For those who don't know the West Coast Hockey League is gone. The 6 teams that made up the WCHL will now be joining the East Coast Hockey League. Makes no geographic sense whatsoever. I think the plan is to form a national "AA" league which I think is a dumb idea because no one cares about a national minor league minor league sports in any sport should be regional. For rivalries sake and for travel expenses sake. Do fans in Baton Rouge, LA care if their playing a team from Boise,ID I'm sure they'd rather be playing other southern teams. This is the 3rd league in the last 2 years that has shut down. The International Hockey League and the Western Pro Hockey League both ended a year ago. I am very uspet at the recent trend I am a big minor league hockey fan and I want to see as many leagues thriving as possible. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League is starting up this fall with 6 teams lets hope they can stick around for a long time.
The WPHL (Western Professional Hockey League) merged with the CHL (Central Hockey League). In markets with solid ownership, the WPHL actually did quite well. The problem was the teams (Abeliene, Waco) that had no stability and folded midseason. The WCHL lost Tacoma and Colorado Springs (damn) this offseason. If I were to be in Springs, I would have gone and checked out a game. I also feel the ECHL is making a mistake in absorbing these WCHL teams. That will give the ECHL something like 35 teams. Don't know anything about the Atlantic League.
Here's the link to the ACHL if anyone's interested: http://www.achl2.com When the ECHL becomes the "superleague," I wouldn't be surprised to see atleast 2 teams jump ship from the E to the A.
The E is going to have too many teams that are too far apart for an "AA" budget. Whatever happened to the New Orleans team anyway? The Atlantic League is in markets that have had hockey before. I wish it well.
New Orleans are on hiatus after (this is what I believe happened) the NBA Hornets purchased their lease for the arena, leaving the Hornets as the sole tennents of the building. New Orleans couldn't find another arena in time, so they decided to take the year off. Just before the deadline given to them by the ECHL there was a report that someone from Orlando made a bid to purchase the team, the owners of the Brass rejected the offer. It would have been dumb to have an ACHL and ECHL team in Orlando anyway. Here in Orlando, we have about 1,200 full season ticket holders and ads on radio, television, and billboards. The Seals hope to have atleast 7,000 people at the first home game. The ACHL hopes to be a developmental league with a mix of veteren players with a focus on giving players playing time since teams will have 16-18 players on the roster. No limit on veteren players I hear, pretty cool since Orlando has signed some decent vets like Zac Boyer, Chris LiPuma, and David Goverde. They also have some good younger players like Joe Seroski, Todd Bennett, and Chris Cerrella. The ACHL were supposed to have Tallahassee and Winstom-Salem this year, but those plans fell through. Birmingham, Lakeland (Florida), and a few other cities have been mentioned as possible expansion sites next season.
Are the Anchorage Aces making the transition to the ECHL too!??! Damn that's a geographically spread out league!