3rd Guy High
Registered User
- Feb 17, 2010
- 1,006
- 174
So with all this talk about what the USPHL's future will be, specifically next season and being a fan-driven league, what do you think the footprint will be? I know the Jr. Pirates are trying to play in Lewiston next year which seats around 3,500. Johnstown has also been thrown out there as a possible expansion market.
Boston Jr. Bruins - New England Sports Center (1,000)
South Shore Kings - Foxboro Sports Center (350)
New Jersey Hitmen - Capital One Bank Ice Vault (1,500)
Philadelphia Flyers - Flyers Skate Zone Voorhees (500)
Islanders Hockey Club - J. Thom Lawler Rink (2,500)
PAL Jr. Islanders - Nassau Coliseum (17,000)
Bay State Breakers - The Bog Ice Arena (350)
Portland Jr. Pirates - Androscoggin Bank Colisee (3,000)
Connecticut Yankees - Rink at Chelsea Piers (350)
Other Markets
Johnstown, PA - Cambria County War Memorial (4,000)
Danbury, CT - Danbury Ice Arena (2,500)
Trenton, NJ - Sun National Bank Center (8,000)
This is partially inaccurate. PAL does not play out of the Coliseum, Middlesex does not play out of Merrimack's stadium seating riink (from what I'm aware), they play out of some second ice surface. The 1,500 for the Hitmen is extremely high compared to Chelsea Piers, Foxboro and Voorhees. Do not think this will be a fan-driven league anytime soon.
Regarding expansion, while I think the best move for them is to stay put at a 9 team league for another year or two to keep the league from really getting watered down like the EJ it replaced was, I highly doubt it'll happen. I can see the Americans, Pics and Monarchs joining the party next year and making it a 12 team league.
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I wouldn't be surprised if the PAL Jr. Islanders decide to move to the Ferraro Bros Center on Long Island once that opens up. I think the bigger rink there is supposed to be able to seat a few hundred. Considering I saw a preseason OHL game in Mississauga at a 500 seat arena and it wasn't sold out I can't imagine much more than 3 would be needed for this.
I'm also curious about expansion in the next few years once the Kingsbridge Arena opens in the Bronx. I know for a fact they're looking at bringing a high-level junior team in, but I don't know if it would make sense for the USHL unless they go for that full-on expansion to the northeast people have been talking about forever. I feel like there will likely be a USPHL team playing there in a few years.
I'm curious about the Kingsbridge Arena too. I was thinking maybe the Yankees move into there if they're picked up by the rangers but I don;t know the politics behind it. Isn't the rink planned to be open in 2018 though?
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