LOVELAND — In late 2002, Colorado Eagles co-owner and general manager Ralph Backstrom gave me a tour of the under-construction Budweiser Events Center. Backstrom, the former NHL and World Hockey Association center and ex-University of Denver coach, had pull. We cheated. We didn’t wear hardhats. The next year, the Eagles began play in the Central Hockey League, and the full houses at the new arena quickly validated the minor-league hockey venture.
Through a move from the CHL to the ECHL, the Eagles have remained a popular member of the Fort Collins-Loveland-Windsor area’s sports scene, though sellouts in the 5,289-seat building no longer are automatic and the Eagles are averaging about 500 under that.