rams80

Yes, but Springfield isn't owned by an NHL team. Unless the Yotes buy the Falcons, they're going nowhere.

And it's bad optics for the franchise in the same city as your league offices to up and move because its parent club says so.

Norfolk's AHL squad wasn't for sale but once the possibility of a Pacific division came about, $$$ talked and BS walked. Anything is possible.

Actually the explicit threat was that the NorAds would find themselves sans NHL parent if they didn't sell. Money wasn't really a factor here, except in the sense that being an independent team in the AHL is suffering both in terms of performance and cost.

Liking used to be visible to everyone. Underneath the post there used to be a little box showing who exactly liked the post, but that function seems to have been taken out. Don't know why, I liked it. Now, you only get a personal notification when someone has liked your post.

Thank you so much for the info. One more question about the Like This! button: why is there a 5 Likes per day limit? I can't even imagine what the reasoning behind that might be. Maybe so you don't overwhelm a single person you are arguing with with Like notifications? The 5 Like limit kind of defeats the purpose of the Like This button though. I mean, I enjoy reading the forum, and when I read something I agree with I want to click the Like This button. The fact that I can only do it 5 times per day actually discourages me from continuing to read forum posts.

And thus we have identified the critical difference between this forum and reddit, and explaining why this site is better. (Aside from the comparative lack of felonious activity).

Can we just encourage ISIS to invade Qatar?

Wow really? That has to be the worst comment I've ever seen on this board.

Would you prefer the slave rebellion? ISIS would likely be a less bloody form of regime change, and would conveniently hold both the Saudi's and Iranian's collective feet to the fire. If we need bases, we still have Kuwait and Bahrain.

Win win from a US perspective.

Yes because ISIS's brand of torture, murder, and downright barbarism have been so bloodless are so much better for the people of Qatar than the status quo...

Or the US for that matter seeing as Qatar is a short rocket ride away from Bahrain.

If you enslave your co-regilionists, using your religion as a pretext for doing so, you've earned all the torture, murder, and barbarity you could ever hope to receive on the temporal plane.

And don't think Allah is going to look too ing kindly on that crap either.

And our anti-missile systems can stop anything ISIS has access to at the moment.

Can we just encourage ISIS to invade Qatar?

Wow really? That has to be the worst comment I've ever seen on this board.

Would you prefer the slave rebellion? ISIS would likely be a less bloody form of regime change, and would conveniently hold both the Saudi's and Iranian's collective feet to the fire. If we need bases, we still have Kuwait and Bahrain.

Win win from a US perspective.

Can we just encourage ISIS to invade Qatar?

Also minor league baseball players will do anything if you promise them $20 for it. Modern railroad workers are actually decently compensated, so they have a sense of dignity.

To "Brandiose"

JUST SAY YOU SPENT 3 WEEKS WATCHING STUPID LET'S PLAYS OF ING GOAT SIMULATOR WHILE GETTING STONED AND DECIDED THAT GOATS ARE THE MOST AWESOME ANIMAL EVER AND THAT THEY TOTALLY SHOULD BE THE MASCOT FOR YOUR NEXT RUSH JOB REBRAND!!!!

AT LEAST THAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO BE HONEST FOR ONCE IN YOUR MISERABLE LIVES!!!

Per hockeydb the old IHL Las Vegas Thunder had attendance in the high 7000s before a bad drop to 6600 in year the penultimate and 5000 in year the last.

Not coincidentally the team started sucking during year 4 of 6. Oh, and the team played in the Mack Center too.

Novelty.

(The ECHL Wranglers hovered around 4-5000 for most of their existence. Yes, the Orleans Arena seats more than that, why do you ask?)

Can I release a Yard Goat into Brandiose's office?

Wait I hadn't even thought about how Vegas would be a catastrophe because of the trouble the players would get in. Oh crap.

We've found the one ostensibly major US market that makes Phoenix look good, haven't we.

As much as I hate the idea of a November/December World Cup I think this might be the kick in the pants the UEFA big boys need. Maybe now they'll learn to play nice and read the reports from the bid committee's instead of looking for the shiniest one. And since the standard compensation that FIFA pays to teams will not be put into force for this tournament I think we may see a lot of "retirements" if players are not in agreement with playing at that time. I also think the UEFA countries may adopt the MLS model of taking a break for the group stage and then jumping back into league play. Thus FIFA handing the World Cup rights to 2026 early without bidding on them. Amazingly, this is getting a lot of press but the issues with Russia's stadium delays are hardly discussed in the US. They are cutting out stadiums and reporting delays that may continue right up until the Confederations Cup.

Walker has a point. Ivan's economy is imploding and will be completely cratered by 2018. Of course World War Three will likely have erupted before then, so....

I'm fine with the Snowflakes playing eight fewer games than the rest of the league. Just give them eight forfeit losses. That can be the price the Sharks pay for having their undrafted college free agents across the street.

Or assign conference playoff spots and seeding entirely on point totals. No automatic seeds/playoff bids even for division champions.

Love the Gulls turnout for the logo/team unveiling which is awesome for west coast hockey. So what really concerns me is the goof ball responses to the whole AHL migration to the west. How about we embrace it and be happy for the spread of the great sport of HOCKEY. and be haaaappppyy!!!!!

The great sport of HOCKEY is not exactly hitting new markets with this move.

And the Sharks only see young players as trade fodder to get aging vets to frantically stave off collapse.

Speaking of which, they're probably pushing that idiot round idea on the grounds that they could probably assure themselves of a 9 or 10 seed at least.

Platini is worse than Blatter. He opposes the use of goal-line technology.

Yes, but at least he doesn't want players to die in the Qatari heat or completely the major leagues by hosting the World Cup in the middle of the summer.

Actually, Platini is one of the biggest supporters of the Qatar bid, while Sepp wanted to have the WC in the US.

What.

Maybe if the Indian slave labor responsible for sustaining Qatar revolts or goes home, there won't be.

Maybe if Western countries started to put serious economic sanctions on countries who support ISIS, there won't be

It's not the issue of countries supporting ISIS, it's western world countries who sit idly back while the Qatari government gets away with slave labour, not paying their workers for months on end, having them live in slums with 5-7 people per room, confiscating their passports so they can't leave, and having the worst safety record on construction sights with ZERO oversight and care about the deaths of migrant workers. Many journalists write these big expose iase on the state of construction within Qatar, and some politicians say a few things how they condemn Qataris for doing this when they are trying to get something else passed. But nothing really happens.

Slaves are hardly the biggest issue(for whatWestern interests are, of course) when you're talking about Qatar, Saudi Arabia etc. the real issue is that they support financially terrorist cells in the Middle East and the Maghreb, while also sending hate-preaching wahabite Imams to European banlieus to preach action against Western Countries. But some Presidents are still going to the funerals of the house of Saud.

Regardless of what his countrymen/relatives do, Saudi Arabia is still ostensibly an ally. You attend the funeral when your ally's head of state/government dies. It's diplomatic etiquette.

The idea of two teams at the caliber of the Blackhawks and Blues meeting in round one is absolutely ludicrous to me... No more automatic spots for division standings please!

So, um, seriously.

What's stopping UEFA et al from setting up their own challenger to FIFA?

(Sorry in advance for large photo sizes) I'm having a hard time deciding if the High Desert Mavericks (Single-A Rangers affiliate) need to rebrand, or if they should stick with what they've got and run with it proudly.

Because at first glance, this...

...looks incredibly dated. But when you look at their ballpark atmosphere...

...the logo and identity package's desolate datedness actually fits in pretty well with the very remote setting in the Mojave Desert. The stadium is on the very outer reaches of Adelanto, CA, a "suburb" of the larger city of Victorville.

What is this "sustainable development" of which you speak?

Another idea for the Baby Sharks... Will Sacramento's new arena be hockey ready (or at least minor league hockey ready)?

They'll have to fight the Flames for it after Stockton burns.

I eagerly await Brandiose's completely artificial justification for a Theodore Roosevelt motif for Frisco.

I've been to California, I'm going in a couple weeks, and I like California! I just didn't want the AHL there.

I'm not sure how long it will be there, which is the other issue with this. The L.A. teams will do well with their affiliates, but Calgary basically shouldn't be allowed to have an AHL team, Edmonton hasn't torched all that many markets, but has had a run that consisted of

1 year in Edmonton itself (strike year arena date filler-franchise goes dormant after that)

1 year timeshare with Montreal in Hamilton, Montreal calling the shots

1 year PROSPECTS SCATTERED TO THE WINDS

3 years in Springfield-uninspiring results which include not making the playoffs at all and keeping the market on a slow slow slow burn to destruction

5 years of sitting back and watching the slow painful death of what was once one of the best markets in minor league hockey (Yes, the Thunder play a major role here, but the Barons never took off.)

Meanwhile San Jose doesn't torch markets, but has an organizational disdain for running an effective minor league organization and developing young talent except as trade bait for some aging NHL player that stands as an ironic counterpoint to the fact that they were the team that complained the most about the lack of California teams.

So yeah, 3 of the 5 teams are on shaky foundations. This experiment could end very badly.

I feel so bad for people stuck with the ECHL. What's the point, even. You might see someone's future backup goalie?

The point is to watch some live hockey representing your home town (or area). As someone who lives in a current non-hockey town, I can tell you I would have taken anything I could get. I'm glad we're getting the AHL, but I would have gladly taken ECHL as well. It's not necessarily about seeing someone going up to so and so NHL team. I couldn't care less that the reborn Gulls are a Ducks farm team or that some of their players might be in the NHL some day.

The way you post, I thought you lived in the San Francisco bay area.

How is it inefficient though if the 5 teams are all in relatively close bus proximity to each other? And the same with regard to 3 of the parent clubs?

Well, if those rumors of further expansion are to come true, the Pacific pod will not be in relatively close bus proximity to each other after next season.

You guys are putting way too much thought into how the AHL and ECHL should function.

As Admiral keeps pointing out (upon deaf ears, apparently), the point of minor leagues is to get practice time and develop as a player in game situations, and to keep costs down. It's not about playing equal schedules or seeing every team or even winning a championship (and a parent team will never admit that last point publicly). It's getting their younger players ready for the top league and helping players rehabilitate and get back in game shape.

It's not really a necessity to have your AHL team located near the parent club when you have an allowance of carrying three extra skaters.

Somehow affiliated baseball seems to pull off the equal schedules and trying to win a championship, though.