Wranglers owner quiet but effective

He wants you to enjoy the mascot, to cheer the players, to admire the coach, to purchase and wear the merchandise, to soak up every second of a deep playoff run that now sits three wins from this city’s first major professional sports title since the country’s top grossing film was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

Wow, that long ago.

He is pretty sure you have no idea who he is, and that’s fine. Charles Davenport. Sounds like a guy you might find toiling away in a biology research lab or approving your loan at the neighborhood bank. Sounds like there should be an emblem jacket and silk handkerchief hanging in a closet somewhere, or at least a gold-framed portrait of a famous polo ground on a wall.

He is instead the reason minor league hockey returned here five years ago, the one responsible for identifying those who have made the Wranglers a consistent winner, the man who hired president Billy Johnson and coach/general manager Glen Gulutzan, stepped behind a curtain and allowed talented and capable people to thrive.

Charles Davenport.

All together now: Who?

"Being front and center and the face of the organization has never been my cup of tea," he said. "I just want people to enjoy the things that matter. We can do better. We’ve made great strides, but there is so much more to be done.

"But right now, where we might in most years be thinking of business and what the summer might bring in terms of change, it’s all about hockey. We have a group of players who have busted their ass for us all year and are reaping the benefits. I won’t start thinking about (the future) until this is over, and hopefully we will be shopping for rings once it is."

Davenport is a San Diego businessman soon to turn 40, his team to meet the Cincinnati Cyclones tonight at the Orleans Arena in Game 3 of a Kelly Cup Finals series tied 1-1.

The next three games are here, meaning opportunity exists for the Wranglers to win their first title without returning to the city that sits on the Ohio River and apparently has an ECHL fan base so offensive it makes soccer hooligans seem pleasant.

Some markets demand local sports ownership for a franchise to succeed, like countless small towns sustained by family-owned commerce. But it’s not a requirement in a transient place such as Las Vegas, where the baseball Stars won the city’s last title in 1988. Davenport has proven an owner with a brain who resides in a different city can make it work and prosper.

Translation: Not everyone runs things in such a slipshod manner as wacky ol’ Jimbo Ferraro did with the Gladiators on those few weekends he decided to jet here from Florida to watch another loss. Not everyone is a buffoon.

It wasn’t a gigantic announcement. But when the Wranglers exercised a three-year option on their lease with the Orleans Arena this month, it solidified the team’s place here through at least 2011 and confirmed Davenport’s initial belief about this game at this level in this market: Patience plus the correct game plan executed by competent leaders can equal long-term achievement.

"He just expects you to do your job well, never interferes and is always there for support," said Gulutzan, who Davenport first hired as a player-assistant coach when he owned the league’s Fresno franchise. "What else can you ask for from an owner? He does what it takes to win. He wants to win as much as he wants to earn money."

Even more so when it comes to this team, given he hasn’t made a dime off it in five years. The team’s original lease was more one-sided in the arena’s favor than if you had Sidney Crosby taking shots at a youth league goalie, but those at The Orleans are also in the business of making money and Davenport ultimately signed on. His choice. His product to prove its worthiness.

So it did, and the new lease at least offers the team potential revenue streams in regard to attendance it hasn’t enjoyed to this point. Everyone on the hockey side seems a tad happier now. Being three wins from a Kelly Cup title can do that.

"At some point, it becomes a quest," Johnson said. "You want to finish the job. You want to win this thing. Making this a viable organization includes bringing a Cup to Las Vegas. That includes doing it for Charles, who gives us the bike and lets us ride it."

Who?

The owner you don’t know, but who has constructed one heck of a franchise.

Charles Davenport. The anti-Jimbo.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.