Post by jhendrix70 on Apr 29, 2009 16:51:22 GMT -5
The AHL becomes a 30-team league next season after today's business concluded at the spring meetings in Chicago.
The headline act was the approval of at least three-quarters of the clubs to allow the Calgary Flames to move their affiliate from Moline, Ill., to Abbottsford, B.C., to play in the new 7,000-seat Abbottsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.
The AHL is also welcoming the Texas Stars as a new team in Austin, Texas, to be the affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars. It also approved the location transfer of the Philadelphia Phantoms to Glens Falls, N.Y. for next season.
Abbottsford will be a long way outside the league geography ' just 60 kilometres from Vancouver ' but the premise for its application to join the AHL will be the payment of a full travel subsidy to all teams that visit.
That will include the Manitoba Moose.
While the proposal was being debated before today's meeting, the Free Press estimated that cost to be at least $500,000 per season.
Moose governor Mark Chipman spoke in favour of the Abbottsford proposal to the Free Press today, before he left Chicago.
"They've done their homework and it's a good group with a good plan," Chipman said of the new B.C.-based group that will run
Calgary's affiliate team. "They've been at this for a couple of years and there was near unanimous support for it."
The AHL will announce soon a divisional realignment but Chipman said today that Abbottsford will play in the North Division with the Moose.
Calgary's AHL team has now been in four different cities in seven years.
The new Austin team, under the ownership of Hicks Cedar Park LLC, has been granted a 'limited' membership to the AHL, one that's conditional on it buying an existing AHL franchise within one year.
Currently, there are 29 operating teams plus Edmonton's dormant franchise. The Oilers have an operating agreement with Springfield.
Philadelphia's team has been sold to the Pittsburgh-based Brooks Group, which is eyeing the construction of a new facility in Allentown, Pa..
But in the meantime, the club needs a home and Glens Falls, which was home to four Calder Cup-winning teams in the 1980s and 1990s, will be the place.
www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/AHL-to-become-30-team-league-43900792.html
The headline act was the approval of at least three-quarters of the clubs to allow the Calgary Flames to move their affiliate from Moline, Ill., to Abbottsford, B.C., to play in the new 7,000-seat Abbottsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.
The AHL is also welcoming the Texas Stars as a new team in Austin, Texas, to be the affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars. It also approved the location transfer of the Philadelphia Phantoms to Glens Falls, N.Y. for next season.
Abbottsford will be a long way outside the league geography ' just 60 kilometres from Vancouver ' but the premise for its application to join the AHL will be the payment of a full travel subsidy to all teams that visit.
That will include the Manitoba Moose.
While the proposal was being debated before today's meeting, the Free Press estimated that cost to be at least $500,000 per season.
Moose governor Mark Chipman spoke in favour of the Abbottsford proposal to the Free Press today, before he left Chicago.
"They've done their homework and it's a good group with a good plan," Chipman said of the new B.C.-based group that will run
Calgary's affiliate team. "They've been at this for a couple of years and there was near unanimous support for it."
The AHL will announce soon a divisional realignment but Chipman said today that Abbottsford will play in the North Division with the Moose.
Calgary's AHL team has now been in four different cities in seven years.
The new Austin team, under the ownership of Hicks Cedar Park LLC, has been granted a 'limited' membership to the AHL, one that's conditional on it buying an existing AHL franchise within one year.
Currently, there are 29 operating teams plus Edmonton's dormant franchise. The Oilers have an operating agreement with Springfield.
Philadelphia's team has been sold to the Pittsburgh-based Brooks Group, which is eyeing the construction of a new facility in Allentown, Pa..
But in the meantime, the club needs a home and Glens Falls, which was home to four Calder Cup-winning teams in the 1980s and 1990s, will be the place.
www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/AHL-to-become-30-team-league-43900792.html