Baton Rouge returning to the hockey scene?
- Thread starter Prospector Hockey
- Start date
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
So the local report dances around the purported hockey team using the Raising Cane's River Center complex arena as home ice. This rumor will need more meat on the bone than the much anticipated Monday presser is likely to offer. Maybe this is another darts-on-the-map exercise involving the relocation of Atlanta Metro's ECHL franchise, which would bring a big ho-hum among all but long-suffering Kingfish faithful. 
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Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
What happened to that Biloxi ECHL team you were predicting based on those trademarks? I seem to remember you calling a lot of people a variety of different things for saying you were wrong. You were wrong.
Welcome back, Minor League Rando. You may have changed your name, but you're still an incoherent mess.
SemireliableSource
Liter-a-cola
GrGriffins
Registered User
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – It is hot outside but there is announcement coming that may helps cool things off in the local area.
Hockey is returning to Baton Rouge and details will be released at a Friday afternoon news conference.
The Raising Cane’s River Center is the venue for the new team and the news conference is scheduled to take place there at 2 p.m.
These individuals are scheduled to attend the news conference:
Hockey is returning to Baton Rouge and details will be released at a Friday afternoon news conference.
The Raising Cane’s River Center is the venue for the new team and the news conference is scheduled to take place there at 2 p.m.
These individuals are scheduled to attend the news conference:
- Wayne Hodes, General Manager of Raising Cane’s River Center
- Barry Soskin, Team Owner
- Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome
sabremike
Friend To All Giraffes And Lindy Ruff
GrGriffins
Registered User
You would figure that the arena website and on their social media outlets would be plastered all over the place of this "hockey team" coming, but there not a word about it.
Of course with Barry Soskin imprints of this, if this is true, it would be an FPHL team for 2023-24. Will see this week if the local stations bring any updates to this or not.
Of course with Barry Soskin imprints of this, if this is true, it would be an FPHL team for 2023-24. Will see this week if the local stations bring any updates to this or not.
3 exhibition games this season, possible team next season depending on the support - Lace 'em up: Hockey's back in Baton Rouge; after exhibition, new team could come in 2023
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
Soskin is repeating the Biloxi plan. I'm not certain it will be as successful in Baton Rouge. Biloxi still had a fairly organized group of hockey fans. Not sure Baton Rouge does.
GreenHornet
Registered User
Unless he hopes to also pull some former Lousiana IceGator fans from nearby Lafayette?
Also, the games being on two Thursdays in December and a Monday the day after New Year’s Day, certainly won’t help the draw either.
Checkers Hockey
Veni, vidi, vici
GrGriffins
Registered User
You wonder is Barry envisioning what the ECHL did in the 1990's in going into these deep southern markets and trying to make a fast buck or two in going after the same markets for the FPHL 30 years later?
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
How many fans are going to make a 100-mile round trip even 10 times in a season? Fifty? One Hundred? Even in the Fed, that's a tiny fraction of revenue and not nearly enough to tip the scales from "maybe it'll work" to "full steam ahead."
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
With a few exceptions, I'm not sure that many of the ECHL's I-10 members made money after their third or fourth season. Often the teams got flipped to new owners after a couple years, and the new owners often looked to cut the budget down by trimming the front office staff. When you cut sales people, you're ultimately hamstringing your potential revenue, but none of the geniuses could ever figure it out, despite it happening over and over again in various markets.
If Soskin can be successful in Biloxi, he might be able to make money for a year or two. He might be able to import the model to BR and other cities on I-10. But the entertainment landscape is far different now than it was in the mid-1990s.
GindyDraws
I will not disable my Adblock, HF
In a way, you have to appreciate the grift. But in another, more sensible approach, it is maddening because I genuinely liked seeing a league with that many teams only for it to collapse on itself due to all that instability.
As for the whole "appealing to IceGator fans", Louisiana is the 2nd poorest state in the country as of 2021 and historically, anything non-football related in the Land of Creole has struggled to survive, nevermind thrive. Baseball moved out of New Orleans and the people of Shreveport are trying to tear down their old ballpark if it wasn't for all the bats living there. It seems like the Pelicans are a potential relocation target given they are usually last in attendance and the days of Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters women's basketball tearing up the court has long, LONG passed. And, as this is a hockey forum, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the boom-and-bust era of all those clubs that were in the WPHL, CHL, and ECHL back in the day with only Shreveport still going on as a NAHL team.
I mean, I can get that logic; Lafayette is way closer to Baton Rouge than it is Shreveport and Baton Rouge has a larger population that would also benefit from nabbing that kind of foothold where if they can somehow squeeze a 1500-2000 average attendance in a FPHL budget, they might turn a profit or convince others that its viable to bring back the WPHL spirit. Plus, it would be beneficial to the teams in the south like Columbus and Mississippi so they wouldn't have to travel north a lot. My main concern is... why?
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
Gotta launder all that ill-gotten gun store profit somehow...
I used to live in Baton Rouge and personally I really
liked the arena in Baton Rouge. Bob Mcgill was the coach
and he said that it was very hard to recruit hockey
players....The last coach was an ex captain of the team
and he thought he knew more than his coach...and
was a lousy recruiter...team suffered....attendance died
Team needs to be successful on the ice...People
will come
Baton Rouge is a very typical college town
Nuts about Football is king...College baseball then Basketball
In order for hockey success in Biloxi or Baton Rouge
a couple of keys....
1 Strong local rivalry(example Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton-when in it was in the AHL and Utica.
2 Financially, traveling 13 hours Biloxi to winston salem does not work
3 What would work in any league???
Biloxi Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Alexandria or , Lake Charles
or Shreveport a whole I-10 division
4 It's a BUS LEAGUE JUST LIKE THE AHL....
By the way I do expect Charlotte to be back
in the Echl. The florida nhl affliation does nothing
for the fans. I feel the fans would enjoy a rivalry
with Greenville etc rather than playing Hershey
or any other team in the A...Local rivalry
are everything and they are fun .
The North American Hockey league
was so much fun Syracuse Blazers
the Broome County Dusters and The Utica Comets
and throw in John Brophy's Long Island Cougars
along with Bill Goldthorpe...Johnstown Jets
....
I do expect to be 1-10 expansion because it is a bus league
and yes it makes a lot of common sense
Money talks
liked the arena in Baton Rouge. Bob Mcgill was the coach
and he said that it was very hard to recruit hockey
players....The last coach was an ex captain of the team
and he thought he knew more than his coach...and
was a lousy recruiter...team suffered....attendance died
Team needs to be successful on the ice...People
will come
Baton Rouge is a very typical college town
Nuts about Football is king...College baseball then Basketball
In order for hockey success in Biloxi or Baton Rouge
a couple of keys....
1 Strong local rivalry(example Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton-when in it was in the AHL and Utica.
2 Financially, traveling 13 hours Biloxi to winston salem does not work
3 What would work in any league???
Biloxi Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Alexandria or , Lake Charles
or Shreveport a whole I-10 division
4 It's a BUS LEAGUE JUST LIKE THE AHL....
By the way I do expect Charlotte to be back
in the Echl. The florida nhl affliation does nothing
for the fans. I feel the fans would enjoy a rivalry
with Greenville etc rather than playing Hershey
or any other team in the A...Local rivalry
are everything and they are fun .
The North American Hockey league
was so much fun Syracuse Blazers
the Broome County Dusters and The Utica Comets
and throw in John Brophy's Long Island Cougars
along with Bill Goldthorpe...Johnstown Jets
....
I do expect to be 1-10 expansion because it is a bus league
and yes it makes a lot of common sense
Money talks
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Greenville's the one who might be going away here, syracuse, tbth, if there's no affiliation by 2024.... You can get away with being independent for a year but not much more than that.... see Norfolk after Nashville backed out after 7 months that's the only reason Florida/Charlotte have that affiliation.... Carolina wanted out and there were few choices available and Carolina may bail on Chicago, always does with the Wolves franchise (again, the Blues MO as to why they landed in Springfield)
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
Have a few more beers before you post, it might make your narrative more coherent.
Bob McGill was two coaches before Cam Brown, who played six seasons in BR before coaching the final season. The team's best season was Dave Lohrei's first - the third to last for the Kingfish - and they finished 35-26-11, so it's not like they tore up the league and then Brown took the wheel and drove the bus off the Huey Long Bridge. The team wasn't successful on the ice. They missed the playoffs four of seven years, including their best two season of attendance, and won exactly one playoff series. If Cam Brown was such a lousy recruiter, well, I've got news for you - so was every other coach the Kingfish had.
Kingfish attendance dropped every single year, from an average 6,003 the first season, to 5,164, to 4,432, to 3,786, then 3,003, then 2,482, and finally 1,723 per game in the team's last year. The attendance was always declining.
Baton Rouge was a good market until the novelty wore off or the ownership/front office stopped doing the leg work, just like a lot of cities in the south.
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Prospector Hockey
Registered User
Lol please, I ain't Rando
Do I know him and speak with him? Yes
But I call him out on his bs when something ain't right, and I particularly am super cautious to speak about anything until more official things come to light.
Tbh I knew about Baton Rouge being in the Fed's radar for a number of months.
Prospector Hockey
Registered User
Also, I ain't the biggest fan of Soskin owning the team, he already owns 3 other teams, all in the same division (plus BR would likely join that same division as well, so make it potentially 4 teams). I also agree that I'm not sure if the Biloxi Method, as good as it was for Biloxi, will be able to be replicated in BR. I hope it does, as I always want more minor pro hockey, but I'm not as confident in this as I was in Biloxi.
CrazyEddie20
Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
I'm not the biggest fan of Soskin because he made a fortune off of gun violence and the fetishization of gun ownership in this country, but if you rank owning multiple teams in a shitty hockey league above that, well, you do do.
Prospector Hockey
Registered User
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