FHL Schedule for 2019-20 is Out, Has 10 Teams Including "MICHIGAN"

Dingo44

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Next season's schedule for the FHL was released at 5 PM Eastern today, and it has 10 teams, including one called "MICHIGAN".

From Bus League Hockey:

https://busleaguehockey.com/2019/06/17/10th-team-listed-on-fphl-home-schedules-gives-big-location-hint/

But the bigger news of that image is that it narrows down the location of the 10th team. There had been talk of them playing in Bloomington, Illinois and Battle Creek, Michigan, with other Michigan cities rumored to be in the running, including Lapeer and Lansing.

So while we don’t know the exact city where the FPHL’s 10th team will be playing this fall, we do now know that it will be in Michigan.

It goes on to speculate that it's in Battle Creek, despite some league calling itself the "Interstate Hockey League" claiming ownership of that market.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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Next season's schedule for the FHL was released at 5 PM Eastern today, and it has 10 teams, including one called "MICHIGAN".

From Bus League Hockey:

https://busleaguehockey.com/2019/06/17/10th-team-listed-on-fphl-home-schedules-gives-big-location-hint/



It goes on to speculate that it's in Battle Creek, despite some league calling itself the "Interstate Hockey League" claiming ownership of that market.

IHL is about to fall apart. Teams moving around at the last second, 4 teams playing in one building, it’s a gong show. And they’re expecting people to come when watch without any marketing, which is obviously a horrible plan. Battle Creek hosted a decently supported AAHL team a while back and might be a solid Fed market if they market it properly and get things going.
 
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GindyDraws

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IHL is about to fall apart. Teams moving around at the last second, 4 teams playing in one building, it’s a gong show. And they’re expecting people to come when watch without any marketing, which is obviously a horrible plan. Battle Creek hosted a decently supported AAHL team a while back and might be a solid Fed market if they market it properly and get things going.

USACHL, anyone? No; seriously, after that debacle, anyone wanting to start a new hockey league should look at that and go "I'm not making that mistake".

Anyway, although I am hard on the F(P)HL, and still will be, this new team would have access to Mentor and Port Huron, giving them instant rivalries, and something that will help bring in early revenue. Having to go down to Winston-Salem and Columbus would suck for the players, but I'm guessing most of the teams are aware of that.
 
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Barclay Donaldson

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USACHL, anyone? No; seriously, after that debacle, anyone wanting to start a new hockey league should look at that and go "I'm not making that mistake".

Anyway, although I am hard on the F(P)HL, and still will be, this new team would have access to Mentor and Port Huron, giving them instant rivalries, and something that will help bring in early revenue. Having to go down to Winston-Salem and Columbus would suck for the players, but I'm guessing most of the teams are aware of that.

Travel has always been bad in the Fed. Imagine the Berlin’s River Drivers, who are almost in Québec, taking a bus to Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. That must have been killer. As for the IHL, it failed to start up last year and they wisely took another year to reset. Their operational logic is somewhat sound but their application of it is way off.
 

royals119

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Travel has always been bad in the Fed. Imagine the Berlin’s River Drivers, who are almost in Québec, taking a bus to Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. That must have been killer. As for the IHL, it failed to start up last year and they wisely took another year to reset. Their operational logic is somewhat sound but their application of it is way off.
Do a lot of Fed teams have busses? I've heard stories that they mostly travel in vans, or carpool to away games.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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Do a lot of Fed teams have busses? I've heard stories that they mostly travel in vans, or carpool to away games.

I know a few of them do bus regularly, but it probably depends on the travel time. I doubt Mentor to Watertown is worth a bus trip, Danbury to Elmira is another one that warrants vans. Unsure if the Fed has its players carpool, that wouldn’t surprise me but I haven’t heard much of that happening outside of callups for a single game.
 

CrazyEddie20

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Travel has always been bad in the Fed. Imagine the Berlin’s River Drivers, who are almost in Québec, taking a bus to Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. That must have been killer. As for the IHL, it failed to start up last year and they wisely took another year to reset. Their operational logic is somewhat sound but their application of it is way off.

If you go through a local bus company, a coach with one driver can run about $1,300 (or more!) per day without a fuel surcharge. A second driver, required by law for trips over a certain amount of driving time, will add one day of driver's pay for each day you have the two drivers, plus you also have to pay hotel rooms for each driver.

Do a lot of Fed teams have busses? I've heard stories that they mostly travel in vans, or carpool to away games.

If they are traveling in vans or carpools, I'm sure the teams' insurance carriers have no idea about it. That's just a bad idea.
 

royals119

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If you go through a local bus company, a coach with one driver can run about $1,300 (or more!) per day without a fuel surcharge. A second driver, required by law for trips over a certain amount of driving time, will add one day of driver's pay for each day you have the two drivers, plus you also have to pay hotel rooms for each driver.



If they are traveling in vans or carpools, I'm sure the teams' insurance carriers have no idea about it. That's just a bad idea.
FHL teams have insurance? :sarcasm:

The Royals have done it when they are on trip where they fly. The players fly to Florida, and they rent a few 15 passenger vans to go back and forth from the airport to the hotel, to the rink, dinner, etc. Team personnel usually drive (coach, trainer, radio guy, etc) Cheaper, and more convenient, than hiring a local bus, or having the team bus drive from PA to Florida and back. For a multi-city trip they get a bus, (for example, fly to Florida, bus to Atlanta and SC, then fly back from SC). If it is a Tues, Fri, Sat series vs the Everblades where they are flying in and out of the same airport, they sometimes go with vans. (Equipment guy gets to drive a rental truck from PA to Florida with the gear to save on airline baggage fees and prevent lost equipment.)
 

CrazyEddie20

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FHL teams have insurance? :sarcasm:

The Royals have done it when they are on trip where they fly. The players fly to Florida, and they rent a few 15 passenger vans to go back and forth from the airport to the hotel, to the rink, dinner, etc. Team personnel usually drive (coach, trainer, radio guy, etc) Cheaper, and more convenient, than hiring a local bus, or having the team bus drive from PA to Florida and back. For a multi-city trip they get a bus, (for example, fly to Florida, bus to Atlanta and SC, then fly back from SC). If it is a Tues, Fri, Sat series vs the Everblades where they are flying in and out of the same airport, they sometimes go with vans. (Equipment guy gets to drive a rental truck from PA to Florida with the gear to save on airline baggage fees and prevent lost equipment.)

Yeah, the 15-passenger van is a good option in some circumstances. That'd probably work with the driver's individual insurance and/or the rental company's policy.

Can't believe they'd fly to/from SC, unless there's cheap direct service to PHL I didn't know about.

I would HOPE FHL teams have insurance - at the very minimum, workman's comp and general liability insurance. But when it comes to the FHL, we know to suspend conventional business practices so as to run the operation as cheaply as possible. Carpools are just a bad idea, because when something happens, there will be a ton of legal entanglements - not just for the team and league, but for the employees involved.

And yeah, let's not forget that players and other team personnel are employees, and are thus owed a legal duty by their employer. Too often on here, the feeble-minded fanbois love to use the, "don't complain, you're playing pro hockey and living your dream!" Living your dream doesn't absolve your employer of their legal duties to you in any other industry, and it shouldn't in "professional" hockey, either.
 
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CrazyEddie20

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Travel has always been bad in the Fed. Imagine the Berlin’s River Drivers, who are almost in Québec, taking a bus to Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. That must have been killer.

You can only complain about bus travel when the bus breaks down and/or the heat/AC/VCR/DVD/Satellite TV doesn't work. Otherwise, we all have to ride the bus. Deal with it.
 

Dingo44

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New Team Announcement - Federal Prospects Hockey League

1563640528-full.png
 

GindyDraws

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The MICHIGAN placeholder is now the Battle Creek Rumble Bees and has divisional alignments, although the schedules won't represent that.
 

Barclay Donaldson

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I dunno, I find them slightly more attractive than this RGV Killer Bees' version ...



We usually agree on a lot JMC, but I will take those pseudo-"Boston Bruins Winter Classic Beta version jerseys" over the Battle Creek honey comb/suspenders jerseys. It's difficult to not have a nice jersey with black and gold, they somehow found a way to do it.
 
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JMCx4

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We usually agree on a lot JMC, but I will take those pseudo-"Boston Bruins Winter Classic Beta version jerseys" over the Battle Creek honey comb/suspenders jerseys. It's difficult to not have a nice jersey with black and gold, they somehow found a way to do it.
"suspenders" you call those? I thought they were the railroad tracks this latest F(P)HL addition would soon be taking to the graveyard of failed expansions. :badidea:

Jerseys such as the Rumble Bees' models are just a symptom of the greater plague that dye sublimation has visited upon sports branding. As soon as an affordable alternative to good old-fashioned stitching came to the market, every "designer" with an electronic sketch pad & an internet connection could have their "artwork" appear on dozens of teams & hundreds of fans without ever leaving the comfort of their basement apartments. Nice work, if you can get it.
 
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Jackets Woodchuck

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Does the addition of the word "Prospects" have anything to do with not being sued by the studio that produced Slap Shot?
 

CrazyEddie20

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Does the addition of the word "Prospects" have anything to do with not being sued by the studio that produced Slap Shot?

No, it has to do with the reorganization of the league in hopes of escaping legal liability for Kyler Moje's injuries. He's the player that lost sight in one eye a few years ago, sued the league and won. They're trying to differentiate themselves as a new legal entity.
 

JMCx4

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No, it has to do with the reorganization of the league in hopes of escaping legal liability for Kyler Moje's injuries. He's the player that lost sight in one eye a few years ago, sued the league and won. They're trying to differentiate themselves as a new legal entity.
'Zactly. Kirnan & Co. have been slinking away from Moje's legal motions & judgments rendered since early 2014. This is just their latest shuffle. They rebranded to "Federal Professional Hockey League" in 2015 and now "Federal Prospects Hockey League." Stay tuned for the "Federal Penitentiary Hockey League."
 

CrazyEddie20

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'Zactly. Kirnan & Co. have been slinking away from Moje's legal motions & judgments rendered since early 2014. This is just their latest shuffle. They rebranded to "Federal Professional Hockey League" in 2015 and now "Federal Prospects Hockey League." Stay tuned for the "Federal Penitentiary Hockey League."

It's eventually going to catch up with them. Moje's lawyers will likely be able to "pierce the corporate veil" and get to Kirnan et al.'s personal assets if they can affirmatively show that there's no real difference in entities between the reorganized league and the league that "folded" in 2015.

Maybe then this garbage league will finally bite the dust.
 

JMCx4

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... Maybe then this garbage league will finally bite the dust.
For their first 5 or 6 years of existence, I consistently bet against the League's continuing existence & Kirnan's survival for another season. Now going into Season 10, I've got 'em both at almost even money. They've beaten all the reasonable odds so far. :dunno:
 

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