Checkers V: Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy Edition

[Oogie Boogie]

I knew nothing about the change to Chicago until just a few minutes ago when the N&O Sports twitter account tweeted it out.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Chicago has a history as a franchise of caring more about winning and development. Aside from the moving away from NC part, which is mega dumb, we better have some sort of understanding on that. This team is throwing too much into prospects and development to have the messed up with career minor leaguers. The last few years we are showing we can run a winning minor league franchise, so hopefully we get to do that.

 

[Joe McGrath]

This is all about money and Dundon’s ego. This is going to happen a lot. Have to take the good with the bad.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Chicago has a history as a franchise of caring more about winning and development. Aside from the moving away from NC part, which is mega dumb, we better have some sort of understanding on that. This team is throwing too much into prospects and development to have the messed up with career minor leaguers. The last few years we are showing we can run a winning minor league franchise, so hopefully we get to do that.

Yea, you'd think with the amount of development out of Charlotte (Necas, Foegele, Roy, Fleury, Geekie, etc) AND the fact they just won the championship last year and were making a charge again this year (after being destroyed by lots of players/staff leaving, graduating players, and trades) seems very odd. Plus the whole "Carolina" thing and picking up Greenville, and the connection between the Checkers/Canes has been growing a lot the past few years. This would be a bad move of epic proportions IMO...they'd have to have a ****ing good explanation behind it other than some stupid "lovers quarrel" type of thing.

EDIT: How do I cheer for both the Checkers (whom I've watched for 25+ years) AND the Canes (my NHL team) when they're going to be effectively "rival" teams? One great thing about the connection was if a Checker was too good for the AHL, I got to watch him on the Canes and cheer for him, now he'll go to another team that I can't cheer for

 

[tarheelhockey]

Random twitter user (grain of salt) says Florida is the rumored frontrunner to pick up the Checkers as an affiliate.

This is brain-crampingly bad on the surface. It's a huge marketing loss for the franchise, and Chicago has a long history of interacting poorly with NHL clubs. Whatever is going on behind closed doors, it must be pretty bad to result in such a short-sighted move.

 

[A Star is Burns]

This is all about money and Dundon’s ego. This is going to happen a lot. Have to take the good with the bad.

I'm sure this is correct. And as long as we keep our fair share of good, I will. But I'll still get upset when something bad happens.

 

[DaveG]

This may be the dumbest move the franchise could possibly be making from a marketing standpoint right now.

Your affiliate's just down the road in a market in the state where you weren't getting much play. The two major league pro teams in that town are either currently stuck in a cycle of mediocrity (Hornets) or full on doing a scorched earth rebuild (Panthers) and after a decade of irrelevance your franchise is young, exciting, and coming off a conference finals appearance for the pro team and a championship for said affiliate. And instead of building off that to build your brand from a Triangle-centric regional one into a state wide brand while the team's on the upswing, you do something like this that comes across as an FU in the general direction of not just your affiliate but a part of your overall market. Just f***ing stupid.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

This is unbelievably stupid. That is to say, it's so stupid that I have a hard time believing they're actually going to do it.

This management group is no stranger to playing hardball, Waddell in particular. I'm honestly wondering if they leaked it to Luke to try and squeeze more concessions out of Charlotte.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Shouldce put the team in Hartford for the LOLs.

 

[Canes]

lol Canes are gonna Cane. Can't have too many good decisions, there always has to be at least 1 mind-numbingly stupid decision for every few good ones.

 

[GoldiFox]

Like earlier I'd guess it comes down to travel costs. No reason to move if they aren't saving money. The AHL to NHL costs are negligible as the team rarely uses callups. Hopefully a number of the prospects will be happier in a bigger city.

Sucks to lose an in-state affiliate but I can't imagine the impact will be too material. I always thought about going to a game in Charlotte but never did. Canes fans I know in Charlotte don't go to Checkers games. Just my anecdote.

 

[Lucky Lindy]

this sucks

 

[Novacane]

 

[WreckingCrew]

Honestly, my ties and loyalty to the Checkers are much stronger than to the Canes, doing this could break my interest in the Hurricanes as I'll more closely follow the NHL team affiliated with my primary hockey team. I hope it's just a game of hardball or chicken, posturing for a better position, because it would be a monumental mistake IMO...they're going to piss of a LOT of fans, they'll probably lose quite a large number of Charlotte folks or people like me who are stuck in the middle. Lots of Checkers fans started picking up Canes games just to see the affiliate play, they'll lose that now, just as both teams are on an upswing (finally getting butts in seats in Raleigh and now they're going to piss off a large piece of the fanbase)

EDIT: This probably affects me more than most on here because I average 10-15 games/yr for 25+ years with the Checkers, even while living in Winston Salem...so my feelings are very strong on this as opposed to those who follow the Checkers because they're the Canes affiliate

 

[Navin R Slavin]

The headline: "Hurricanes likely to cut ties with Checkers next week, but leave door open for return"

That wouldn't be the headline if there weren't a reason for that to be the headline.

This definitely sounds like a pissing match between Kahn and Dundon. Kahn used to be part of the Canes ownership group and now is not. There's some kind of nasty going on there, and Dundon is clearly ready to forego Charlotte as an affiliate, at least for a little while.

Unwise, in my opinion, but the man has a right to spend his money how he wants. Maybe he'll buy the Wolves and move them to Greensboro, I don't know.

(Of note: that's precisely what Vegas did with San Antonio.)

 

[A Star is Burns]

Like earlier I'd guess it comes down to travel costs. No reason to move if they aren't saving money. The AHL to NHL costs are negligible as the team rarely uses callups. Hopefully a number of the prospects will be happier in a bigger city.

Sucks to lose an in-state affiliate but I can't imagine the impact will be too material. I always thought about going to a game in Charlotte but never did. Canes fans I know in Charlotte don't go to Checkers games. Just my anecdote.

Yeah, after thinking about it, the importance we're placing on it is probably way too much. I'd still rather it be an NC team, but it probably doesn't really matter a ton. Yes, there will be some fans that are lost, but they may have numbers that the Charlotte fan side of things just isn't that important. Maybe they don't see numbers they think they should after the 1o years they've been there or whatever.

I don't like the way Chicago has been run generally, and their uniforms are ugly to me, but other than that, there are probably some benefits to being in Chicago too.

At the end of the day, I'd been to like 3 Charlotte games when I'd come down for Canes games, but being in NOVA, it won't affect me too much. I still liked the Checkers being a thing though.

 

[emptyNedder]

Unwise, in my opinion, but the man has a right to spend his money how he wants.

If fans equal nothing but a revenue stream—then all fans are subject to being tossed out.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I don’t understand what a single benefit would be.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If fans equal nothing but a revenue stream—then all fans are subject to being tossed out.

Yes. We're cheering for laundry and always have been.

 

[Joe McGrath]

I don’t understand what a single benefit would be.

$$$

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

600 more fans on average per game in Chicago for what that is worth.

travel costs will be more so, maybe break even

 

[Wolfpuck]

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Someone check on @HisIceness. I'm pretty sure that dude is not okay right now.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I don’t understand what a single benefit would be.

The only issue I can imagine is that the AHL has grown in such a way as to completely isolate the Checkers geographically, which creates high travel costs.

I don't see how that affects the Canes, though, unless the Checkers are pushing for financial assistance.

 

[Joe McGrath]

The only issue I can imagine is that the AHL has grown in such a way as to completely isolate the Checkers geographically, which creates high travel costs.

I don't see how that affects the Canes, though, unless the Checkers are pushing for financial assistance.

The Wolves Are probably paying double in affiliation fees.