Bit of local perspective on this....I've seen many people with the opinion that the ECHL won't succeed in St John's or fans here won't support the product based of history with the QMJHL Fog Devils. I believe that this situation is 100% different than the Q experiment and has great potential to be a well supported and sustainable venture that fans here will love.
The main reason the Fog Devils flopped can be pinned to horrible ownership. The Dobbins that owned the team were not hockey businessmen, they were just businessmen. They put the almighty dollar above anything else and it reflected in the team. The fan experience was bad and word of mouth from a few people directly involved with the team then say it was a horrible group to work for and players on the team said it was a bad team to play for as well.
The city's hockey fanbase has matured greatly since the AHL Leafs left. When it was announced that the QMJHL would come many saw it as a downgrade to AHL Pro hockey and never bothered to show any interest. This was also a major contributor to that team failing along with the ownership issues. When the IceCaps brought the city another high level hockey team the city really took to the team and sold out almost the entire first season and came close to breaking the AHL sellout record. My belief is that that only thing that made fan interest and support dwindle for the AHL in the last few years here was the current AHL/NHL model of looking after the NHL team interests over the local fanbase and the resulting lack of commitment to the city and always looming end of contracts and the questions about the future that comes with that. The city just wants a team to call it's own and not have to worry about the rug being pulled based on circumstances they have no control over.
St John's is a very passionate hockey city in my opinion and despite the economic downturn here recently, there is still money out there to spend on cheap local sports. The Edge basketball team has been doing better than anyone imagined. If the ECHL comes to St John's and the league and ownership group can make the city and fanbase believe they are making a commitment to the area and will stay long term, then they have potential to be a great addition to the league. Having Glen Stanford involved is a major positive as he knows the area and fanbase well and every team he's been involved in here has had success.
While there is some truth here, It's also a pretty optimistic in terms of an ECHL team having success in St. John's.
As far as the Fog Devils go, they had no chance of success. SJ Sports and Entertainment were never going to do anything to help the Dobbins, having been the losing bidder for the QMJHL franchise at the time. When the Dobbins wanted to re-negotiate their lease agreement to keep the team financially viable, the politics between the two groups weren't going to see any favors done.
Also didn't help that the Fog Devils never got to go through the 4-year cycles you typically see in CHL hockey, where in Year 4 your team is older and likely a Memorial Cup contender. The fanbase might have grown if they had gotten to that point, instead they got 2 years of a mediocre team, and the product suffered as a result. Hence the perception it wasn't good hockey.
While the Dobbins might not of been "hockey businessmen", you can be guaranteed the new ownership isn't going to eat a loss year after year because they love hockey. Every team considers the bottom line, they are in this to make money. To think otherwise is pretty naive. Not saying the Dobbin were great owners (I have no idea if they were or weren't), but making money is the main motivator here.
The Lame Duck status didn't help the IceCaps. The in-game fan experience was great, a packed house on a Saturday night rocked that building. Also changing affiliates hurt, the Leafs and the Bruins are two of the most popular teams in NL (along with the Habs), but being a Montreal affiliate turned off fans of some of these NHL teams, they weren't about to cheer and support the farm team of the Canadiens. As a Bruins fan I didn't support the IceCaps in any way once they became the Baby Habs. The IceCaps when they were the Jets affiliate was almost perfect, a farm team of a Canadian team that really no fan had any animosity for. The IceCaps there last season weren't drawing numbers, even with affordable tickets.
The ECHL team will still have the travel issue to deal with. And unlike the Fog Devils, they will have the added cost of having to pay most of their players. Likely-hood is only one or two guys on the team will have contracts with NHL teams to pay their salaries.
This will be a challenge for the ownership to make financially successful. They will likely do well in the early going, just because it's a' new product and fans will be interested to see what it is all about. But as the seasons go on, will they grow enough of a non-casual fanbase to keep attendence numbers up to keep the owners from losing money? I'm not so sure. I'm not saying this is a guaranteed failure by any means, but success is far from guaranteed and I think they will be challenged to make a go of this long-term.