WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita, Kansas, has a new organization working to bring major sporting events to the city.
It starts with a preseason National Hockey League game at Intrust Bank Arena in September, but the promoters behind the event say more is to come.
"I want to ... create what I call a sports movement," said Tien Huynh, founder of G1 Sports & Entertainment.
G1 Sports & Entertainment, a division of investment firm G1 Group, announced Monday that the St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes will play a preseason game at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the downtown arena. The "Frozen Face Off" will be the first time the NHL has made an appearance in Wichita. Tickets for the game go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at selectaseat.com.
Getting to this point, though, has been a culmination of the right players coming together at the right time.
Huynh and two friends, Chanh Nguyen and Jason Bayless, have the G1 Group, which has an investment portfolio made up of primarily automotive and real estate businesses, including Elite Auto Sales in Wichita; Z Auto in Andover, Kansas; and Kia dealerships in Dodge City and Manhattan, Kansas.
"We're called G1 because we're all first-generation guys," Huynh said. "We all grew up in, like, trailer parks and government housing and welfare and all that stuff, and so we're all blessed and grateful for the situation that we're in today."
Huynh was one of the co-founders of the AfterShocks, the Wichita State alumni team, in its inaugural year in 2019 in The Basketball Tournament, a 64-team, open-to-anyone, cash-prize tournament.
From there, Huynh said he wanted to continue to explore the world of sports events, which he says can help boost Wichita's profile on the national stage and even retain its young residents — including his young children and future grandchildren.
"What can we do to help our our community and its quality of life?" he asked. "I have a 6-, 4- and a 2-year-old, and we obviously don't have mountains, we don't have beaches, and Wichita has still always been that little city that could, that little engine that could."
Meanwhile, Brian Hargrove had been working solo trying to pull together a deal with the NHL.
Hargrove said he was having conversations with the St. Louis Blues about doing a preseason game in Wichita in 2021, but realized he needed help.
"Once we got down to the nuts and bolts and I saw everything that went into putting on an event of that magnitude, as far as guarantees go and just all the expenses with the arena and the teams and the travel and so forth, that's when I was like, 'I don't think I can do this on my own,' at least not right now," he said.
That's where the two joined forces.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
