Long before plans were announced in June to build a $250-million, 10,000-seat arena in downtown Palm Springs, two different groups were already thinking about the future of entertainment and sports in the Coachella Valley.

Tim Leiweke — CEO of Oak View Group and whose brother, Tod, runs the Seattle NHL franchise — knew the desert since his former company, AEG, worked with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival co-founder Paul Tollett. The area stood out to him, he said, as one that could host entertainers, possibly for residencies, and a sports team.

It turns out that he wasn't the only one with grand visions for the area.

"We've been dabbling with the idea of some kind of a larger entertainment arena type facility for many years," said Tom Davis, chief planning and development officer of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. "It just so happened that, you know, a couple years ago OVG came to us and said we have this idea."

That shared vision of reshaping entertainment in the Coachella Valley moved one step closer to reality on Monday — three months after the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians announced plans to build the entertainment and sports arena north of its downtown casino —when Tim and Tod Leiweke announced that Palm Springs had been named the American Hockey League affiliate to the new Seattle NHL franchise.

"The reality is two years worth of time and energy have gone into this," Tim Leiweke said. "It will probably take us a second to realize that if you look at where we started in the dream in Seattle almost three years ago to where we are today, this is a massive piece of the puzzle for the Seattle franchise and the success of that franchise.

"But this is also a brave, daring vision that we can build a point of destination and entertainment venue and make it work privately," he added.

The Palm Springs team will be the primary development affiliate of NHL Seattle, the newest NHL expansion team that will debut in fall 2021. The local team will play in the private arena that is set to open in September 2021, prior to the start of the season.

Groundbreaking for the new arena will occur in early 2020.

"It’s just something new that we can offer," Agua Caliente Tribal Chairman Jeff Grubbe said in a video after the announcement. "This is a very diverse community. We offer a lot of different things for a lot of different interests, and hockey will be a new one that people normally don’t get to see."

As a Seattle NHL affiliate, the Palm Springs team will be comprised of players in the Seattle farm system that could be called up to play in the NHL. Generally, minor league teams develop young talent. The Palm Springs team will be the sixth AHL franchise in California.

So far, OVG has filed paperwork to trademark several potential names, including the Firebirds, Sun, Dragons, Falcons, Hawks and Eagles. No announcement was made Monday on the official name.

"On behalf of the AHL's Board of Governors, I am thrilled to welcome the NHL Seattle and OVG ownership teams and the city of Palm Springs as the league's 32nd franchise," AHL President and Chief Executive Officer David Andrews said in a Monday release. "Palm Springs has all the makings of an outstanding hockey market and will further strengthen the growing base of our sport in California."

Season ticket deposits are now available on Ticketmaster for $100 for general seats and $250 for club seats.

How Palm Springs made the cut

The mood inside the Palm Springs Convention Center was celebratory as lifelong hockey fans Tim and Tod Leiweke took turns providing updates about the arena and answering questions from the public.

One of the event's highlights came when they brought on stage 10-year-old Tres Shalhoub, a member of the Desert Blaze youth hockey team. He received the first hat with the team's logo and took photos with officials.

"Today's a dream," Tod Leiweke said during the news conference. "It’s really a dream come true."

Prior to his role with NHL Seattle, Tod Leiweke served as the NFL's chief operating officer and had leadership roles with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, MLS' Seattle Sounders, NHL's Minnesota Wild and a group overseeing the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

He and his wife bought a home in Palm Springs about six months ago. Irving Azoff, OVG co-founder, also has a part-time residence at the Madison Club in La Quinta.

Sharing the stage with his brother, Tim Leiweke explained that Monday's announcement was the culmination of years of hard work.

"We always had a bit of an eye toward Palm Springs," Tim Leiweke said. "Even at the beginning of the project, we were looking down here and thought: One, an amazing point of destination market place and two, a market place that for 30 years has been trying to find a sports team, and three, from a transportation standpoint and affordability standpoint and the ability to convince players and staff that they have to move here. This is a pretty good place to ultimately build a franchise.

"We did look at other cities," he added. "Everyone was convinced when it was all said and done that this was the right place. But, at the same time we were trying to figure out how to build a billion-dollar arena (in Seattle) and figure out how to get the 32nd franchise in the NHL. We had to be down here and begin to think about how are we going to pull this off."

A marriage of entertainment and sports

In addition to being the home of an AHL team, the arena will be used for a multitude of events. Tim Leiweke referenced concerts, rehearsals, residencies and convention center meetings.

He called the piece of land "as good of place to build an arena as you could possibly find."

"We think this will be one of the busier arenas in the country," Tim Leiweke said.

"I know this is shocking but actually we think Palm Springs kinda acts a little bit like Vegas so can we find artists that will do six to eight times a year down here because they live here or live close by, and this is an easy place to come and go," Tim Leiweke later said. "This is an easier place to get an artist excited about than Las Vegas."

Tim Leiweke has high hopes for a diversified calendar.

"Yes, the sports team has to work, but it’s the other events that drive the economics and make it work," Tim Leiweke said. "We have to have about 30 to 50 big events a year here, music and other sports, in order to make economic sense out of this."

Preliminary planning documents from The Mobility Group, an OVG consultant, indicate the arena could host 144 events a year, including: 39 hockey games, 31 basketball games, 39 concerts, 11 family shows and 24 other events.

The tribe's initial arena announcement did not mention basketball. However, the NBA G League’s Agua Caliente Clippers, which are sponsored by the tribe, currently play a 24-game regular-season home schedule in Ontario.

But does basketball's inclusion in the study mean it's coming to the arena?

"We haven’t gone down that path specifically with Agua Caliente yet," Tim Leiweke said. "They are aware that we have a grand ambition. So the hockey team is going to have to figure out what nights they want to play on, so let’s say the hockey team is doing a Friday-Sunday then obviously, Thursday and Saturday are very focused on concerts.

"What we don’t want to do is take away from big events that we aspire the arena to host," he added.

They're also keen on using the arena during some of the valley's busiest events, such as the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals, Palm Springs International Film Festival and the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament.

How will it integrate into downtown?

The new Palm Springs arena will be largely built underground, an announcement that elicited a sigh of relief among residents who worried the 10,000-seat structure would obscure the city’s majestic mountain views.

Renderings show a modern two-story structure with wood and large windows sitting on a large plaza. The entrance faces the southwest corner of Amado Road and North Calle Encilia.

Tim Leiweke said it costs "a bit of a premium" to sink the building and protect the sightlines, but it was central to the planning process.

“We heard that time and time again with everyone, that they wanted to protect the views of the mountains, as did we,” he said. “We also didn't want to overwhelm the neighborhood. We didn't want to overwhelm Agua Caliente, or the business community."

Palm Springs Mayor Rob Moon says the planners were "very thoughtful” and took Palm Springs architecture into consideration.

"This is not going to block a lot of mountain views,” Moon said.

There are also plans to let the public use the training center ice for youth games and skating events.

No restaurants or sports bars will be part of the arena build. Instead, officials want to bring business to the community and hotels.

Some residents have expressed concerns about parking and traffic.

The Mobility Group documents revealed the project will include 650 surface parking spaces on site. Nearly 400 of them will be reserved for suites, club seats and hockey team players and officials.

"The highest priority we have is transportation," Tim Leiweke said.

Minor league team will be sixth in California

Palm Springs joins the five other California teams in Bakersfield, Ontario, San Diego, San Jose and Stockton.

The Palm Springs team is expected to play in the AHL’s Pacific Division, which features a 68-game schedule this season. Preliminary documents for the proposed arena reveal that organizers plan to use it for 39 hockey games a year.

The AHL will begin its 84th season in early October. The regular season for the 32-team league runs until mid-April, with the playoffs extending into June.

The AHL is a high level of hockey that is not much different from the NHL. More than 88 percent of NHL players, 23 of the head coaches and the majority of the league’s general managers have come through the AHL. Last season, 356 players — roughly half of the AHL — also spent time in the NHL.

Though the news conference was heavy on details, there also were some lighter moments when the Leiwekes talked about the attractive aspects about Palm Springs, including its weather and affordability for players and their families.

"Ron Francis, our general manager, had only one worry about this being in Palm Springs," Tod Leiweke said.

"And that is when we call a player up (to the Seattle team) they may not want to come."