Sodboy13

It's the NHL on HBO Max and they're still not getting $15 a month from me for it.

If you decide to be a farm team of the Devils or the Flames, it is always going to end the same way for you. We have enough of an established track record at this point.

The Bobcats are an expansion team for 2021-22, replacing the Danville Dashers of the Federal League in that market.

The SPHL's Peoria Rivermen have updated their primary logo. They kept the captain's wheel, but simplified the skyline and river, and changed the font to something more like what they used in their IHL/ECHL/AHL days. Old: New: The team has also unveiled a "40 Years" secondary/shoulder patch for the season:

Interesting move to make the logo of the Checkers an actual checker. Hopefully they put the work into it to make it more than just a basic roundel.

Part of me thinks, "Good, nuke the major juniors and pay the kids," but deep down I know the end result here will be "adopt the major junior business model for the AHL."

Established 1906, just like the Washington Nationals were established in 1905.

So you're telling me "Polka Pike" didn't exactly set the Stateline afire, then.

Tired: Jobing.com Arena Wired: DeviantArt.com Fur-um

The Arizona Coyotes are going to announce their plan to fill the arena to capacity for every game in two weeks.

Again, if this all sounds a little familiar, right down to the "We're gonna sue the bastards" at the end...

There is some precedent for that. Arena Football's Indiana Firebirds were going to be sold for $6 million, but the expansion fee for the league was $25M, so the Firebirds got nuked. Not sure that the NHL wants to be following in the footsteps of the Arena Football League, though!

Jim Balsillie's music: Chiptune that approximates the theme from "The Sopranos" Quebec Nordiques music: Something mind-blowingly racist, but it's in French, so most people outside the province don't notice Hartford Whalers music: BAH BAH BAH BUH-BUH-BUH-BUH NOPE

Well, the Coyotes are making the news again, so it's time to bump the ol' thread! Katie Strang of The Athletic went deep on the current suspect state of operations, and here are some highlights: - Alex Meruelo tried to buy the Hawks from Atlanta Spirit in 2011, but got turned away by the NBA because of questions about the legitimacy of his finances. (I add this in because it's a very long thread we have, and it's good to include little callbacks like this one for the sake of continuity.) - Under Meruelo, vendors working with the team are being asked to "work with them," which means they either need to accept less payment than the team agreed to in their contract, or the team starts threatening to bring out its big expensive scary lawyers. - Ownership refused to expense pizza for the players during an overtime playoff game in the Edmonton bubble. - Alex Meruelo's son, Alex Meruelo Jr., has a front office job as a "strategic advisor of business and hockey operations," despite having never been involved in the operation of hockey at any level in his life. Meruelo Jr. has commanded influence in managing player development, but he also has a very short attention span and doesn't want to bother learning anything, so he spends the day watching YouTube videos in his office while also expecting people to follow his orders. - Meruelo and his cohorts have built a business environment that demands loyalty and secrecy under threat of termination, which is probably why it was so easy for Katie Strang to get all this stuff to leak out. - The new GM, Bill Armstrong, is both an ideal lackey and bumbling bully. - The ownership may be under investigation for workplace sexual harassment, inaccurate financial reporting, and misappropriation of league funds. - If this sounds like another casino owner's business operations to you, congratulations on being conscious at some point in the last 5 years.

Hope I can do this fast enough, because my antivirus keeps blocking the site as a phishing attack, due to one of those full screen takeover ads that insists I'm eligible for a $1,000 Walmart gift card. EDIT: Happened twice in the time it took me to type this.

Glad to hear the ad issues are being addressed. Hit a new low tonight. I would pay a couple bucks a month to not have to deal with this.

I said near the start of this pandemic that on the other side of it, minor league hockey would be the survivors of the AHL and ECHL merged into a single circuit, and maybe nothing professional surviving below that. I haven't seen anything yet that would change my mind. I do think it's possible that it stays two-tiered, with 16 teams carrying dual affiliations in each for the sake of survival. But teams are so much more invested on putting their systems fully in their farm teams than they were 15 years ago, so even if that happened, I couldn't see it lasting long-term.

When a league like this announces an expansion to 15 teams, that means a contraction to 14 or 12 is not far behind.

Oh, I am of the belief that the league is going to be down to 28 teams by the time the 2022-23 season starts, and I do think Ottawa, Buffalo, and Florida are your prime candidates for getting vaporized, alongside Florida. The Coyotes are the easy punching bag because we've been discussing their persistent failures and edge-of-doom existence on this board for over 11 years.

Hey, in these Unprecedented Times, we're all having a little trouble with the ol' landlord, aren't we?

That's it! The South Wisconsin NippleBelters, with a Vault Boy-esque Ed Gein swinging a femur bone as a primary logo. Checks all the boxes!

Supposedly the kill list has been shuffled a bit in secret. I believe Beloit's presence on the list was contingent on them not getting a new park. If they got the new stadium, I believe Quad Cities would get killed instead. One thing that's been nagging me about the Beloit name choices - so, "Supper Clubbers" is probably the most tolerable of the very bad lot, right? Now, I may be incorrect about this, but I always associate the Supper Club scene with northern Wisconsin. Like, you've at least gotta get north of the 39/90 split in Portage before you're in what could be considered supper club territory. And here's Beloit, parked on the Illinois border. The identity options feel like the brainstorming went as far as, "Beloit's in Wisconsin, right? Okay, what are some Wisconsin things?" and then that was lunch. Shocking that Waterskiiers or AquaBats or Chicago Suburbanites didn't make the cut.

If they're trying to pass that off as a nickname for geese, they'll be called the "Beloit Sky Crap" by people far and wide within hours of the unveiling.

Good God almighty. Not a salvageable identity in the lot. My joking attempt at Brandiosing them into the "Stateline RockRollers" seems tolerable by comparison. I now humbly suggest the Beloit Woodmen, in homage to my preferred stop for beer, meats, and cheeses whenever I would drop off or pick up an order at EPS.

I'm so happy to revive this thread. It brings me such a weird sense of community. I'm not saying it's time to fire up the Whitesnake yet, but maybe keep the playlist handy.