Owners of Dayton hockey teams arrive with good intentions. Some even think they might make money, at least on the resale.

Some are just plain out of touch with reality.

Take debt-ridden John Gagnon, who briefly owned the Dayton Bombers before the ECHL seized the team from him.

Gagnon had visions of going toe-to-toe with the Dayton Dragons on the marketing and sales fronts.

“I’m not worried about the Dragons,” he once said. “Baseball is slow and boring. Dayton is a hockey town.”

Oops.

In the end, the owners inevitably leave disappointed. Even Costa Papista and Don MacAdam, veteran hockey men who wore suits and gave the appearance of having a clue, bailed after five years of running in the red.

So now comes the Federal Hockey League, supposedly bringing a team here to replace the Dayton Gems, who on Thursday followed the Bombers’ lead by going out of business.

Not to burst anyone’s hockey bubble, but to try again in Hara Arena with a new team and expect a different result seems the very definition of insanity.

And yet there’s a press conference scheduled for May 30, at 2 p.m., if you would like to hear why an East Coast-based Class A league thinks this finally is the franchise behind which the Miami Valley will rally.

I’ll tell you how Dayton might become a hockey town again. Build the multi purpose downtown arena the city so obviously needs. Maybe the new owners — they’re keeping a low profile until the big press conference, apparently — can make that happen. Until then, ramming their heads against a brick wall arguably would make more sense.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2408 or smcclelland @DaytonDailyNews.com.