CANTLON’S CORNER: AHL CHANGES FOR NEXT SEASON UNDERWAY 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – In what was thought to be a quiet year for the AHL with just an expansion team in Palm Springs being announced as the 32nd franchise, the only other piece of business besides the naming of the successor to Dave Andrews as AHL President and CEO.

Well, not so fast. It appears as if the pot is just starting to boil.

The biggest surprise that came out of the AHL All-Star Classic in Ontario was Andrews breaking the news that the Vegas Golden Knights bought an existing AHL franchise and would relocate them to Vegas.

In short order, that was done.

The Golden Knights purchased the San Antonio Rampage and announced they will relocate them to Henderson, Nevada. They will play their games in the projected 6,000 seat Lifeguard Arena that is presently under construction. Lifeguard Arena was the site of the old Henderson Convention Center.

The team might be called the Silver Knights and will play one or possibly two seasons in the Orleans Arena until Lifeguard’s build is completed. The Orleans Arena was last home to a minor league pro hockey team when the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers were in business from 2003-2014.

Let’s just hope the name becomes the Las Vegas Silver Knights and not the Henderson Silver Knights as has been intimated in other media outlets.

The final AHL BOG (Board of Governors) approval is the only thing still pending. They require a review of the affiliation arrangement, review of all the building operations to ensure they meet the AHL and AHLPLA requirements, and of course, the lease arrangement for both arenas before the union is given its official blessings.

Unofficially, however, the deal is done.

On the surface, since 2003 when the San Antonio Spurs, the owner of the AHL Rampage, welcomed the team into their building, they seemed to enjoy having an AHL team around, but in the economics of a building, there are bigger revenue generators.

“Remember it’s San Antonio. It is an NBA building. That’s a lot of seats to fill or have empty for AHL hockey, and you don’t get the prime dates, the Spurs do. The likelihood is they lost three or four big concerts a year because of (the Rampage) being there. If you get an Elton John, Tim McGraw, or a Shakira, you’ll have the place filled. The cost of changeover of the surface to ice or a basketball court is reduced or gone. Then that revenue from three-or-four big concerts fills your account for the year and you can justify selling your minor league hockey team, which might be costing you money,” remarked a hockey insider and long time source.

This move with the San Antonio purchase means that Vegas is leaving the Chicago Wolves, so that means the St. Louis Blues, who were in San Antonio, have to find a new home. Another trusted hockey source put it succinctly, “No way is St. Louis heading back to Chicago, that’s a guarantee.”

It’s Chicago’s fourth affiliation in the last eight years, so there obviously would appear to be some sort of an issue going on.

The same source said the relationship was a bit strained to put it mildly.

“Vegas felt the Wolves owner (Donald Levin) was too involved and wanted too much control. That’s why they cut it (affiliation) short.”

In fact, Chicago always refers to its arrangement as a partnership. It never uses the word affiliation.

So Vegas chose the route of buying their own team and controlling all aspects of it and found a willing seller.

With Vegas leaving Chicago, the question then becomes, who goes to The Windy City?

It’s complicated.

Cantlon’s Corner can exclusively report, the Carolina Hurricanes are in the process of working on an agreement to take their AHL team presently situated in Charlotte at the Bojangles Arena and relocating them to Chicago according to our first source and confirmed by a third.

It flies in the face of the current direction in the AHL of keeping the NHL team’s AHL franchise and prospects closer to the home NHL arena, thus saving on recall costs and the ability to monitor their development.

“This is simple economics. The new Carolina owner (Tom Dundon) views his AHL team as an asset he spends too much money on. He wants to take care of their 8-10 prospects and let Chicago take care of the rest of the players. They (the Wolves) want to put on a highly entertaining and competitive product, like when they first came into the AHL. The old IHL is gone.

“Everybody wins here. The AHL keeps the Chicago market. Carolina meets its requirement to have a farm team, plus lower its minor league costs, and the Wolves get more control than they had with Vegas or with St. Louis on players. The league model has become more developmental in nature. That’s tough for independent owners.”

There is another relationship between Carolina and Chicago in ex-New Haven Nighthawk, and current Hurricanes GM, Don Waddell.

Waddell was the GM of the ill-fated NHL Atlanta Thrashers who relocated to Winnipeg, and whose AHL affiliate was the Chicago Wolves. Waddell is no stranger to the Wolves operation.

The AHL has taken one page from minor league baseball, which operates very cost differently because of MLB’s anti-trust exception.

Usually, a minor league baseball owner buys their team and then seeks to get an affiliation with whoever is available. That is becoming a small portion of the AHL model, which still tries to marry the parent and farm teams geographically because of the aforementioned CBA agreement.

However, the AHL is now coast-to-coast and has a national presence, especially in seeking sponsorships and advertising, so keeping solid big markets increase franchise value and the league strives for some level of continuity market-to-market.

Minor league baseball is about to embark on what minor league hockey did in the last 20 years, and that’s to restructure and downsize its minor league operations base on geography.

The irony was former Hurricanes owner, Peter Karmanos, who’s now the Hurricanes minority owner, held the same view of his AHL operations as Dundon does, and was forced into getting their own team in Charlotte.

Charlotte will not be leaving the AHL however and will be gaining a new partner to dance with.

That leaves St. Louis as the likely new affiliate, but with the Chicago Blackhawks deal in Rockford expiring at the end of the season, all of this is still fluid.

There are yet unsubstantiated rumors of Indianapolis (ECHL) being upgraded to an AHL team, but that idea has been around for over a year. Finally, Florida and Springfield are working on a new deal our source says. It’s not set in stone who will be in Charlotte.

“There are a lot of moving pieces and they will have AHL hockey in Charlotte. A lot of work is being done right now to have everything in place for next year.”

The move to Vegas now leaves just Vancouver as the only NHL West Coast team with its farm team out East, which is presently based in Utica.