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

[ohheyhemsky]

Quickest and easiest way to get out of the 100s of thousands of dollars in tabs that Ebs, Hall, Schultz and Nuge racked up at the local bars.

 

[Throttlehead]

Dreger tweeted a AHL west division could launch next year made up of LA, ANA, SJ, CGY & EDM. So I'm guessing the the new AHL team will be out east?

Dreger is not a reporter, more like attention ***** The Kardashian of hockey.

How is news "could" ?

 

[Hockey Monkey]

sad day

I've really enjoyed following the Oilers, you guys are a great group of fans.

 

[Quality Oil]

Oilers move to AHL. 6 Calder cups incoming. 12 rings Lowe.

On a serious note that really sucks for the stability of our farm team. I'm kinda sad, but attendance has been woeful for a long time now.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

gotta be for an AHL West division

pretty much all located in norcal aka stockton, bakersfield, san fran, oakland etc etc

 

[rboomercat90]

So I felt this was thread worthy

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=744657&navid=DL|EDM|home



Interesting to say the least, wonder where they move the team? Lowtide suggested Bakersfield and possible Saskatoon. Toon town would be interesting.

Anybody know why the Flames pulled out of Abbotsford? That might be a good spot for them.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

losing lots of money, low attendance

abbotsford paid the flames millions to leave

 

[Zap Brannigan]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...am-abbotsford-pays-5-5m-to-get-them-to-leave/

More cause for resentment: The Heat have cost local taxpayers a small fortune, some $12.2-million, thanks to a ludicrous “supply fee” agreement the City of Abbotsford made with the Flames back in 2009. Desperate to put a tenant into the city’s new 7,000-seat arena, the city gambled and offered to cover any Heat losses. For 10 years.

The Flames took the bet, of course. Who wouldn’t?

Abbotsford taxpayers were forced to pay the Flames $3.4-million, to cover the Heat’s first three years of losses in Abbotsford. They shelled out another $3.8-million in the last two years. That’s $7.2-million that Abbotsford gave to subsidize a financially robust NHL club, to ice a minor league development squad that few here have ever cared a whit about.

The deal was officially terminated this week. Insult to injury: Abbotsford must now pay the Flames another $5.5-million in termination fees.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

basically the flames are evil

 

[sepHF]

sad day

I've really enjoyed following the Oilers, you guys are a great group of fans.

You guys are great as well. Always nice to read perspective of fans from the area. Thanks for everything

 

[Spawn]

sad day

I've really enjoyed following the Oilers, you guys are a great group of fans.

I'll miss reading your updates in the OKC thread. I have always greatly appreciated them. Thanks a tonne for all the time you've spent providing us all with first hand information on how the team/players were playing.

Sucks for the fans in OKC, but it really seems like the Barons were never able to get a hold in the market. No matter how successful they always seemed to hover around that 3k mark.

 

[molsonmuscle360]

Now I don't know if they are still interested, but when Fort McMurray started started planning it's new arena (which I think opens next year), a group at one of the meetings was saying they had sent out preliminary talks to the Katz group and the AHL head office about bringing a team up here. They said the prices they would be able to charge in comparison to most AHL franchises would offset most travel costs and player housing costs.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...am-abbotsford-pays-5-5m-to-get-them-to-leave/

More cause for resentment: The Heat have cost local taxpayers a small fortune, some $12.2-million, thanks to a ludicrous “supply fee†agreement the City of Abbotsford made with the Flames back in 2009. Desperate to put a tenant into the city’s new 7,000-seat arena, the city gambled and offered to cover any Heat losses. For 10 years.

The Flames took the bet, of course. Who wouldn’t?

Abbotsford taxpayers were forced to pay the Flames $3.4-million, to cover the Heat’s first three years of losses in Abbotsford. They shelled out another $3.8-million in the last two years. That’s $7.2-million that Abbotsford gave to subsidize a financially robust NHL club, to ice a minor league development squad that few here have ever cared a whit about.

The deal was officially terminated this week. Insult to injury: Abbotsford must now pay the Flames another $5.5-million in termination fees.

And people think Katz is a crook with the downtown Arena, this is straight up theft.

 

[Frank the Tank]

And people think Katz is a crook with the downtown Arena, this is straight up theft.

While unfortunate for Abbotsford, with the numbers involved it is more along the lines of petty theft. In comparison, grand larceny is what happening down in Glendale.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

While unfortunate for Abbotsford, with the numbers involved it is more along the lines of petty theft. In comparison, grand larceny is what happening down in Glendale.

Yes, the NHL pulled an Oceans 11 like heist in Glendale.

 

[Hoodaha]

gotta be for an AHL West division

pretty much all located in norcal aka stockton, bakersfield, san fran, oakland etc etc

Bakersfield is considered SoCal. One of the other teams allegedly going to the AHL is Ontario, which is in the greater LA area. The additional rumor I've heard is that Anaheim wants their farm team in San Diego. Stockton's ECHL franchise is for sale, so they could be a landing spot as well.

 

[Beerfish]

The funny thing is that teams asking for sweet heat deals start using these idiotic deals as a basis. The Oilers one is one of the top heists.

 

[Hoodaha]

According to Mark Spector the Barons average 3219, 5th worst in the AHL. So this is pretty dumb considering the actual numbers.

Sucks for the fans in OKC, but it shouldn't operate at a loss, because what's point. Whether you're fed up with the NHL team or not.

Yep, OKC draws very poorly. Bakersfield draws 4,772, to contrast.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Yep, OKC draws very poorly. Bakersfield draws 4,772, to contrast.

To be fair, that is ECHL v. AHL, the ECHL team shouldn't outdraw the AHL team.

 

[Hoodaha]

To be fair, that is ECHL v. AHL.

Here are the ticket prices:

Bakersfield:

Section Box Office Price Marquee Game Price**
Glass $35.00 $40.00
Club $33.00 $36.00
Rinkside $24.00 $26.00
Executive $19.00 $21.00
Mezzazine $16.00 $18.00
Terrace $12.00 $15.00
Terrace – Senior/Youth (2-12 yrs) $10.00 $12.00


OKC:

VIP (yellow) $36
PREMIUM (blue) $26
PREFERRED (copper) $19
PLAZA (orange) $15
TERRACE (red) $10



EDIT Bad reading comprehension on my part, yeah, the ECHL team shouldn't ever outdraw the AHL team. Wasn't a good sign for OKC.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Here are the ticket prices:

Bakersfield:

Section Box Office Price Marquee Game Price**
Glass $35.00 $40.00
Club $33.00 $36.00
Rinkside $24.00 $26.00
Executive $19.00 $21.00
Mezzazine $16.00 $18.00
Terrace $12.00 $15.00
Terrace – Senior/Youth (2-12 yrs) $10.00 $12.00


OKC:

VIP (yellow) $36
PREMIUM (blue) $26
PREFERRED (copper) $19
PLAZA (orange) $15
TERRACE (red) $10



EDIT Bad reading comprehension on my part, yeah, the ECHL team shouldn't ever outdraw the AHL team. Wasn't a good sign for OKC.

All good, I didn't know any of that, makes Bakerfield look even more attractive.

 

[Hoodaha]

All good, I didn't know any of that, makes Bakerfield look even more attractive.

I think Western ECHL teams have had to have relatively high ticket prices because much of their schedule requires flights (Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Alaska).

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

I think Western ECHL teams have had to have relatively high ticket prices because much of their schedule requires flights (Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Alaska).

Never considered that, makes sense though. Impressed they draw will in California with the higher prices.

 

[Hoodaha]

Never considered that, makes sense though. Impressed they draw will in California with the higher prices.

Ontario (which is owned by the Kings and is likely to go to the AHL as well) has some even higher prices and draws as well as some of the top AHL teams (7,000-8,000ish range). The game has grown a lot in California over the years. It still has a long way to go, but it definitely works well in some areas.

 

[40oz]

sad day

I've really enjoyed following the Oilers, you guys are a great group of fans.

Yah this really sucks, the local fans who post here and twitter have been awesome. Its really a shame to lose that. Also, it seems like the players loved playing in OKC too.