btw, how are the Eagles dealing with the loss of their team physician, Avs, I saw that and that was a shocking discovery
Seattle/Abbotsford
- Thread starter Neill99
- Start date
Avsrule2022
"No more rats"
Yes, it was a shock and everyone is pretty sad about it. Sounds like it was an unfortunate accident, a fall of of a 75 foot cliff. He was the only team doctor they ever had.
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Just a spiel on the realities of the west here.
You might be driving from Bakersfield to Ontario, as there's something of a back-road route that only very infrequently gets bottlenecked.
Theoretically, I'd think San Diego to Ontario is drivable... just remember. Traffic. San Diego to Bakersfield... that's an interesting question.
Stockton might be bussing to San Jose and Bakersfield. However, it's not like it's expensive to fly within California, at least from northern to southern. This is not a solidly bus division.
You might be driving from Bakersfield to Ontario, as there's something of a back-road route that only very infrequently gets bottlenecked.
Theoretically, I'd think San Diego to Ontario is drivable... just remember. Traffic. San Diego to Bakersfield... that's an interesting question.
Stockton might be bussing to San Jose and Bakersfield. However, it's not like it's expensive to fly within California, at least from northern to southern. This is not a solidly bus division.
Agalloch
EliteProspects
HansH
Unwelcome Spectre
Boise. The WCHL/ECHL Steelheads have been there more than 20 years, still chugging along despite their two nearest rivals being Utah and Rapid City. Their arena is small (5,002 for hockey - comparable to the 5,500 capacity in Loveland for the Colorado Eagles), which reduces some of their overhead costs - and they averaged about 90% capacity this past season in the ECHL.
It appears that the Steelheads are owned by an entity that also manages the CenturyLink Arena and the adjoining Grove Hotel, as well as owning two other hotel properties in downtown Boise. As such, I'm curious as to whether they're being bought out by the Seattle NHL ownership. or if they're going to be part of ownership for the proposed AHL Steelheads, should this come to pass - or even being the owners of the AHL franchise and merely affiliating with NHL Seattle.
Joining the AHL would re-unite the Steelheads with former WCHL/ECHL rivals San Diego and Bakersfield, and ECHL rivals Ontario, Stockton, and Colorado. I had gotten the impression that they were looking at the WHL once the AHL poached most of their former ECHL rivals, but the opportunity with NHL Seattle clearly has changed the calculus there. It would actually improve their travel budget to move up to the AHL as currently configured, as far as I can tell.
IceColdOx
Registered User
Centrum Hockey
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2018
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Hartford expires after the coming season it seems the most likely for Utica since The Islanders don't seem to be interested in moving Bridgeport.
Centrum Hockey
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- Aug 2, 2018
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If Vancouver gets the rangers to assume the lease in utica I am sure they whould be allowed to go west without penalty.
But which AHL team would be going west and which AHL would be leaving pacific? Colorado eagles?
Jumptheshark
Rebooting myself
AdmiralsFan24
Registered User
The AHL doesn't even require teams to play the same amount of games. You think they give a single f*** about one division having 9 teams and another having 6?
Palm Springs is a freaking 20 hour drive to Seattle, thats if traffic cooperates lol. Boise ID is still a far ways away at an 8 hour interstate drive. By not having to fly between your AHL and NHL club an organization can save bucks.
AdmiralsFan24
Registered User
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
Please excuse me for being of the opinion that Abbotsford itself is only 20% responsible for the failure of the Heat.
The calculus of trying to be a Calgary affiliate that close to Vancouver and the general MO of the Flames' development program provide most of the other 80%.
PCSPounder
Stadium Groupie
8 if you're speeding. Washington loves saturation patrols.
(BTW... between Southern California traffic and the Portland-to-Seattle corridor, 20 hours is also awfully ambitious. And still the saturation patrols. And where there are practically no cops in certain Southern Oregon counties, try speeding on those curves sometime.)
Thing is, if you're trying to tell me that Stockton and San Jose are driving to San Diego, I'm going to laugh... thing being, if that actually happens to be true, it gets funnier. I know there are a lot of people on this board who value practice time, and I get that, but my advice has always been that- when you're out west- flying is part of the deal. The AHL players who want to move up need to get used to that, too.
Jumptheshark
Rebooting myself
travel played a part in that 80% as well--the heat had to underwrite travel costs
most ahl teams still travel by bus
what is the near west cost AHL team to the place?
Barclay Donaldson
Registered User
You talk of saving bucks, but what do you think costs more? The budget to cover the flights of a half dozen players a handful of times per year at the very most, or the travel budget for the entire team and staff. It's not even close. Plane tickets for calling up a half dozen players a handful of times per year is maybe in the 4 figures if the team is injury hit. That's the equivalent of one road trip. That's not saving bucks, that's making a poor financial decision. Why do you think Florida, Tampa, and Vancouver all have their teams well away from home but very close to divisional rivals? Same with Calgary and Edmonton, they could easily put the team near them, but instead they're in California. Why do you think that is? They more than save enough money on the travel then they would save with easier callups.
You're either vastly underestimating the cost of road travel or severely overestimating the cost of calling up players. There's 2 hour non-stop flights from Palm Springs International to Seattle that are under 3 hours and going under $200 a pop. That's pretty convenient. That's like the people pushing Vegas to put their team in Reno when they have 3 hour non-stop flights from Chicago O'Hare, down the street from the Wolves Arena. It makes zero financial sense to prioritize easier callups over ease of travel. Having them be equal is a different matter, but prioritizing callups over travel hasn't happened yet. There hasn't been a single team in the NHL that has done it for that reason, save for maybe the Manitoba Moose.
royals119
Registered User
I read something several years ago from the Kings organization when the whole west coast AHL was still just an idea. They weren't concerned about the cost of the callups in real dollars (paying for flights, etc), they were more concerned about the salary cap impact. When a player is called up, or sent down, he starts counting against the NHL salary cap from the time they initiate the callup, not from when he actually joins the team. Same thing going down, in reverse, he counts on the cap until he returns to the AHL team. At that time Philly had their AHL team in the same parking lot as the NHL team. They were saving salary cap dollars vs LA who was paying at least two extra days of salary, or more if there was a delayed flight or complicated travel. The Kings had a few years where the were leading the league in games lost to injury. When you add that the cap dollars wasted across every player move it was enough impact on the cap to make it worth spending more real dollars to fix it.
hurricanesfan123
Registered User
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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