AHL West in 2015-16?

[Hoodaha]

The Kings/Manchester are "on a two-year lease" (Not sure which two years those are, when it expires, etc)
The Sharks/Worcester have a lease that expires after 2014-15?

Once the lease is up, they can do whatever. Or cover their butts in the language of the new lease. Moving the AHL team to their ECHL market and sell off the ECHL franchise to be relocated when they're done.

The Kings lease runs through the 2015-16 season, but according to this article, that wouldn't stop them:

http://www.newhampshire.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140427/SPORTS0702/140429181/-1/newhampshire1404&template=newhampshire1404

"The company that owns the Kings and Monarchs, AEG, has a lease with the Verizon Wireless Arena through the 2015-16 season, but that would not prevent the team from leaving according to Abbott."

 

[210]

The Kings/Manchester are "on a two-year lease" (Not sure which two years those are, when it expires, etc)
The Sharks/Worcester have a lease that expires after 2014-15?

Once the lease is up, they can do whatever. Or cover their butts in the language of the new lease. Moving the AHL team to their ECHL market and sell off the ECHL franchise to be relocated when they're done.

The 10 year deal San Jose had in Worcester had an out after year 9 if certain financial goals were not met that had to be exercised after year 8 and San Jose opted out for the 10th year of the deal (which would have been 15-16). The plan for San Jose (which they have said both publicly and privately) is to negotiate with the DCU Center for a deal to play there for 15-16. Beyond that is anyone's guess.

 

[210]

The Kings lease runs through the 2015-16 season, but according to this article, that wouldn't stop them:

http://www.newhampshire.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140427/SPORTS0702/140429181/-1/newhampshire1404&template=newhampshire1404

"The company that owns the Kings and Monarchs, AEG, has a lease with the Verizon Wireless Arena through the 2015-16 season, but that would not prevent the team from leaving according to Abbott."

I believe the Kings/Monarchs have an out after the upcoming season as the 15-16 season is a mutual "option" for both parties. No idea when that option has to be exercised or declined though.

 

[Tommy Hawk]

The ECHL really won't have much of a choice. They're not "moving their teams" as much as they're "losing their markets."

This isn't uncommon. Minor league teams get kicked out when higher-level teams come in and steal the market.



But the NHL owners don't care. They want their AHL teams closer for call-up reasons. And as an extra benefit, it extends their footprint in the community. That's why the Ducks want to put their AHL team in San Diego… because it's a battleground area with the Kings.



Obviously it depends on the terms of each the lease, but you can't hold a team to the lease if the team doesn't exist anymore. It's just paperwork to meet terms and conditions.

Call it "folding" and "expanding" or "transfer of affiliation" or whatever.

You can't hold a team to a lease but you can hold the owners to it. Ask about what happened in Iowa. There are rules and by-laws that the owners agree to when they purchase an affiliate in any league. There are penalties for not abiding by those rules and for breeaking leases.

San Jose, LA, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton all own their AHL affiliates. Yes, they have leases / agreements in place with their current AHL markets, but leases such as these generally have a penalty built in to them for one party to break the lease early. In other words, there is a price for these teams to pay to move their franchises west, and it's up to them to decide whether that price is worth paying.

For the teams that don't own their AHL franchise (Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado) the issue is different.

However, any discussion about the arena owners / operators having some power to prevent the move out west is moot. The leases are in place, and if the NHL owners want to pay the monetary penalty to break their leases and move west, it will happen.

True dat.