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Utica Comets enter 10 year affiliation with the New Jersey Devils

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LuckyDay said:
I was talking about Stockton. You were talking about Palm Springs?
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Stockton is up to what the Flames do.... that's not known yet, as to whether the AHL will allow the Flames to keep the Heat in Calgary as the Stockton Heat, mind you.... but the expectation is the Heat will return to Stockton in 2022, just as Providence returns to RI after the season in Marlboro
 
Centrum Hockey said:
For Utica's sake let's hope Robert Esche can retain significant autonomy from the execs in Newark.
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totally agree...

this is what makes diehard fans of these teams walk away and never return, even if there's a new team or league in that market, that "business" end of this sport interferes way too much to actually enjoy the sport at its core base.

because that's always going to be in your mind.
 
210 said:
The pictures don't appear to show any luxury suites, and it doesn't appear like there's any space to add them.

And market viability is only important if the team involved cares about market viability. If the team doesn't care how much they'll lose playing there, then that throws everything else out the window.
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The trend in arenas for minor pro are downsizing, adding a bar upstairs so the younguns have a place to congregate (and, in this era, spread disease), and do a couple other things (one idea being the openable windows in Golden1 in Sacramento) that you do NOT expect in an arena... just doing something to be innovative and different.

Since the Aquillini history involves scads of wasted money, the thought of converting the upper deck into suites and a party deck on the owner’s dime seems a chance north of zero. In this case, with that old a building, probably 2%, but I put this out there just to discuss the possibilities. Probabilities are also important, hence a reason to probably think that reports out of Vancouver of basing in BC is the way to talk for now.

EDIT- So I just had this thought. Instead of my long-favored Abbotsford-Everett pairing, let’s say that Calgary does a whole 180 of what they’ve done to date and build an arena in Nanaimo while Vancouver goes to Abbotsford. There’s a travel pair, even if one involves a ferry ride. 5-6 years down the road, when OVG sees their concert business working in Palm Springs while their hockey team isn’t, and the Thunderbirds and Silvertips predictably take a hit, the Kraken have possibilities near home.
 
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CHRDANHUTCH said:
Stockton is up to what the Flames do.... that's not known yet, as to whether the AHL will allow the Flames to keep the Heat in Calgary as the Stockton Heat, mind you.... but the expectation is the Heat will return to Stockton in 2022, just as Providence returns to RI after the season in Marlboro
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I don't know. The city loses money on the Heat and we have a sensible new mayor for once. I think the only reason they'd want to keep the Heat around is we'd lose more money if there wasn't a signature hockey team for the arena.
 
LuckyDay said:
I don't know. The city loses money on the Heat and we have a sensible new mayor for once. I think the only reason they'd want to keep the Heat around is we'd lose more money if there wasn't a signature hockey team for the arena.
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Maybe Calgary chould be talked into letting someone local or from the echl thunder regime run the team.
 
The New Jersey Devils opted to station their AHL affiliate in Newark for the abbreviated 2021 season, in deference to COVID-19 concerns — a fact Binghamton Mayor Rich David directly relates to the B-Devils’ departure.

“It’s disappointing but not surprising,” David said. “A couple months ago when the team made the announcement that they wouldn’t be playing in Binghamton, I was very concerned. I made some statements at that time that once a team leaves, the likelihood of them returning drops significantly. The message that was given at the time by county officials was, don’t worry, they’ll be back, this is just temporary. I’ve seen this movie before.”

He added, “This is what I worried about, that either they would stay downstate or they would relocate somewhere else. Now my understanding is that they are going to Utica and that the Utica team is going out west. One of the primary reasons that Utica was so attractive was a series of high-profile investments made recently in their facility.”

Binghamton Devils will cease to exist effective the 2021-22 AHL season
 
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I agree completely with Binghamton's mayor. It was only a matter of time for the devils before they left town. I'm sort of surprised they didn't opt for Newark or Trenton and do what many teams have decided to do.

As for Vancouver, it was going to happen sooner than later. Again, like Bingo, it's how the league is moving. Despite Mitchell's contention about travel within the league, we've seen that not to be true. It now travel for players to the nhl club due to the salary cap and scouting. One teams found out they can be in their own back yard the floodgates just opened.
 
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wildcat48 said:
I agree completely with Binghamton's mayor. It was only a matter of time for the devils before they left town. I'm sort of surprised they didn't opt for Newark or Trenton and do what many teams have decided to do.

As for Vancouver, it was going to happen sooner than later. Again, like Bingo, it's how the league is moving. Despite Mitchell's contention about travel within the league, we've seen that not to be true. It now travel for players to the nhl club due to the salary cap and scouting. One teams found out they can be in their own back yard the floodgates just opened.
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Once the eastern NHL teams blocked a bid by the western teams to get a cap exemption for traveling players there was no way teams wouldn't have their AHL affiliates within easy reach. No matter what it costs for the AHL team to travel having those players close by results in savings against the salary cap, and for most teams that's all they care about.
 
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Canucks / Comets affiliation potentially coming to an end? Radio station in Vancouver mentioning Abbotsford, Salt Lake City, and Prescott Valley as leading options.

A thought: it might be prudent to consider the latter two as a temporary location and Abbotsford as the eventual location. Emphasis on “might.”

Furthermore, are they suggesting they’ll share with Utah Grizzlies, or will they try to share with the Utah Jazz? Or do they know something about the Grizzlies?
 
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PCSPounder said:
Canucks / Comets affiliation potentially coming to an end? Radio station in Vancouver mentioning Abbotsford, Salt Lake City, and Prescott Valley as leading options.

A thought: it might be prudent to consider the latter two as a temporary location and Abbotsford as the eventual location. Emphasis on “might.”

Furthermore, are they suggesting they’ll share with Utah Grizzlies, or will they try to share with the Utah Jazz? Or do they know something about the Grizzlies?
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Arizona Sundogs. Brings back memories.
 
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PCSPounder said:
Canucks / Comets affiliation potentially coming to an end? Radio station in Vancouver mentioning Abbotsford, Salt Lake City, and Prescott Valley as leading options.

A thought: it might be prudent to consider the latter two as a temporary location and Abbotsford as the eventual location. Emphasis on “might.”

Furthermore, are they suggesting they’ll share with Utah Grizzlies, or will they try to share with the Utah Jazz? Or do they know something about the Grizzlies?
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The affiliation won't be ending, they'll be moving the team. I know that many people, including reporters, don't know the difference, but there is certainly a difference.

And sharing an ECHL team is essentially meaningless because while an ECHL team can only be affiliated with one NHL organization any team can loan them players provided all parties agree. Many ECHL teams have players from multiple organizations.
 
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Esche and DuRoss are tremendous community guys. The Devils organization is terrible to work with though. The fans in Albany saw right through it and had enough. Its much better having a locally owned and operated ECHL team nearby then a AHL team ran poorly IMO. Utica is doing what they need to do to stay an AHL city and I dont fault them one bit.
 
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210 said:
The affiliation won't be ending, they'll be moving the team. I know that many people, including reporters, don't know the difference, but there is certainly a difference.

And sharing an ECHL team is essentially meaningless because while an ECHL team can only be affiliated with one NHL organization any team can loan them players provided all parties agree. Many ECHL teams have players from multiple organizations.
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When Adirondack had players from both Binghamton and Syracuse they had a pretty solid team. I think at one point they had more Bolts signed players then the 1 or 2 from NJ
 
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Ratitude said:
Esche and DuRoss are tremendous community guys. The Devils organization is terrible to work with though. The fans in Albany saw right through it and had enough. Its much better having a locally owned and operated ECHL team nearby then a AHL team ran poorly IMO. Utica is doing what they need to do to stay an AHL city and I dont fault them one bit.
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mostly correct, but Frank DuRoss shouldn't be trusted to run a franchise solely on his own, Ratitude, it was DuRoss WHO started that discussion AND/OR made the suggestion to go to Utica in the first iteration, but I wouldn't be shocked if DuRoss started the process of telling/advising Ed Anderson to leave for Providence in 1991 around the same time the Devils aligned with Robb in Albany.
 
PCSPounder said:
Canucks / Comets affiliation potentially coming to an end? Radio station in Vancouver mentioning Abbotsford, Salt Lake City, and Prescott Valley as leading options.

A thought: it might be prudent to consider the latter two as a temporary location and Abbotsford as the eventual location. Emphasis on “might.”

Furthermore, are they suggesting they’ll share with Utah Grizzlies, or will they try to share with the Utah Jazz? Or do they know something about the Grizzlies?
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It's what Montreal did when they left Hamilton. They went to St. John's for two years while they built the arena in Laval. So the move to St. John's was temporary from the start.
 
Adam Michaels said:
It's what Montreal did when they left Hamilton. They went to St. John's for two years while they built the arena in Laval. So the move to St. John's was temporary from the start.
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I’ll summarize some of the other machinations here.

If you see “Canucks moving the Utica franchise to Prescott Valley,” they might even include “eventually headed to Abbotsford” in the explanation.

If you see “Utica sold to Elmore Sports Group,” then they’re going to Utah and Amarillo gets an ECHL team.

There will be a test later.
 
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Adam Michaels said:
It's what Montreal did when they left Hamilton. They went to St. John's for two years while they built the arena in Laval. So the move to St. John's was temporary from the start.
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so originally was the move by TNSE, Adam, who moved the Manitoba Moose out of what is now Bell MTS Place when TNSE was awarded the rights of the Winnipeg Jets, then previously known as the Atlanta Thrashers.

it's why Ice Caps was selected in St. John's under Jets colors, because Moose, by definition, likely wouldn't fly in Newfoundland/Labrador...

then once the Jets were reestablished, the Moose returned to Winnipeg, and that's when Montreal stepped in turning that logo into rouge et blanc et bleue, (the french version of the Canadiens color schematic)....
 
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