rams80

One assumes Peoria doesn't have enough money to do anything else. Or is content with a status quo of dominating the regular season before immediately crashing out in the postseason. The Fort Wayne Komets model, only dumber.

Guys, remember how all those firefighters in Arizona died for the Coyotes to play in front of literal hundreds in Glendale? They made a movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUE38iv0f1Y

And I'm sure you've cancelled the sports package in your tv arrangement, because otherwise they are still getting your money.

"C'lay" is an internet hack who got his start as a University of Tennessee/SEC apologist.

They rebuilt the local AAA baseball stadium into a Soccer Specific Stadium, so no, it isn't.

And you don't suppose for one second that tripling the lease wasn't a ploy to either drive them out in favor of the concerts/events (because you don't need two winter sports to soak up valuable weekend arena dates) or make it so less money was being left on the table with AHL hockey?

You didn't address the "they made more money from concerts" issue.

They have gotten the second largest campus of the IU system, in the major metropolitan area that the league is headquartered in, and while it doesn't have pedigree, it does have enough resources to, say, cover up any holes in their athletic offerings. Besides, worrying about college baseball in the Great Lakes region is kind of stupid anyway.

Horizon League has schools in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Illinois. I don't care how big a travel subsidy check Grand Canyon would promise to write, adding them (without, say, any travel partner at least) would be ing INSANE. Also Grand Canyon has that "for profit" thing working against them.

You can't shame that which has none.

Holy crap they still aren't dead?

Since Brandiose is involved its going to suck in a vaguely kitschy way anyway, so really "Gwizzlies" is the way to go.

Team shot down a rename to Predators and dumping Admirals as a moniker seems dumb given its history with that organization and area.

The fallout of the P5 conferences beginning to outlaw FCS games. Well, that and Georgia's continued screwing around with its higher ed systems.

That's why half the league membership WANTS to leave.

Nah, I'm willing to hazard that At Large bids haven't been a concern of the Big West's since they dropped football. CSU/UC balance checks out since CSU Bakersfield got turned down for membership earlier in the decade.

Also returning everything you took from the locker room when you pulled out last time.

Some fence-mending might be necessary, since SMG still runs the Peoria Civic Center.

Nah, the Peoria Journal Star's hack of a beat writer would have run with the Rivermen missing payroll immediately since he knows no discretion.

So, per the hfboards megathread, guess who missed payroll for their AHL players a few years back?

The Aces historically subsidized travel to Anchorage as well-they got around it some by having teams play 3 game "series" and vice versa. But yeah, with the loss of Victoria and then the California teams, Boise's the closest market now and it quickly (Salt Lake City, Loveland, CO, Rapid City) gets worse from there. Probably not sustainable any more.

"Invade Russia in winter" -level bad.

That can't be it. The team's been on the brink of financial catastrophe for far longer than that-this goes back to the Checkerdome days.

MOD EDIT That said, the Blues want out of Chicago because the Wolves historically murder an NHL team's player development efforts by focusing on winning with their own players rather than giving the parent team's players playing time. Las Vegas is probably going to end up with the Wolves because 1) They don't really have a fully stocked farm roster because DUH. 2) they are the lowest, lowest man on the totem pole. The Blues are going to push for some sort of local option (Illinois or Missouri area), with the caveat that the Blues ownership group probably doesn't have a lot of money lying around, which is why they dumped the Peoria AHL franchise off to Vancouver (to be moved to West Coast location TBA/Utica as a halfway house) and then affiliated with the independently owned and operated Wolves despite the known damage it will do to player development because a few bread crumbs are better than nothing. With regards to the Komets, you got confused. The owners are anti-union (something about owing a couple years' worth of back dues to the Professional Hockey Players Association), so they jumped from league to league until the last remaining non-union league began to burn down around them, leaving them no choice but to move to the ECHL. Historically the Komets have pursued a me-first policy, and to be honest its less of a problem at the ECHL because most NHL teams don't have that deep of a farm system. The ECHL aspires to be like the AHL from a player-development perspective but its not quite there yet. The Blues, probably due to the aforementioned financial problems and hollowing out of their farm system, don't even have an ECHL affiliate right now and haven't given any real signs of wanting to address that.

Depends on who you're asking about. The Komets are a Wolves situation, with some additional anti-players union sentiments mixed in.