Who gets the last gasp?

Will bitter hockey feud ruin A-level hockey in the southeast?

Guest essay to oursportscentral.com

Dennis Justice, wncsport.com- Voice of the FANS

            For quite some time, fans from the South East Hockey League (SEHL, formerly the ACHL) have called for it.  Fans from the now Southern Hockey League (SHL, formerly the EHL and WHA2) have called for it.  Sports talk jocks have called for it.  Columnists like me have called for it.  Most maps I’ve seen call for it.  And arena managers have called for it.   That is for these two juvenile hockey leagues to merge.  And not under a system designed by the “winner”, but a system that actually makes sense for our area, based on the real limitations of our arenas.  I’m almost ready to nominate Rodney King for Commissioner.  And it wouldn’t be the most nonsensical thing to happen in this ongoing hockey war.

            (First a word of warning:  A lot of this will easily be related to by hockey fans “in the know.”  Some of it might not resonate as well to the casual reader.  But it is important to chronicle such things to illustrate my points.  I run a website called wncsport.com as a webring for regional sports and for intelligent information about sports.  If you’re depth of thought is “I don’t care, I just want hockey,” please stop reading now.  This is after all, a guest column on OSC and is expected to be longer.  I have a lot more flexibility here.)

            The casual sports fan might not follow the intricate battles for cities in the southeast, and frankly, that’s what these two egotistical league founders, David Waronker (SHL) and John Cherney (SEHL), don’t get.  The average fan doesn’t CARE which league “wins.” Whether some fans want to accept it or not, just because they love hockey doesn’t mean the fickle fans will support a team for long.   The more fickle sports fan will not follow whatever team in whatever league in whatever arena in whatever condition.  The hard reality is those fickle fans control the future of minor league sports leagues, and they either don’t want to hear about a feud, or frankly don’t care about hockey much anymore.  Especially in tougher times economically like now.  What do you expect them to think following the antics of these two leagues undercutting each other the past year and a half?  They didn’t join a cult, you know.

            As of today, June 3, there are about 4 ½ months until hockey season.  Right now, neither league is in a position of real strength for 2004-05.  It’s questionable whether a merged league can overcome all of the turned off fans, but certainly neither league can do so on its own.  If these two leagues are more concerned with who “wins” this war, they may lose hockey at this level in the southeast for a very long time, maybe forever.

            Common sense points out that a merged league could have 5 teams right off Interstate 40 (Knoxville, Tennessee; Asheville; Winston-Salem; a potential new team in Greensboro since the ECHL left; Fayetteville, N.C.).  A merged league can negotiate better contracts with arenas.  Take the example in my backyard, Asheville, North Carolina.  The episode and actions of both leagues here have so turned me off so much I will NEVER watch another hockey game in that arena again.  (And I won’t change my mind.)   

            These two leagues were going at each other since last year, when they were the ACHL and WHA2.  Because mainly they started too late for this past season, the City wisely shut down the process in July 2003, and started one for 2004-05.

            Because local governments know that these two warring factions were tearing out each other, they could negotiate a better contract for them as possible.  Such as the case with Asheville.  While it is absolutely certain in my mind that the SEHL could have had the rights to Asheville had they took it seriously and not treated Asheville as their birthright, nonetheless the WHA2 to their credit took decisive action to win over the minds of the Civic Center Commissioners who actually would make the recommendation to City Council.  In those meetings, where if one person shows up from the public it’s a shock, five people showing up unannounced could make a huge impact.  That is what happened here in Asheville.  The SEHL, with teams in Knoxville and Fayetteville, really should have won Asheville easily, and they blew it from the beginning.

            However, because both leagues were fighting for Asheville, the City negotiated a contract designed to “protect taxpayers.”  It was CYA on their part:  Cover Your Aspirations.  The contract had more to do with photo ops. and saying they brought hockey back than doing anything serious about the main reason the Asheville Smoke failed in the first place, which is the decaying condition of the Asheville Civic Center.

            For example, the “winning” WHA2 got a sliding rent scale with incredibly difficult ranges.  For example, if it snowed and less than 750 showed up and paid, the team would have to pay a rent of $9,750 for that game alone!  Compare to the flat rate of the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), which is just above $5,000 a game.   They got no upgrades whatsoever, no concession revenue, in fact, they have to ask the City for permission to bring in any upgrade, in which case would become property of the City.  It was a sucker’s deal.

            I argued against both teams coming here, since if a hockey team failed again in that decaying arena, it won’t be allowed back, and Asheville would be better off without hockey until the arena’s addressed first.   No amount of treatment the Asheville Smoke endured from the City got them any closer to getting the arena addressed to a reasonable standard.  Forget the opening night crowd.  Regardless of what happens between these two leagues, there is no way this team has a chance in this arena.  Simple elapse of time will prove that out.  It’s the law of diminishing returns:  Missing hockey is NOT a plan.

            However, when I hear murmurs that the SEHL is “really glad” they didn’t get Asheville, the reality is had they found a way to merge with the WHA2, they would have been in Asheville last season with a far more reasonable deal.  Also, their own people told the Civic Center Commissioners directly that they agreed with the conditions from the City.  (I know, I was there, I heard it with my own ears.)  And anyone with any sense knows what would have happened had the SEHL “won” Asheville, or at least prevented the WHA2 from “winning” Asheville:  The positions of these two leagues would have reversed overnight.  Perhaps the WHA2 would never have taken the ice last season.

            What I have observed is that the then WHA2 is vastly better at obtaining expansions, but the SEHL is slightly better (though not always) in actual league management.  Seems to me to pool the people from these two leagues make long term sense. 

            One of the main, forgotten jobs of a league is infrastructure development.  You can’t just lay down a sheet, say “hey, it’s hockey,” and expect success.  Here in Asheville, any hockey team would play in an arena that frankly borders on disgraceful, with no practice ice anywhere in the region, competing with the highly financed and secure NBDL.  What a hockey league should be doing is focusing on such things as getting local investors to build practice rinks (preferably in urban communities, since minority hockey player recruitment has been nothing but talk from the hockey elite for some time), and to lobby for reasonable sport competition facilities.  Kind of hard to do that when leagues are causing or squashing the rumor of the day, or otherwise trying to kill each other in the summertime.

            It is my own personal view that regardless of press releases, SEHL Founder John Cherney is a huge roadblock to a merger.  There can be no real doubt about it.  For the life of me, I don’t understand why he would claim late in the season that his team in Huntsville would not play at the Von Braun Center next year, and yet threaten to sue when the now SHL obtained the rights for it. 

            Not that the now SHL is faultless at all.  Back when they were the WHA2, they told Asheville they would put in $100,000 in upgrades (the proverbial “drop in the bucket”) for the Civic Center.  Kind of hard to believe now since after that promise, the Miami franchise folded in mid-season, they have debt issues in several cities, they switched from a league that was supposed to be a far higher feeder league to “major league hockey” (WHA), down to a league similar to the SEHL.  (It is also worth pointing out that the WHA2 expressly promised the City that certain parties would not be involved in any way with the Asheville team, and they have completely violated that promise.)  And that the Asheville team has been in three different leagues in a month.

            Desperate teams and desperate leagues will do desperate things.  It does raise the fair question as to whether or not the City of Asheville would have chosen this league over the SEHL, or hockey at all, had they had any idea this was going to happen.  Believe it or not, these arena managers only care about hockey because certain powerbrokers in these cities make them care.  But who needs these continual soap operas?  Disenchant those powerbrokers, and say “Goodbye” to hockey.

            David Waronker did form the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) supposedly as a way to get the two leagues to merge.  He did offer not the run the league and to only own one team.  However, it seems to me that it was more interpreted as they really changed the name because of pressure from the WHA, who either divorced themselves of, or were divorced from, the WHA2, depending on who you wish to believe.   Still, the EHL’s decision to change names twice in a month, to the new SHL, was incredibly foolhardy.  Claiming they didn’t want to cause confusion with the ECHL (translation:  they didn’t want to be sued), they are now giving a name which creates confusion with the same level SEHL.  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there is a lawsuit now.  Even if wronged, the SEHL would show incredibly tacky judgment to even consider it.

            It seems to me that you get an agreement for a merged league, AND THEN you choose a new name together.  (I suggested “Patriot Hockey League” in my guest column in the Asheville Citizen-Times on May 1, just as an example.  There are others that could work.)  Now the actions of the now SHL bring serious questions as to the validity of the Asheville contract.  After all, Commissioners at the last meeting pointed out that they negotiated with the WHA2, not the EHL.  (They said this a few days before the EHL changed to SHL.  And the team officials failed to show at that meeting.)   It certainly doesn’t get them on the EHL’s side.  It’s not an accommodating contract to begin with.

            These are but a few examples of the mixed up situation hockey fans in this area are in.  I don’t equate who is “more guilty” of bad judgment or character.  I’m not exactly angling to make friends from this bunch.  Both leagues have been poor in judgment of action and character in their efforts to beat each other.

            As an interested columnist, I know I’m not the only person by far who had advocated merger.  But I think some sound ideas should be considered. 

            So I’m appealing to the teams directly:  ABANDON CHERNEY AND WARONKER.  Their feud is so great it will not work with one or both of them in the mix.  Break the chains and form a new league yourselves.

            Consider strongly these ideas:

• A new name.  That both leagues agree to.

• A 50 game schedule. 

• A Commissioner who is a total outsider to this, even if a figurehead.  Any intelligent sports management graduate will do.  (I was only kidding about Rodney King.)

• Ban official message boards.  No links whatsoever, directly or indirectly. All we’ve seen from these official boards in the last year or so is sanctioned bullying by certain moderators.  If you don’t tow the league line, you get harassed and intimidated on a certain SEHL board.  That is neither friendly nor professional and no team or league should allow its sanction.  The best, usually most reasonable board I’ve seen isn’t affiliated with any league or team as far as I know, which is 4hockeyfans.com. 

• Even though I doubt they’d do something so radical, I’ll suggest it anyway:  4 on 4 hockey.  The surest way to reduce payroll and increase scoring.

• Start doing real work on improving the arena situations in your towns.   Don’t put teams in arenas that won’t work.  Use your clout as a larger, merged league to get better deals in cities without hockey that could work.

• Fulfill every promise, no matter how painful or obscure, not just make promises to get the foot in the door.

• Don’t hire people of questionable character.  Fire everyone you have of questionable character.  NOW.

• INSIST on a large deposit.  And show the money up front.  If you don’t have it, do something else in life.

• Do not allow sliding rent scales of extreme ranges like in Asheville, and insist on considerations for inclement weather.

• Never ever discount the importance of the Commissioners of the arena.  Keep a strong rapport with them from the beginning.  Take the initiative.   Never miss a meeting, in fact, show up early.  Don’t send a liaison; send the boss him or herself.  That may be of help to you if times go bad.

• Start working on expansions for 2005-06.  Kill this nonsensical idea of having a team in Birmingham, Alabama, and a team in nearly Pelham.  Put an absolute deadline of March 1, 2005.  Not one single day more. 

• Release the schedule by around April 30.  The ECHL schedule is already out for next season.  That speaks to stability more than anything else.

• Yes, I speak hockey blasphemy:  Single elimination playoffs.

            Do these and similar things, get by the first year somehow, and you might have a chance of survival.  Honestly, I don’t know if it’s too late or not now that it’s June, but there it is.

            Most importantly, and this is going to be hard for hockey fans down here to swallow, study and embrace what the National Basketball Development League has been through.  Note they only exist at the whim of the owners of the NBA and David Stern.  But since they figured out a lot of their mistakes, they have a formula now that WILL work given time.  They are going nowhere, in fact, if these two leagues don’t get their act together, don’t be surprised to see NBDL basketball in a few years in Knoxville, Macon, or other cities currently in the SEHL or SHL.

            Yes, when they first came to town, the NBDL drove out the Huntsville hockey team and were the nail in the coffin for the Asheville team.  The local team staffs weren’t too bad, but the upper management rubbed people the wrong way as incredibly arrogant.  They made unrealistic expectations of 4,500 fans a game starting out.

            That’s too easy to see.  Look deeper into their history.  The NBDL was planned for two years before they started pursuing arenas.  Millions of dollars was poured into this league as a feeder league for the NBA. Yet problems arose, and they couldn’t get the eigth and final lease (Asheville) until July 2000.    So despite all the money and preparation, they couldn’t do any real marketing until their league was secure.  It was a train wreck waiting to happen.  This sounds so familiar to this situation it’s scary, the difference is only in dollars.

            There is no substitute for time.  The NBDL should have secured their leases, paid the first year’s rent, had no games right away, and spent over a year really promoting the league.  Despite the power of the NBA, despite their money, due to the lack of real time for marketing, the NBDL had a disastrous start.  If it wasn’t for NBA backing, they would not have survived after year one.  No other sports league could lose millions like that and exist. 

            The NBA and NBDL got humble quick, and you could sense it, if you went at all, in year two and especially year three.   They moved the league office form New York to Greenville, South Carolina.  They went to 12 minute quarters to match the NBA.  They shortened their schedule to cut costs.  They got new logos. They got a better TV deal for them with NBATV.  They got those funky red, white, and blue balls that most everyone loves.  The best marketing they did for Asheville was staging an NBA preseason game with the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers (yes, LeBron was there). 

            And the NBDL ditched the “best-of” series play and went with single elimination.  “Best-of” series play is usually a major money loser in minor league sports anyway and doesn’t focus enough attention to the playoffs.  This made the regular season vastly more important for a smaller league.  The playoffs and especially the Championship was a thriller.  These were brilliant moves on their part.

            It took them five years really, but they finally are getting their stride.  The NBA owner and coaches are totally behind the NBDL concept now, in fact, David Stern has publicly said he wants the NBDL expanded to at least 15 teams to for affiliations directly with 2 NBA teams.  The Union doesn’t dig it, but the reality is the media already is totally behind the concept of a real stable basketball league for a variety of reasons.  With the Union not getting any love from the media on this issue, Stern will get mostly what he wants when the owners and Union finalize a new deal next year.

            Their ability to get local ownership of a team for the first time (Ft. Myers, Florida) is a very good sign for them.  As soon as they can convince former basketball players to get more involved, the better.  And it will happen.  Formula wise, it makes a lot of sense:  The NBA will pay most if not all of the players’ payroll; the local owners run the show.  Seems like a very fair arrangement for a $250,000 franchise fee.  Honestly, not too different than McDonald’s or any other successful franchise.  Get a few folks together of reputation and stature to jointly own a team, and even if they lose money at first, they can cross-market it to their businesses, so the value is far greater than short term loss.

            If I inherited $250,000, but the will said I had to buy a sports team, don’t ask whether I would choose an NBDL franchise or a team from one of these hockey leagues if you’re a rabid hockey fan.  You wouldn’t like my answer.  Just keep in mind that if these hockey leagues don’t end this silly war right now, these local governments will end it for them for a more stable future with the NBDL.

            So the NBDL is going nowhere.  They’ve got the money, they’ll get the affiliations, the sport is vastly cheaper to run than hockey, and is far preferred to arena managers.  And they have the formula.  And the time.  And the unity.

            And hockey at this level in the southeast has a silly vicious feud, not over who gets the last laugh anymore, but who gets the last gasp.

Dennis Justice runs wncsport.com- Voice of the FANS.  His e-mail is wncsport@aol.com

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