Toggle sidebar

New Western Pro Hockey League trying to launch

  • Work is still on-going to rebuild the site styling and features. Please report any issues you may experience so we can look into it. Click Here for Updates
JMCx4 said:
The "Help Find the Rink" contest will start right after the "Help Name the Team" contest wraps up.
Click to expand...

Come on, you know that you don't actually need a rink. You just need a team! Then people will fall all over themselves to come out and a rink will happen, because Class-A HOCKEY!!!!!
 
CrazyEddie20 said:
Come on, you know that you don't actually need a rink. You just need a team! Then people will fall all over themselves to come out and a rink will happen, because Class-A HOCKEY!!!!!
Click to expand...
Send a franchise to St. Charles, MO. Guaranteed sellouts at the Family Arena, because the St. Louis area supports ALL levels of HOCKEY!!!!!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: GindyDraws, Roadhog and Clinton Comets EHL
Hi, everyone! A little new here…anyway I thought I’d share this tidbit of info in reference to the new league. I already know some of this regional footprint news has been stated in the forum already, but I was mainly leaning towards the information regarding Las Vegas franchise, the Millionaires. The question is why is the team listed on the so-called website the league has if on this article says one of league’s founders state that the Millionaires aren’t playing until 2023-24 and NOT 2022-23, the inaugural season.

Says this is on, “Santelli said teams will also be located in Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico and potentially Kansas. A Las Vegas franchise could join the league for the 2023-24 season, Santelli said.”
The Icemen Cometh: New Billings pro hockey team announced; will begin play in 2022 | Hockey | 406mtsports.com

Also, Billings isn’t a bad start for the league, BUT both the team and the league need to figure out the arena situation for this team and for any future club in this proposed season. What other markets you guys think will this league expand to?
 
CrazyEddie20 said:
Billings to Las Vegas is a 14-hour bus drive, per Google Maps. So you'd need a bus and two drivers to cover that distance legally. Or you could fly!
Click to expand...

This being Single-A hockey, you missed the obvious answer: a bus which no DOT in the country would certify as roadworthy with one driver and hope they don't get caught.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sabremike
HockeyTiger21 said:
... Says this is on, “Santelli said teams will also be located in Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico and potentially Kansas. ... What other markets you guys think will this league expand to?
Click to expand...
Welcome to HFBoards. Take us with a grain of salt ... or maybe an antacid tablet ...

On the possibility of a Kansas-based New WPHL franchise, there are very few ice rinks in the state to choose from & not many medium sized towns to consider for a new facility which would have sufficient surrounding population to make a hockey market. The only semi-credible options that leaped to my mind are: (1) the Landon Arena of the Stormont Vail Events Center (formerly Kansas Expocentre) in Topeka, which seems too large for WPHL purposes/budgets/dreams but Shawnee County may be just that desperate for a hockey tenant; and (2) the smaller KC Ice Center in the city of Shawnee, the rink where Lamar Hunt, Jr. was going to temporarily ice his NAHL franchise before he decided to sell it to the Amarillo, TX group instead (though I would think Lamar would stand in the way of any pro-like hockey league encroaching on his ECHL territory). :dunno:
 
HockeyTiger21 said:
Hi, everyone! A little new here…anyway I thought I’d share this tidbit of info in reference to the new league. I already know some of this regional footprint news has been stated in the forum already, but I was mainly leaning towards the information regarding Las Vegas franchise, the Millionaires. The question is why is the team listed on the so-called website the league has if on this article says one of league’s founders state that the Millionaires aren’t playing until 2023-24 and NOT 2022-23, the inaugural season.

Says this is on, “Santelli said teams will also be located in Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico and potentially Kansas. A Las Vegas franchise could join the league for the 2023-24 season, Santelli said.”
The Icemen Cometh: New Billings pro hockey team announced; will begin play in 2022 | Hockey | 406mtsports.com

Also, Billings isn’t a bad start for the league, BUT both the team and the league need to figure out the arena situation for this team and for any future club in this proposed season. What other markets you guys think will this league expand to?
Click to expand...

Billings isn't a bad start for the league? Billings couldn't support their NA3HL team...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roadhog
Barclay Donaldson said:
Billings isn't a bad start for the league? Billings couldn't support their NA3HL team...
Click to expand...

Based on some personal experience with seeing how independent pro baseball and (higher quality) summer college ball fared in the same market, I think the fact that the league is professional (players are paid) might actually draw some more interest, especially when the hockey may actually be better than Tier III pay-to-play juniors.
 
Atlantian said:
If you read this press release, it says they are not even sure where the team will play. Coming out strong
Click to expand...
An expansion on the Billings home ice topic from the 406 MT Sports Montana media collective ...
... The first question that’s in the process of being answered is where the team will play.

(Pick Six Entertainment, LLC proprietor Keith) Russ said its home rink will likely be Centennial Ice Arena, at least to start. Russ said Pick Six has been in conversations with First Interstate Arena at MetraPark, but the 46-year-old facility has not been equipped to make or maintain ice for several years.

A third option, noted Mayor Bill Cole, is an indoor recreation complex that has been proposed for an area near the Amend Park soccer complex, but plans for that facility are only preliminary at this point. The price tag for such a development, Cole said, could range from $35 million to $105 million.

“The Metra is the ideal place,” Russ said. “Centennial, we’ve met with them and had some real good conversations. But our choice would be the Metra if possible. We’ve got a year to figure it out. We’ll definitely be happy to play at Centennial if they allow us to. But the Metra is a bigger venue that would work better.” ...
Click to expand...
 
JMCx4 said:
Welcome to HFBoards. Take us with a grain of salt ... or maybe an antacid tablet ...

On the possibility of a Kansas-based New WPHL franchise, there are very few ice rinks in the state to choose from & not many medium sized towns to consider for a new facility which would have sufficient surrounding population to make a hockey market. The only semi-credible options that leaped to my mind are: (1) the Landon Arena of the Stormont Vail Events Center (formerly Kansas Expocentre) in Topeka, which seems too large for WPHL purposes/budgets/dreams but Shawnee County may be just that desperate for a hockey tenant; and (2) the smaller KC Ice Center in the city of Shawnee, the rink where Lamar Hunt, Jr. was going to temporarily ice his NAHL franchise before he decided to sell it to the Amarillo, TX group instead (though I would think Lamar would stand in the way of any pro-like hockey league encroaching on his ECHL territory). :dunno:
Click to expand...

There's also United Wireless Center in Dodge City which does seem to still have an ice plant installed. The NAHL kicked the tires on the joint with some neutral site games shortly after it opened about a decade ago.

And there's just something fitting for a DOA team to end up next to those Boot Hill tombstones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roadhog and JMCx4
Captain Crash said:
There's also United Wireless Center in Dodge City which does seem to still have an ice plant installed. The NAHL kicked the tires on the joint with some neutral site games shortly after it opened about a decade ago.
Click to expand...
Thanks for chiming in, I was hoping someone could find a possible Kansas option further west.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Captain Crash
Barclay Donaldson said:
Billings isn't a bad start for the league? Billings couldn't support their NA3HL team...
Click to expand...

Don't you understand that the underlying unmet demand for a professional hockey league in fourth-rate cities spread over thousands of miles featuring players who were stars on ACHA D2 club programs that drew dozens of fans will solve all the problems with the business model?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Roadhog, Clinton Comets EHL and Barclay Donaldson
If I lost a drunken bet and had to put myself out there to form a professional hockey league from absolutely nothing out "west", I'd also start with a vaporware team in Las Vegas.

The reason: that's the cheapest travel hub. As it turns out, Allegiant has become big enough business with cheap flights from all these 4th and 5th-tier cities that they're sponsoring the big Vegas stadium.

Now the league won't last without that hub, but if I got 6 owners in on this, that's their problem.
 
jabberoski said:
I am pretty sure that JMC's post was sarcastic based on the tenor of this thread and the new league.
Click to expand...
What he said. ^^^ I was a first-party witness to the Chill debacle. Just one example of the narrow-mindedness of "hockey fans" in my home region ... and one of countless examples of piss-poor minor pro hockey business practices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roadhog
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom