Brewer arena changes name

If your son or daughter has a hockey, soccer or in-line hockey game at the T.J. Ryan Center in Brewer and you don’t know where it is, don’t panic.

The T.J. Ryan Center was formerly known as the H.O. Bouchard Sports Complex. The sign indicating the change could go up as soon as the end of this week.

Lou Janicki and his wife Caryle, who own close to 98 percent of the ice arena and the Kickit Soccer Shop within the facility, and Brian Bouchard, co-owner and vice president of H.O. Bouchard Transport in Hampden, reached an agreement to change the name two months ago.

“Lou and I mutually agreed to change the name. There was no hostility at all. We had talked about it throughout the winter,” said Bouchard, whose company owns 21/2 percent of it. “It doesn’t bother us [not to have our name on it]. We will continue to have [our share of ] ownership.”

Lou Janicki, who runs the facility, explained that T.J. Ryan Limited Liability Corp. is the name they have given their business.

“T.J. is our youngest son’s name and Ryan is our oldest son,” said Janicki. “People have never understood that my wife and I own this business. A lot of people assumed Bouchard Trucking owned it.”

Due to that misnomer, the Bouchards received several arena-related calls that they wound up passing on to Janicki.

That is one of the primary factors behind the change.

“We got quite a few calls at the office and at home,” said Bouchard. “There were also some conflicts but I’d rather not discuss them.”

Janicki said, “Naming the rink the T.J. Ryan Center at this time clearly states that if anybody has any issues, they’ll come to me directly.”

So how did a company with such a small percentage of ownership have the facility named after it?

“The city of Brewer wanted us to name it the Brewer Arena. Brewer is one of our largest customers in terms of the high school and youth [hockey] programs but it wasn’t exclusively Brewer’s so we didn’t want to do that,” explained Janicki. “Bouchard stepped forward and became our partners so that’s how their name went on it.

“I never thought of the significance of the ownership aspect at the time,” added Janicki.

The business is flourishing, according to Janicki.

“This is the busiest season we’ve ever had for ice hockey and for soccer. In-line hockey is going to start up May 20th and our summer [hockey] program has doubled in the last two years,” said Janicki.

Janicki also said they intend to have flag football and he has reached an agreement to buy “a legitimate used turf carpet” for indoor soccer next season. The price tag is around $10,000, he indicated.

“We’ve reached a point where we can afford it,” said Janicki. “It won’t be like Sukee’s [Sukee Arena in Winslow] but along those lines.”