Confirmed with Link: Blues announce 5 year deal with San Antonio Rampage

[Ted Hoffman]

As someone not really in the know, I keep seeing Stockton being mentioned. What is the situation there and why are they being brought up as potentially being folded/moved/sold?

Attendance - maybe because it's Stockton, maybe because the team has gone to the playoffs once in 4 years and isn't turning out for a (finally) good team this year. Plus, the team wants several improvements in facilities and the lease, and the city hasn't committed all of that yet. Stockton Heat yearly attendance at hockeydb.com

Is that enough to get the Flames to sell the rights to that franchise and then affiliate with the Wolves? If they can find somewhere else to drop the team and it be supported, I'd bet they do that first. [Spoiler: that location will not be Abbotsford.] But where that might be, who knows. It could be Sacramento short-term, it could be Fresno. Hell, maybe even Salt Lake City. But I'd expect they'll move rather than sell and lose control over player development.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Why don’t you think the Hawks would affiliate with the Wolves? I wasn’t aware that there was beef there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was. It seems like Don Levin is out to burn bridges with the entire Western Conference.

The Wolves were formed in response to Bill Wirtz keeping the Blackhawks off local TV. Wayne Messmer sang the opening night's national anthem for the Wolves during the '94 lockout; the Blackhawks responded by firing him. Old Man Wirtz frequently cast aspersions on the Wolves, who used animosity from the Blackhawks toward the Wolves and Blackhawks fans as a marketing point. That animosity isn't in full display since Dollar Bill died, but that in no way means Rocky is chummy with Levin.

Levin wanting the Wolves to be a consistently winning product like they were in the old IHL and the first several years of being in the AHL doesn't endear him to most teams; for him, winning > developing someone else's young kids. [Though upcoming changes to AHL rosters will put a bigger premium on player development - but it will also largely be young talent-driven first.] The Blackhawks don't want to let someone else decide how their players will or won't get developed; they're sure as hell not letting someone in the market make that decision where it could be to the benefit of the Wolves and their fanbase at the expense of the Blackhawks and their fanbase.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

It’s a long story, but this thread has a good discussion on it (before it goes WAY off the rails towards the end). TL;DR attendance is super low, and negotiations on leasing the stadium from the city aren’t looking positive.

Calgary is a little like us in that they’ve jumped all over the continent trying to find a stable affiliation partnership. I would say that if the Blues don’t end up in Chicago, there’s a fairly good chance that Calgary will instead.

Attendance - maybe because it's Stockton, maybe because the team has gone to the playoffs once in 4 years and isn't turning out for a (finally) good team this year. Plus, the team wants several improvements in facilities and the lease, and the city hasn't committed all of that yet. Stockton Heat yearly attendance at hockeydb.com

Is that enough to get the Flames to sell the rights to that franchise and then affiliate with the Wolves? If they can find somewhere else to drop the team and it be supported, I'd bet they do that first. [Spoiler: that location will not be Abbotsford.] But where that might be, who knows. It could be Sacramento short-term, it could be Fresno. Hell, maybe even Salt Lake City. But I'd expect they'll move rather than sell and lose control over player development.

Thanks for the replies.

Maybe back to back Cups will help ease the financial burden on Stillman and Co. to make an offer Calgary can't refuse on Stockton.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Rockford fan coming in peace.

A Kings blogger tweeted this over the weekend:



I don't know how much stock to take into that, but:

Indy's a good group of people, the geographics are probably a bit better than San Antonio, and they'll probably allow the team to be a developmental one versus the Wolves. Plus, you'd have a good Central division going where MIL/RFD/GR/IA and MAYBE Chicago would share the game load versus only playing SA/TX a handful.

IF the Hawks org ever pulled the team closer to Chicago or decided to move them to Indy, then Rockford's also a good close place and will allow the team to be developmental over what the Wolves have done.

As others have said, the only way Indy ends up with an AHL team is if a current one moves there. The 32nd AHL franchise is already owned by Seattle and they won’t allow a 33rd AHL team with only 32 NHL teams.

So for a team to end up in Indy, either the Blues or Hawks (or any team really) will have to buy (or already own) a current AHL team and move them there; or a current independent AHL owner would have to sell to another independent owner who wants to move the team to Indy.

 

[Agalloch]

 

[STL fan in MN]

The Checkers are independently owned so if the Hurricanes affiliated with the Wolves instead, then that’d open up an option for us to affiliate with the Checkers. Or maybe someone else grabs the Checkers affiliation which then opens up their current affiliate as an option to the Blues. Could be lots of musical chairs moves going on.

Or maybe the Checkers owners would be interested in selling if the Blues would be interested in buying and the Blues could move them to a more desirable spot. Who knows.

I don’t see why Carolina would want to move their AHL affiliate farther away and want to work with the Wolves instead but if they want to, all the power to them to do that.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

If they kept them in Charlotte, their brand would look pretty sick with our color scheme.

 

[ort]

2 AHL teams in Chicago? Can they support that?

We were in Chicago for a youth hockey tournament and we went to a Wolves game... the stadium was only about 1/3 full... and this was on a Saturday night and tickets were $17 bucks.

(EDIT: Wait, never mind, I misread that. Whatever, it still makes little sense.)

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I want to say, "yeah, it's Strickland, whatever" but there's this nugget from earlier in the year. TL;DR: the Checkers probably lost money last season despite winning the Calder Cup. Attendance is about the same as it was last season at about 6700, so it's likely it still loses money this season without another Calder Cup run. On the flip side, their owner runs a massive beer/wine distributor network in North Carolina / South Carolina and he's got deep roots in the area, so he might be OK with losing money for the community presence. [Put it this way: if the team is losing $500K a year as it appears it has for the last few years, he can stomach that easily.] The Checkers also have a 10-year lease at their arena and are about halfway through it; improvements to the arena were tied in some way to that lease, so it's likely that it would have to be bought out / costs repaid.

I'd say the chances of the Charlotte franchise being sold are about 5%; the chances that we buy it are 0.1%.

Does it make any sense for Carolina to move its AHL affiliate to Chicago? Nope - but, as noted, Don Waddell is in charge and he was involved with the Wolves for a while, and has a history of doing dumb stuff and thinking he was pretty smart. That's the only reason I won't totally dismiss this.