News Article: OKC Barons Shutting Down, Oilers to Move AHL Franchise

[Oil Gauge]

Honestly, it's not a bad thing. OKC wasn't a good hockey market. As long as we have an AHL team, I'm happy

Well we have 2, so you should be really happy.

 

[Staghorn]

First thing I mentioned to my friend is Saskatoon, makes so much sense. Saskatchewan is starved for entertainment and it would be so close.

HILARIOUS. I am from Saskatoon and will tell you right now that people here think the Oilers are a JOKE. I am ridiculed for being a fan. If anyone thinks people from Saskatoon are so "starved" for entertainment that we will pay good money to watch the worst NHL franchises prospects - of which there are very few of any interest - you have another thing coming. No chance on the minor league affiliate of a loser franchise being successful here.

 

[Jakey53]

They do mostly take the bus. The current rumor is that LA, Edm, Ana, Cgy, and SJ are moving their AHL teams West to be bunched tight in California. LA owns ECHL Ontario (in the LA area), Edmonton owns ECHL Bakersfield. An article from Worcester said that SJ would move if they could get 4-5 teams to do it. The teams would play a lot against each other to save on travel cost. I haven't heard any rumors saying that Saskatoon or anywhere else in Canada might be involved.

You can add Arizona to that group as well.

 

[The Nuge]

Well we have 2, so you should be really happy.

That'd be funny if it weren't so sad...

HILARIOUS. I am from Saskatoon and will tell you right now that people here think the Oilers are a JOKE. I am ridiculed for being a fan. If anyone thinks people from Saskatoon are so "starved" for entertainment that we will pay good money to watch the worst NHL franchises prospects - of which there are very few of any interest - you have another thing coming. No chance on the minor league affiliate of a loser franchise being successful here.

You're an Oiler fan? Right...

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

HILARIOUS. I am from Saskatoon and will tell you right now that people here think the Oilers are a JOKE. I am ridiculed for being a fan. If anyone thinks people from Saskatoon are so "starved" for entertainment that we will pay good money to watch the worst NHL franchises prospects - of which there are very few of any interest - you have another thing coming. No chance on the minor league affiliate of a loser franchise being successful here.

Yeah, I know that Saskatoon is a fine city, but people from there tend to "over sell" it just a tad.

If an AHL team actually came there, it would be pretty big I suspect, even if it were a farm team of the crappy Edmonton Oilers.

 

[dem]

Yeah, I know that Saskatoon is a fine city, but people from there tend to "over sell" it just a tad.

If an AHL team actually came there, it would be pretty big I suspect, even if it were a farm team of the crappy Edmonton Oilers.

There is nothing attractive about an AHL team in a Canadian city.

CHL you still get to see prospects.. the games are more exciting... you get local rivalries.. tickets are cheaper.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

There is nothing attractive about an AHL team in a Canadian city.

CHL you still get to see prospects.. the games are more exciting... you get local rivalries.. tickets are cheaper.

Well I don't know that they fill the building in Saskatoon. That Memorial Cup wasn't a great showing by a "CHL" Canadian city.

 

[dem]

Well I don't know that they fill the building in Saskatoon. That Memorial Cup wasn't a great showing by a "CHL" Canadian city.

They don't. So why would they fill it up for more a more expensive AHL team? No one cares about the AHL in Canada.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

They don't. So why would they fill it up for more a more expensive AHL team? No one cares about the AHL in Canada.

Ok then, I was thinking because perhaps the city is in a state of "big-league"ing it. The CHL is nice, but Pro-Hockey is a different animal.

 

[nsoilfan]

come back to halifax.

we could use a pro team.

 

[Hoodaha]

They don't. So why would they fill it up for more a more expensive AHL team? No one cares about the AHL in Canada.

Not only that, but unless these Western teams are clumped together, it's going to be very hard to make it work financially. There are not many places to put teams in Canada that don't already have Jr Hockey and would be close to other AHL teams/destinations. I believe that's why Calgary and Edmonton appear to be looking into California for their AHL teams.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Not only that, but unless these Western teams are clumped together, it's going to be very hard to make it work financially. There are not many places to put teams in Canada that don't already have Jr Hockey and would be close to other AHL teams/destinations. I believe that's why Calgary and Edmonton appear to be looking into California for their AHL teams.

Yeah that makes the most sense, you're probably correct. I assume the NHL teams want these AHL teams to operate at atleast even, so they can be sustainable ventures.

 

[HansH]

I assume the NHL teams want these AHL teams to operate at atleast even, so they can be sustainable ventures.

It depends on which NHL team is in ownership, frankly. The options for minor-league player development at the AHL level are really just twofold:

1) Own a team, thus incurring the almost inevitable financial losses, writing it off as the cost of developing the players. (Minor pro is a money loser in most cases, to be frankly honest -- for every Ontario and Hershey, there's a Wheeling or Brampton.)

2) Pay the salaries of the minor league players, getting whatever they can in terms of the cost of an affiliation from the AHL team .AHL teams pay somewhere on the order of a million dollars a year, typically, for the rights to an affiliation if they're not owned by the NHL team. In exchange, the NHL team supplies the players and pays their salaries -- in almost every case, the affiliation cost is pretty significantly below even cost of even AHL-level salaries, so the NHL team loses money on that transaction as well.

Basically, it's a pick your poison about how the NHL team wishes to absorb the financial cost of minor-league player development.

 

[Hoodaha]

It depends on which NHL team is in ownership, frankly. The options for minor-league player development at the AHL level are really just twofold:

1) Own a team, thus incurring the almost inevitable financial losses, writing it off as the cost of developing the players. (Minor pro is a money loser in most cases, to be frankly honest -- for every Ontario and Hershey, there's a Wheeling or Brampton.)

2) Pay the salaries of the minor league players, getting whatever they can in terms of the cost of an affiliation from the AHL team .AHL teams pay somewhere on the order of a million dollars a year, typically, for the rights to an affiliation if they're not owned by the NHL team. In exchange, the NHL team supplies the players and pays their salaries -- in almost every case, the affiliation cost is pretty significantly below even cost of even AHL-level salaries, so the NHL team loses money on that transaction as well.

Basically, it's a pick your poison about how the NHL team wishes to absorb the financial cost of minor-league player development.

Yep, people don't own minor league teams to make money. They are there either as a rich person's toy or as a cost of doing business for an NHL team.

 

[Yukon Joe]

The AHL will not be in Saskatoon.

Saskatoon is owned by the Blades and by the WHL. The arena is (I believe) locked up by the Blades. Fans would much rather watch their Blades, a team they are comfortable and familiar with, instead of an unknown AHL team.


That being said, an AHL team doesn't have to be close to other teams, though most of them are:

Sure, there are some big clusters, but look up to the top right corner. St. John's isn't close to anyone else, and they manage. The same franchise used to be in Winnipeg, again, not close to anyone else. It just means your team is going to have higher travel costs since you're flying everywhere.

 

[HansH]

This is out of date -- Abbotsford (in the upper left) moved to Glens Falls, NY, this past off-season.

That said, one outlier is typically a bad business idea, but the whole "Western AHL" thing is generally predicated on 4-5 teams within close (enough) distance to help each other out, with most of the games against each other, and allowing other teams to make a multi-game swing on one trip instead of the baseball-type two or three games in a row at the same place that Abbotsford was doing.

 

[Hoodaha]

This is out of date -- Abbotsford (in the upper left) moved to Glens Falls, NY, this past off-season.

That said, one outlier is typically a bad business idea, but the whole "Western AHL" thing is generally predicated on 4-5 teams within close (enough) distance to help each other out, with most of the games against each other, and allowing other teams to make a multi-game swing on one trip instead of the baseball-type two or three games in a row at the same place that Abbotsford was doing.

Yes, I think that most people would say (and the Sharks have pretty much already said) that for this Western AHL thing to work, there have to be 4-5 teams in fairly close proximity. It saves a boatload of money on travel and helps make "swings" against multiple teams possible.