Always was a fan of the Coyotes logo, pre Las Vegas... The RHI had some terrible logo's and sweaters... I'd love coming into a face off and raggin' on the other guys sweater... just go's to show you how bad some of them were considering I had to "rock" this out : Some interesting info can be dug up when checkin out the RHI and it's teams... Philly Phantom fans are almost clueless to the fact that their AHL hero's are drawn up from their hated neighbors in Pittsburgh, as the Pitt RHI team had the same name, colours and logo before the inception of the Philly Phantoms. The Manitoba/Minn. Moose took the look of the RHI Detriot Mustangs and a ton of Colonial teams taking the look of RHI teams. Got'a say one of the beauty's of hockey is that you will see either the best or worst logo's you've ever seen.
It was six mind numbing teams... and while they didn't straight up rip off the RHI... the Pro Beach Hockey League, was the largest biggest nail in the RHI coffin. ESPN pulled the plug on the RHI television deal when they saw they could do a cheaper version of the RHI with PBHL and they went with it. Games were shorter, cheaper and much easier to film... The RHI lost millions from no tv deal and they paid the price thanks to no ESPN deal. I'll admit that the league over expanded and watered down the league quicker then a pissed off bartender but ESPN helped to kill off inline hockey. For those that liked the inline world... it's coming back in the form of the Major League Roller Hockey, MLRH.O ne of the more interesting things pertaining to the league and for the sake of getting back to the subject of indoor soccer, a lot of the MLRH teams will be playing in MISL/PASL arena's....nothing worse then having to play on a carpet that get's rolled up and on before and after a match... the carpet fibers get looser and looser and eats your knee's and ankles up.
Wasn't there some kind of summer league thing before the RHI. I remember pretty well known NHLers playing in it. Might have been some kind of exhibition. I recall it being on ESPN or something like that, but I swear it was before the RHI, not after (or during). Matt
RHI was a summer league populated with a large number of minor league pros during the off season. Sort of the reverse of the MISL, NPSL of the last 10-15 years.
The same name? Yes. The same colors? Yes. The same logo? No. That would be a neat trick, considering that the 1994 launch of the Minnesota Moose franchise pre-dated the Detroit Motor City Mustangs' taking to the rink in 1995.
Pitt Phantoms had three logo's of which this one is rather close.... http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/logos/logos.php?t=1769&s=1995&sf=A Also, Detroit was actually announced as an original member back in '93 when Mike Ilitch tryed to bring them in to compliment his newly aquired Red Wings but he had lease problems with the Joe and he eventually gave up with the Mustang efforts and sold it off to another local investor.
How so? The wordmark fonts are completely different. Further, this Pittsburgh logo features the head and shoulders (and hints at the torso) of a caped and hooded figure, while Philadelphia's consists of just the phantom character's head. First of all, I was working as a sports journalist at the time and I don't recall an Ilitch-owned, Detroit-based franchise being announced as an inaugural RHI member-franchise. Further, one would be hard-pressed to describe the Detroit Red Wings as being "newly acquired" by Mike Ilitch in 1993. He purchased the team from Bruce Norris in 1982... more than a decade before RHI's inaugural season. Hard to believe that Ilitch would experience "lease problems" for the Mustangs with either Joe Louis Arena or Cobo Arena. Why? Because, when Ilitch purchased the Red Wings from Norris in 1982, he inherited a 60-year lease - dating back to 1980 - with the facilities. Additionally, he purchased Olympia Entertainment, a company that books and manages both facilities. In short, Ilitch would have pretty much been negotiating with himself to place a team at either facility.
What can I say, I think the two are pretty similar in most aspects. Anyone who comes on this board and expects a unanimous agreement on anything is smoking dust, so I'm not expecting everyone or anyone to agree, but like I said I see the two as one in the same. As a product of North Jersey I also find it comical that the rejects in Philly are yet again blind to the obvious. Also, Pittsburgh Phantoms were a NASL team, even more reason to shy away from the name that is more synonamous with their hated brethren to the northwest.
For some reason I thought he bought the Wings in the early 90's but obviously I was wrong, it was the Tigers not the Wings. I am however very certain that there was going to be a team in Detroit for the kickoff of the RHI. I was playin' in Sarnia at the time and was going to tryout for them but returned to NJ when it didn't pan out. I remember one of the main problems was the RHI was going to get involved with a few AHL teams based in the same region as Detroit but they too backed out and created a much lighter schedule/team base then some potential owners wanted as the league was going to base it's schedule around regional match up's and not national match up's. The lease issue came into effect as Ilitch was having problems with the private vendors and the city due to what I think was over use of the arena... I remember there being junior hockey there along with an arena football team and a lacrosse team too I think from the old Gary Gates league, MILL ? All in all, I could be totally off base with the lease statement but I am 100 percent certain he and a few others backed out of the RHI launch at the last minute. It's something I've been thankful for as it gave the chance to head home and play a little puck back in Joisey.
Would it be possible to think that the WISF is the new league for the Kix, Blast, Sharks & LaRaZa? Just a thought as there is still no link or Google result that I can find; yet it appeared on the website at the same time as this statement: "Although we are announcing our schedule later than we had anticipated, we feel that this will give us more time to develop a relationship with the teams in the former Major Indoor Soccer League, with the potential of some inter-league play once they finalize their league alignment and business model,”
Deveron - I was thinking the same thing. When AISL came on here and said call the league office, I did. They were really nice and told me as much, that they had a couple of teams who were really interested in joining up and some other teams who needed a lot more convincing but the 8 teams did want to stick together. What a sad state of affairs indoor soccer finds itself (again) in.
There's no way any AISL teams could afford the type of $300,000 salary cap we've been talking about for the new Blast league.
But what if the AISL teams function as a second division with a lower cap and limited inter-division play with the first division teams?????????
OK, first why all the question marks? Second, how can the first division have 4 teams and the second division have 2 teams?
First, No reason. Second, neither league has announced their team lineup. Until they do I'm not sure their are any AISL teams left. Mass is sitting out, Cincinnati is in the PASL, Tulsa is rumored to have folded, Northern Illinois had all kinds of problems last year and Rockford is rumored as the fifth Midwest/mystery team of the Hale league. Like most everything else on these sites it is mere speculation. Mine is based on the AISL press release of August 1, 2008.
I watched this last night and for some reason I kept thinking about the PASL/XSL/AISL/WISF/MISL/CMISL/PIS and so on... http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155423/ [embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:155423:" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" width="480" height="360" allowFullscreen="true" scriptAccess="always"][/embed]
The WISF logo is intriguing, especialy when the PASL is allignig with the Canadian MISL and the FNFR in Mexico, as part of the "Federación Internacional de Futbol Rápido" (FIFRA) based in Mexico. It sounds more like an international (of just 3 countries) rivalry for the Indoor Soccer or Arena Soccer control. What does the AISL means when arguing that is seeking the approval of the USSF? If it succedes, it can no longer be associated with another international organization but FIFA.
The AISL seems one step behind. They got the Kendis ball around the time the NPSL disbanded and now they want to join USSF just as at least one major league has left them.
