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FPHL, SPHL Expansions

JMCx4

JMCx4

#HopeForHUTCH
Sep 3, 2017
15,178
10,085
St. Louis, MO
extra skater said:
What are the odds of turning into a touring team like Bluefins before folding?
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New York Bluefins, Delaware Federals, whichever team name has a sufficient number of mothballed jerseys left in Don Kirnan's basement. It will always be an option with the F'League to keep themselves limping to the conclusion of a current season. My disgust & admiration for their history of survival dithers about the 50/50 mark every year, which is a far more hopeful balance than the Rumble Bees ever had.
 
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sabremike

sabremike

#1 Tageaholic
Aug 30, 2010
24,318
37,503
Brewster, NY
210 said:
MLS is one of the top 15 sports leagues in the world in terms of revenue, so, maybe not?
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MLS routinely claims 20k are in attendance in stadiums I am inside and can clearly see the real attendance is less than half of that. They are about as trustworthy as anyone in the FPHL.
 

battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
153
82
mk80 said:
If you're thinking about the Family Arena, no chance!

They told the group I was working with earlier this summer, they have no desire to have ice hockey in the building as a full time tenant.

That being said, SPHL and FPHL wouldn't go over well anyway in this area. The Chill were a disaster and are a low bar for hockey in this area. For example I never heard back them about doing an internship and working for free! Part of why they failed however is people were willing to pay $25 for nosebleed Blues tickets, than $25 for glass seats at Chill games.
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I wonder how they will feel now that the Centene Ice Center is stealing their summer concerts though?
 
mk80

mk80

Registered User
Jul 30, 2012
8,228
8,833
battra said:
I wonder how they will feel now that the Centene Ice Center is stealing their summer concerts though?
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When it comes to hosting a hockey tenant, they are 100% against ice. The Family Arena says it's too expensive on their end to maintain ice full time, they wouldn't even give a quote as an answer to "how much would we need pay in rent to make it worthwhile for you?"

No matter what events they lose to the St. Louis music park they are not hosting a full time hockey tenant anytime unless management changes. They are only willing to have ice for short term events, such as when LU hosted the Women's Frozen Four a few years ago, or for that motorcycles on ice thing they host every year.
 

battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
153
82
mk80 said:
When it comes to hosting a hockey tenant, they are 100% against ice. The Family Arena says it's too expensive on their end to maintain ice full time, they wouldn't even give a quote as an answer to "how much would we need pay in rent to make it worthwhile for you?"

No matter what events they lose to the St. Louis music park they are not hosting a full time hockey tenant anytime unless management changes. They are only willing to have ice for short term events, such as when LU hosted the Women's Frozen Four a few years ago, or for that motorcycles on ice thing they host every year.
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OH, I get it.

It's just sad having a quality minor league arena there sitting basically fallow.

That place has become such a white elephant for so many reasons...not the least of which where the damned thing is located. I've always felt that had there been a Metrolink stop there, it would've added another 500 fans per game.
 
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Barclay Donaldson

Barclay Donaldson

Registered User
Feb 4, 2018
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Tatooine
battra said:
OH, I get it.

It's just sad having a quality minor league arena there sitting basically fallow.

That place has become such a white elephant for so many reasons...not the least of which where the damned thing is located. I've always felt that had there been a Metrolink stop there, it would've added another 500 fans per game.
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Not very sad actually. Look up the history of the CHL and compare the decisions between hosting hockey and not hosting hockey. Ice is expensive to maintain and the opportunity cost is huge if the tenant isn't doing well on and off the ice.
 
JMCx4

JMCx4

#HopeForHUTCH
Sep 3, 2017
15,178
10,085
St. Louis, MO
battra said:
... That place has become such a white elephant for so many reasons...not the least of which where the damned thing is located. I've always felt that had there been a Metrolink stop there, it would've added another 500 fans per game.
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"If a frog had wings" ... it would've been appointed to the St. Charles committee who decided building The Fam' in a hidden spot in the river bottoms would be the perfect location.
 
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tarheelhockey

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
86,707
144,273
Bojangles Parking Lot
JMCx4 said:
"If a frog had wings" ... it would've been appointed to the St. Charles committee who decided building The Fam' in a hidden spot in the river bottoms would be the perfect location.
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I'm trying to wrap my head around that arena location. Is the idea for it to be part of a future riverfront development? Otherwise it looks like they closed their eyes and threw a dart at the map...

edit: I guess it has good access to highways for traffic purposes?
 
JMCx4

JMCx4

#HopeForHUTCH
Sep 3, 2017
15,178
10,085
St. Louis, MO
tarheelhockey said:
I'm trying to wrap my head around that arena location. Is the idea for it to be part of a future riverfront development? Otherwise it looks like they closed their eyes and threw a dart at the map...

edit: I guess it has good access to highways for traffic purposes?
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Cheap land. As for "good access to highways" - you can drop the "good" part, though that aspect has improved slightly since the Hwy 364 expressway to the south of the arena was built. But by then, it was too late to rescue battra's favorite white elephant from its inevitable graveyard.
 
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tarheelhockey

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
86,707
144,273
Bojangles Parking Lot
JMCx4 said:
Cheap land. As for "good access to highways" - you can drop the "good" part, though that aspect has improved slightly since the Hwy 364 expressway to the south of the arena was built. But by then, it was too late to rescue battra's favorite white elephant from its inevitable graveyard.
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Ah. Well, based on the map of the area, at least the "cheap land" part makes a lot of sense.
 

battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
153
82
tarheelhockey said:
Ah. Well, based on the map of the area, at least the "cheap land" part makes a lot of sense.
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It's literally in the middle of fuggin nowheresville man.

From where I live, I can drive 30 miles west, get off after crossing the river, drive about 3 miles, then drive another 3-4 miles down another road past houses, and boom.

There's this arena.

I also can't give you a better location in that particular city though. St. Louis/St. Charles are very disconnected from each other and neither city will claim the other as even being part of the same area.

But in order for anything to survive there, they need to pull in St. Louisans. There was a Missouri River Otters ad campaign, "it's closer than you think."

They should've put the team farther west maybe, the Cave Springs area and such, but that wouldn't work, because it was another 10 miles down the road.

We have a very small train system here in STL and the train goes to the big rink, the baseball stadium, and the football stadium. Every night they have an event at those places? The trains are packed like sardines.

St. Charles however has always felt that if the trains went to their fair burg, it would bring crime, so they insisted on keeping it out.

Had they built the expansion they wanted to in the 90's...we'd have hockey out there I believe.
 
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JMCx4

JMCx4

#HopeForHUTCH
Sep 3, 2017
15,178
10,085
St. Louis, MO
A very clever business decision by Mr. Stio and his staff (???). The team name will allow an easy transition from the FPHL to the Detroit Roller Derby league ...

From: SportsLogos.net > Hockey > News
FPHL’s New Motor City Rockers Announce Name, Logos, Colours
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Marc Viquez

Rockers-2.png
The Federal Prospects Hockey League’s newest club announced that they will be known as the Motor City Rockers at a press conference today, they also unveiled their logo and colours.

The Fraser, Michigan-based club will use purple, black, white, and gray as their colour scheme and feature a primary logo of, what team president Adam Stio described as, “a cool combination of a hockey guy and a really cool guitar player.” ...

The main logo features a guitar player with long hair with purple accents wearing hockey gloves. Cleverly, the guitar itself has a hockey stick at its end. He appears to be wearing a headband with the map of Michigan in the center. ...

Read & See more at: FPHL’s New Motor City Rockers Announce Name, Logos, Colours – SportsLogos.Net News
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battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
153
82
CrazyEddie20 said:
Counter argument: if it were really a quality minor league arena, it wouldn't be sitting fallow.

In re: Stio and his "staff," maybe his club can win two games this year.
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I can completely understand that line of thinking.

The issue isn't the arena, that causes it to sit fallow, but it's location.
 
Barclay Donaldson

Barclay Donaldson

Registered User
Feb 4, 2018
2,574
2,108
Tatooine
battra said:
I can completely understand that line of thinking.

The issue isn't the arena, that causes it to sit fallow, but it's location.
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Considering almost all of what makes an arena feasible is location, saying <<it's a great arena, it's just not in the right place>> is like saying <<it's a great car, but it doesn't have wheels, or a frame, steering wheel, or windows>>.
 
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battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
153
82
Barclay Donaldson said:
Considering almost all of what makes an arena feasible is location, saying <<it's a great arena, it's just not in the right place>> is like saying <<it's a great car, but it doesn't have wheels, or a frame, steering wheel, or windows>>.
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See, now we're talking about different things.

Feasibility isn't what I'm talking about.

Based on the 12 or so minor league rinks I've been inside of myself, the rink is a high quality rink, or at least was 10 years ago.

I'm talking about the building. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
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