They’re ready for the next level of hockey in Loveland

LOVELAND – Dressed in blue jeans and an open-button flannel shirt exposing a casual tee underneath, Martin Lind doesn’t look like your typical hockey team owner. As the principal owner of the Colorado Eagles puts it, “I don’t like coming to hockey games in a tie.”

That allows him to fit in just fine with his Eagles customers. Despite a booming local economy growing more diverse by the month, this is still primarily a working class, agrarian community at heart, more John Deere than Ruth’s Chris.

There is actually a food stand inside the Budweiser Events Center that sells Maine lobster rolls for $15, but most of the concession business on a recent night seemed to be for the burgers and pulled pork sandwiches and $2.50 16-ounce Busch Lights (for that price up until game time, that is).

And, despite a soon-to-happen move up to the bigger leagues as the American Hockey League affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche – with a higher average ticket price that comes with it – Lind promises to keep intact the working-class soul of this franchise that has played to sold-out, adoring crowds for the past 15 years.