Rumor: ECHL Hockey to Greensboro?

[HisIceness]

https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2024/10/07/professional-hockey-returns-greensboro-nc-echl-nhl.html

Paywall, but worth a mention here. Would have to think this is our future ECHL affiliate.

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[cptjeff]

As a native Greensboran, awesome! Will be interesting to see if they go with the Monarchs or Generals, or with something new entirely.

 

[HisIceness]

As a native Greensboran, awesome! Will be interesting to see if they go with the Monarchs or Generals, or with something new entirely.

Trying to think of something as cool as Orlando Solar Bears.

Greensboro Greenmen, nah. Greensboro Greensticks, yeah no.

Yeah, I think Monarchs or Generals it is.

 

[cptjeff]

Trying to think of something as cool as Orlando Solar Bears.

Greensboro Greenmen, nah. Greensboro Greensticks, yeah no.

Yeah, I think Monarchs or Generals it is.

The baseball team is the Grasshoppers, that's pretty whimsical, though they just got a major downgrade on the logos.

But really, when your city is named after General Greene, Generals is pretty obvious, and that's the name with by far the most heritage behind it. Create some new branding based around the statue in green, cream, and bronze, and call it a day.

 

[Svechhammer]

The Raleigh IceCaps of Greensboro

 

[Chrispy]

Trying to think of something as cool as Orlando Solar Bears.

Greensboro Greenmen, nah. Greensboro Greensticks, yeah no.

Yeah, I think Monarchs or Generals it is.

Really confuse the opposition.

The Greensboro Four.

 

[cptjeff]

Really confuse the opposition.

The Greensboro Four.

In a sport as white as hockey, nothing could *possibly* go wrong with that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Everyone talks about how the Whalers relocation took the NHL away from Hartford, but few remember that it also did multi-generational damage to hockey in Greensboro. And with Greensboro on the cusp of being a major league sized market, it’s worth considering the scope of what was lost.

I hope this goes well for them. 20 years later hopefully there are enough Monarchs/Generals fans still around to create a sense of continuity and culture. And enough young families in the area to pack the place with kids who can grow up on hockey even though their parents weren’t able to.

 

[HisIceness]

Everyone talks about how the Whalers relocation took the NHL away from Hartford, but few remember that it also did multi-generational damage to hockey in Greensboro. And with Greensboro on the cusp of being a major league sized market, it’s worth considering the scope of what was lost.

I hope this goes well for them. 20 years later hopefully there are enough Monarchs/Generals fans still around to create a sense of continuity and culture. And enough young families in the area to pack the place with kids who can grow up on hockey even though their parents weren’t able to.

See I'm going to disagree with the narrative that the Hurricanes killed Hockey in Greensboro. The Monarchs f***ed up "upgrading" to the AHL. The old "Goonsboro" team everyone else hated was gone. Someone out there is an article from the local paper from 1996 about how the fans were not responding well to the "new" Monarchs.

I don't know why the Generals failed but I'm guessing that ECHL Hockey in 1991 was different from 2001.

 

[WreckingCrew]

See I'm going to disagree with the narrative that the Hurricanes killed Hockey in Greensboro. The Monarchs f***ed up "upgrading" to the AHL. The old "Goonsboro" team everyone else hated was gone. Someone out there is an article from the local paper from 1996 about how the fans were not responding well to the "new" Monarchs.

I don't know why the Generals failed but I'm guessing that ECHL Hockey in 1991 was different from 2001.

Their first 3 seasons they were absolutely awful, then had a great season and good season, so not a lot of time to build interest there. And there was a lot of "resentment" around the Hurricanes taking hockey away from them. Plus that last year the WCHL merger did-in a lot of eastern teams due to the reduction in teams in the east and resulting increased travel costs (NC/SC/VA used to have like 8 teams combined). The ECHL had a few years it was on the brink of destruction because teams couldn't afford the increased costs of having fewer teams spread further apart, and it just got worse as more teams dropped out. Combine that with Greensboro kind of being left behind with the bursting growth of Charlotte & Raleigh and it just wasn't a good time there.

 

[Svechhammer]

I got it, lean into the early years of the Canes in the Coliseum

The Greensboro Whalercanes

 

[MinJaBen]

I got it, lean into the early years of the Canes in the Coliseum

The Greensboro Whalercanes

If we want to really lean in…

The Greensboro Cutains

 

[chaz4hockey]

ECHL had financial challenges with 2 teams LY. I wonder if this will be successful even though player expenses are pretty low.

 

[tarheelhockey]

See I'm going to disagree with the narrative that the Hurricanes killed Hockey in Greensboro. The Monarchs f***ed up "upgrading" to the AHL. The old "Goonsboro" team everyone else hated was gone. Someone out there is an article from the local paper from 1996 about how the fans were not responding well to the "new" Monarchs.

I don't know why the Generals failed but I'm guessing that ECHL Hockey in 1991 was different from 2001.

Well, let’s see. The fans had a solid 6-year run with a competitive team stocked with personalities in a fun league. This all leveraged 20 years of prior history with many of the older generation of fans now bringing their kids to the games, to see games against Charlotte and Winston Salem like they had in their own childhood.

Then they get the news that they’ll be moving up to a higher league, with a complete rebrand and a different style of hockey, with significantly higher prices. The selling point is: “You’ve proven yourself, you’re ready for a bigger stage, you need to be in a league that’s stable and secure for the long term. Besides, your rivals Charlotte and Hampton Roads are making the jump with you, so you won’t lose the passion of the games. Trust us, this is good for you.”

What they actually get in that transaction is 2 years of being the only team south of Baltimore, finishing dead last both years. And then they get the next brilliant sales pitch: lose their AHL team and spend 2 years with the Whalers while they get ready to relocate a second time. The pitch: “You’re ready for a bigger stage, this puts the spotlight on Greensboro as a future major league town! You’ll have access to the best talent in the world, and another team will come along quickly when the Canes are gone”.

Well, we know how that turned out. These poor people get mocked mercilessly by the national media, the team stinks, it’s an away team invasion every night, the players put only the thinnest veil over not wanting to be there. The whole thing is an embarrassment.

Then they go all the way back to square one, with a hastily thrown-together ECHL franchise, except this one has a completely different brand and the team stinks. It’s also now the beginning of the 00s and the pro hockey product is hot garbage, minor league teams are being folded left and right, and the world in general is about to enter a state of social and economic turmoil where live entertainment isn’t a good investment. That organization makes it as far as the Lost Season of 2005 and folds with one playoff season to its name.

Now go back to the first paragraph and where this story started. In the mid-90s, Greensboro was turning out twice as many fans for the Monarchs as they did for the Generals a decade later. Way before HF, I was on the old Usenet ECHL forums and the Monarchs had a solid, loyal fanbase. It was painful watching them go through the reluctant “upgrade” to the AHL which cost them a third of their fans, and then getting raked over the coals for shrugging their shoulders at the “privilege” of being a halfway-house for the Whalers. By the time the ECHL came back the scars ran too deep, a lot of the hard core fanbase had sworn off the whole experiment and moved on to other things. Those who remained were largely bitter, angry about how they had been treated, and rightfully distrustful of anyone coming to town with a pro hockey sales pitch.

There’s no reason Greensboro couldn’t have been another Charlotte or Norfolk or Columbia. It was actively burned down instead of cultivated as a solid minor league market. The biggest thing they’ve got going for them now is that maybe 20 years has been enough to erase (or at least soften) most of these memories.