# Grubbe during two years of negotiations. said in a press release that the tribe “re- The foundation started working with evaluated its economic development OVG earlier this summer, Vance said, priorities” and is instead focusing on its and jumped through a lot of the normal new casino in Cathedral City and cultur- hurdles because the foundation has al center in downtown Palm Springs. been preparing it to house a project like “After working together for more than the arena since purchasing the land in a year to put a joint-venture project to- 2003. gether, and then another three months “We’ve done a lot of the pad work and to negotiate a land lease, we couldn’t utility work and o#site improvements !nd that common thread to reach an for streets,” Vance said. “That expedites agreement for the arena project,” exactly what Tim (Leiweke) needs to Grubbe said. meet his timeframe. We have a shovel- Palm Springs hospitality leaders had ready pad. ... It’s been over-excavated, hyped up the project for its proximity to re-compacted, certi!ed, grating per- the Palm Springs Convention Center, mits, we’ve been working for years on noting an ability to incorporate the are- this development. na into potential group meetings. Aftab “They needed a place where they Dada, chair of the PS Resorts hotel could have an advantage in speeding up group in Palm Springs, said while the the timeframe and this met all their cri- new location will prevent a close col- teria.” laboration, keeping the project in the The arena will be built on land previously identi!ed to house a sprawling, desert is a big win for the area. Palm 12,000-seat sports complex. Parking, traffic concerns impacted Springs hotels, for example, already !ll Palm Springs plans up for other major desert events like the music festivals and the BNP Paribas NHL expansion team, will begin play in Palm Springs. Most notably, that in- The arena was initially planned for a tennis tournament. the fall of 2021, the Palm Springs AHL cludes a second sheet of ice which will mostly undeveloped section of Agua “As long as the arena is being built in a"liate will not start playing until the act as the practice rink for the team and Caliente tribal land bordering its Palm our destination, that’s a plus-plus- 2022-23 season. a public skating rink for things like Springs casino. That area, which was plus,” Dada said. Leiweke said that it has not yet been youth hockey and !gure skating. predominantly parking lot space, is determined what the team will be called The arena will be built on land previ- slowly returning to its former use. A lo- How this changes or if it will still use “Palm Springs” as ously identi!ed to house a sprawling, cal landscaping company was re-plant- arena timeline part of its name with the arena now be- 12,000-seat sports complex.

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