Noting that no team should be immune to doubt of their futures under prevailing economic conditions, I think you are short-changing quite a few teams' futures. For instance, I'd like to hear your rationale for excluding the Fuel from your short list. Despite recent legal problems, I'd add at least one of the two ECHL teams owned by the Steven Brothers (Wichita or Tulsa) to that group. Despite their remote location, the latest RC Rush ownership team seems diverse enough & the city's dependence on the team as an arena tenant could influence any folding decision. I don't think the Hoffman Family would be greatly inclined to dump the Everblades & lose a major tenant for Hertz Arena as they try to refill entertainment dates. The Swamp Rabbits' ownership group looks pretty solidly established, and the Icemen would seem to me to be on a relatively strong footing under new ownership by the Kaufmann Family. And I'll continue the drum beat for survival of the Nailers in Wheeling, despite annual predictions of their demise.
My overarching point is that a year long suspension by the league would create a lot of problems for a lot of franchises-including my team. I'll go through your list and make brief comments about each of teams you cited.
Perhaps I erred over the Steven Brothers-I don't know anything about them.
RC appears to be a franchise in decline and nothing I know about them would suggest strong immunity to the problems of a year off. Aren't they owned by a number of different people now? Those types of arrangements don't inspire confidence for the long term.
As much as I love Wheeling, they certainly aren't a franchise which suggests long term stability with their attendance numbers.
I've been to enough Fuel games to know that they aren't drawing well. Unless their owners are extremely wealthy, a full year off would create a ton of problems for them-like most other teams. Given that they also have the arena to contend with, the problems of a year long suspension would be exacerbated.
The Icemen's attendance numbers (based on the two games I've seen there) are severely inflated. Once again, I don't know much about the owner and it could very well be that a year off wouldn't impact his finances to the point where the Icemen would be endangered. I hope that's the case.
The Swamp Rabbits are another group owned team and their attendance numbers over the years don't inspire confidence.
The Hoffman Family of Companies seems to be more bark than bite based on the brochures they distribute at Everblades games. They own a lot of mom and pop type businesses which are very susceptible to downturns in tourism. Wouldn't surprise me if they were very heavily leveraged due to the arena purchase and could be taken down by a severe economic downturn.
