GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
- 187,393
- 39,385
Didn’t see this mentioned here, but after announcing expansion to Lake Tahoe for next year, last week it was also approved that Bloomington, Illinois is getting the 30th ECHL franchise.
I've been to a handful of those "or less people" hockey games over the years. The new owners might oughta-wanna consider skewing the STH and single game seat sales to the player bench side of the bowl (which are serviced by the better concessions options), and set up cameras on the penalty bench side to emphasize the "crowd" for FloHockey streaming & local media exposure. That could also cut costs for arena staffing on game nights. As for the "cavernous" aspect of GMA, I'm sure they can figure out cranking up the music volume about 20dB will make the joint jump.... There is a viable arena here. Grossinger Motors Arena is fine - not great, but not close to bad, either. Seats about 7,000 for hockey, so plenty large to have big crowds to generate revenue. But it can also feel cavernous when it only has a thousand or so or less people, too. ...
I am not trying to start anything.....BUT..... the word I heard is that the Indy Fuel, which are moving to a new arena in Fishers IN, are going to make a strong effort to move up to the AHL. This is why the ownership has brought the Bloomington Bison ECHL to life.
1. With the news today about the NHL and, uh, Salt Lake, maybe? But also Chicago hasn't exactly been making friends the past few seasons, especially with the independent fiasco. However, the Blackhawks are affiliated with Rockford, so they'd have to find a new team to affiliate with.So my conspiracy theory hat is on... are they making an effort to get to 33 teams, or force Chicago out?