Sharks ECHL affiliate the San Francisco Bulls folding or moving to Fresno

[OMMF]

So as far as I know the players are just getting dispersed. I'm friends with a girl who's boyfriend played on the Bulls (they actually just moved out there about 3 months ago) and he's getting picked up by the South Carolina Stingrays.

The players that weren't under contract to the Sharks organization became free agents immediately.

From Puck Daddy:

Q. What happens to the Bulls players?

According to the ECHL collective bargaining agreement, the Bulls players are now unrestricted free agents, provided they have an ECHL contract and are not on assignment from the AHL or NHL, i.e. on two-way contracts. Leading scorer Dean Ouellet, with 30 points in 38 games, is now a free agent, for example.

More FAQ:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/faq-fallout-san-francisco-bulls-fold-during-echl-005324166--nhl.html

[FiddySicks]

Here's the link to the SF Chronicle's article on it. Essentially just the letter sans any analysis or anything. Which was part of the Bulls problem. Many in SF didn't even know about them and most of the ones who did, didn't care. Terrible sports town.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sportsevents/2014/01/27/sf-bulls-cease-operations/

Yes, Daly City (and S. San Francisco) is/are a terrible sports town(s).

As a small business, the ownership must give consumers a reason to care, otherwise you will fail. When you have five Division 1 basketball schools within driving distance and two with dominant women's teams, one must compete for the discretionary sports dollar and they failed to do that.

Don't act like the Cow Palace wasn't literally across the city line from SF. You leave the parking lot and you were in SF proper. And yes SF is a bad sports town. Unless the teams play on the near downtown waterfront no one cares. Even the vaunted Niners couldn't get a new stadium in the city in the end. SF is doing all the can to defeat the Warriors privately funded arena that most cities would fall over themselves to have built. And the Giants, while well supported now, had to have a baseball palace built within spitting distance of downtown, hire a roided out homerun hitter and then win 2 World Series to keep interest up in the team. We'll see if it lasts their next really bad spell.

Yeah great analysis from a guy who's a fan of teams in Oakland and San Diego

Really, that's probably one of the most insanely uninformed posts I've ever seen you make, and I've seen some real doozys from you. You obviously know nothing factual about either the 49ers or the Warriors issues with getting stadiums in the city.

And that last comment about the Giants is downright asinine.

[JackieMoon]

I wonder if the Central Hockey League will be around next year? If not, the Sundogs would be a welcome addition to the West.

[Still MIGHTY]

And as minor league hockey and especially the Bakersfield Condors are wont to do, take advantage of any opportunity for a dollar:

Tuesday vs. Stockton Thunder, 7 p.m.

BULLS RIP NIGHT

• This game would have been against San Francisco Bulls, except they folded last week. It’s not the first disappointment for San Francisco sports teams, either recently (49ers didn’t quite make it to the Super Bowl) or all-time for that matter (Spiders hockey team that played just one season in the 90′s).
• Receive two for one admission if you wear any Bay Area pro team, past or present – Giants, A’s, 49ers, Raiders, Seals, Spiders, Shamrocks, Warriors, Earthquakes, Redwoods, Shuckers, etc.
• Bulls fans, come on down to Condorstown, wear your jersey, and take advantage of the offer.
• TWITTER DEAL! There will be a special offer tweeted out later today (Monday) for this game. Follow us on Twitter now and don’t miss your chance to take advantage. (p.s. the deal comes with free popcorn!)

[bosrs1]

Here's the link to the SF Chronicle's article on it. Essentially just the letter sans any analysis or anything. Which was part of the Bulls problem. Many in SF didn't even know about them and most of the ones who did, didn't care. Terrible sports town.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sportsevents/2014/01/27/sf-bulls-cease-operations/

Yes, Daly City (and S. San Francisco) is/are a terrible sports town(s).

As a small business, the ownership must give consumers a reason to care, otherwise you will fail. When you have five Division 1 basketball schools within driving distance and two with dominant women's teams, one must compete for the discretionary sports dollar and they failed to do that.

Don't act like the Cow Palace wasn't literally across the city line from SF. You leave the parking lot and you were in SF proper. And yes SF is a bad sports town. Unless the teams play on the near downtown waterfront no one cares. Even the vaunted Niners couldn't get a new stadium in the city in the end. SF is doing all the can to defeat the Warriors privately funded arena that most cities would fall over themselves to have built. And the Giants, while well supported now, had to have a baseball palace built within spitting distance of downtown, hire a roided out homerun hitter and then win 2 World Series to keep interest up in the team. We'll see if it lasts their next really bad spell.

Yeah great analysis from a guy who's a fan of teams in Oakland and San Diego

Really, that's probably one of the most insanely uninformed posts I've ever seen you make, and I've seen some real doozys from you. You obviously know nothing factual about either the 49ers or the Warriors issues with getting stadiums in the city.

And that last comment about the Giants is downright asinine.

Those who resort to ad hominem attacks generally have no actual point to make and have already lost the argument...

[FiddySicks]

Here's the link to the SF Chronicle's article on it. Essentially just the letter sans any analysis or anything. Which was part of the Bulls problem. Many in SF didn't even know about them and most of the ones who did, didn't care. Terrible sports town.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sportsevents/2014/01/27/sf-bulls-cease-operations/

Yes, Daly City (and S. San Francisco) is/are a terrible sports town(s).

As a small business, the ownership must give consumers a reason to care, otherwise you will fail. When you have five Division 1 basketball schools within driving distance and two with dominant women's teams, one must compete for the discretionary sports dollar and they failed to do that.

Don't act like the Cow Palace wasn't literally across the city line from SF. You leave the parking lot and you were in SF proper. And yes SF is a bad sports town. Unless the teams play on the near downtown waterfront no one cares. Even the vaunted Niners couldn't get a new stadium in the city in the end. SF is doing all the can to defeat the Warriors privately funded arena that most cities would fall over themselves to have built. And the Giants, while well supported now, had to have a baseball palace built within spitting distance of downtown, hire a roided out homerun hitter and then win 2 World Series to keep interest up in the team. We'll see if it lasts their next really bad spell.

Yeah great analysis from a guy who's a fan of teams in Oakland and San Diego

Really, that's probably one of the most insanely uninformed posts I've ever seen you make, and I've seen some real doozys from you. You obviously know nothing factual about either the 49ers or the Warriors issues with getting stadiums in the city.

And that last comment about the Giants is downright asinine.

Those who resort to ad hominem attacks generally have no actual point to make and have already lost the argument...

Sigh, are you really going to make me pull up Google and find articles stating just how mind blowingly uninformed you really are? I mean, I will if I have to, but it's more mindless busy work I'd rather not have to do.

Before I do that, let's just look at this from a logical point of view. Let's start with the Cow Palace. It's located in a really awful part of the San Francisco area and is a building that was old when Barry freaking Goldwater was running for president (to put that in some perspective, he was born in Arizona before it was even a state). That's issue #1. Next, we move on to geography. San Francisco is a city that's located on a hill that encompasses only 49 square miles, and has the majority of it's public transit focused in one of the most narrow locations in the city (yeah, no s**t people only care about teams on the waterfront. That's where everything is and where public transportation outlets!). That's issue #2. Now let's go to state issues. The state of California is flat broke and has issues funding things like public safety and education they have to worry about before they start throwing cash at shiny new buildings that'd have to severely bend housing codes in any desirable locations. That's issue #3.

Now, with those points in mind, you're really going to try and tell me that San Francisco is a "terrible sports town" because they don't want to help fund two separate sports arenas that would've ended up costing close to two billion dollars each?

MOD EDIT

[bosrs1]

Here's the link to the SF Chronicle's article on it. Essentially just the letter sans any analysis or anything. Which was part of the Bulls problem. Many in SF didn't even know about them and most of the ones who did, didn't care. Terrible sports town.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sportsevents/2014/01/27/sf-bulls-cease-operations/

Yes, Daly City (and S. San Francisco) is/are a terrible sports town(s).

As a small business, the ownership must give consumers a reason to care, otherwise you will fail. When you have five Division 1 basketball schools within driving distance and two with dominant women's teams, one must compete for the discretionary sports dollar and they failed to do that.

Don't act like the Cow Palace wasn't literally across the city line from SF. You leave the parking lot and you were in SF proper. And yes SF is a bad sports town. Unless the teams play on the near downtown waterfront no one cares. Even the vaunted Niners couldn't get a new stadium in the city in the end. SF is doing all the can to defeat the Warriors privately funded arena that most cities would fall over themselves to have built. And the Giants, while well supported now, had to have a baseball palace built within spitting distance of downtown, hire a roided out homerun hitter and then win 2 World Series to keep interest up in the team. We'll see if it lasts their next really bad spell.

Yeah great analysis from a guy who's a fan of teams in Oakland and San Diego

Really, that's probably one of the most insanely uninformed posts I've ever seen you make, and I've seen some real doozys from you. You obviously know nothing factual about either the 49ers or the Warriors issues with getting stadiums in the city.

And that last comment about the Giants is downright asinine.

Those who resort to ad hominem attacks generally have no actual point to make and have already lost the argument...

Sigh, are you really going to make me pull up Google and find articles stating just how mind blowingly uninformed you really are? I mean, I will if I have to, but it's more mindless busy work I'd rather not have to do.

Before I do that, let's just look at this from a logical point of view. Let's start with the Cow Palace. It's located in a really awful part of the San Francisco area and is a building that was old when Barry freaking Goldwater was running for president (to put that in some perspective, he was born in Arizona before it was even a state). That's issue #1. Next, we move on to geography. San Francisco is a city that's located on a hill that encompasses only 49 square miles, and has the majority of it's public transit focused in one of the most narrow locations in the city (yeah, no s**t people only care about teams on the waterfront. That's where everything is and where public transportation outlets!). That's issue #2. Now let's go to state issues. The state of California is flat broke and has issues funding things like public safety and education they have to worry about before they start throwing cash at shiny new buildings that'd have to severely bend housing codes in any desirable locations. That's issue #3.

Now, with those points in mind, you're really going to try and tell me that San Francisco is a "terrible sports town" because they don't want to help fund two separate sports arenas that would've ended up costing close to two billion dollars each?

MOD EDIT

I'll grant you issue one. The Cow Palace is a complete dump that it was a mistake for the ECHL to allow a team to be placed in. It's the same mistake the NASL soccer league is setting itself up to make talking about putting a team in Kezar Stadium. Issue two however I take issue with. Public transit is not the only way to get to a game. In fact it's not used by a vast majority of Giants fans (nor was the same amount of concentration of public transit even in that area 15 years ago). And Niners fans somehow seemed to get to games despite public transit being practically non-existent at Candlestick. It's not access that keeps people away in SF from the minor league sports that have called the city home and subsequently failed.

As for your third point, not sure why funding of new venues is necessarily an issue you raised. But now that you have, why does SF feel it gets a pass on public funding when cities like San Diego, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Anaheim have opened their wallets or are opening their wallets despite the state's budget troubles.

[rams80]

San Francisco doesn't have political leadership that is a band of "chaotic stupid" dumbasses?

[FiddySicks]

I'll grant you issue one. The Cow Palace is a complete dump that it was a mistake for the ECHL to allow a team to be placed in. It's the same mistake the NASL soccer league is setting itself up to make talking about putting a team in Kezar Stadium.

Thank you.

Issue two however I take issue with. Public transit is not the only way to get to a game. In fact it's not used by a vast majority of Giants fans (nor was the same amount of concentration of public transit even in that area 15 years ago).

Uggh. Yes it absolutely is. One of the reasons Muni was extended down that way along the Embarcadero in the first place was because of the number of people who took BART into the city for games. They also charge $50-60 a game for parking SPECIFICALLY to encourage people to take public transportation to and from the games.

And yeah, again, no s**t there wasn't the "same amount of concentration of public transit in that area 15 years ago". The China Basin was skid row! It was the spot where all the junkies hung out to overdose on smack and watch dead bodies float down Mission Creek into the bay. You didn't just merrily jaunt down to the China Basin to take in the scenery and grab a loaf of sourdough before AT&T Park was built.

When was the last time you actually went to a Giants game at aT&T Park? Have you ever actually been to a game at AT&T Park?

And Niners fans somehow seemed to get to games despite public transit being practically non-existent at Candlestick.

This kinda kills your claim that people don't care about teams that aren't on the waterfront, huh?

It's not access that keeps people away in SF from the minor league sports that have called the city home and subsequently failed.

Not completely, but it's still a huge part of it, which you admitted to just two sentences earlier! "The Cow Palace is a complete dump that it was a mistake for the ECHL to allow a team to be placed in. It's the same mistake the NASL soccer league is setting itself up to make talking about putting a team in Kezar Stadium."

As for your third point, not sure why funding of new venues is necessarily an issue you raised. But now that you have, why does SF feel it gets a pass on public funding when cities like San Diego, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Anaheim have opened their wallets or are opening their wallets despite the state's budget troubles.

Because those other cities you mentioned are run by complete jackasses?

[bosrs1]

I'll grant you issue one. The Cow Palace is a complete dump that it was a mistake for the ECHL to allow a team to be placed in. It's the same mistake the NASL soccer league is setting itself up to make talking about putting a team in Kezar Stadium.

Thank you.

Issue two however I take issue with. Public transit is not the only way to get to a game. In fact it's not used by a vast majority of Giants fans (nor was the same amount of concentration of public transit even in that area 15 years ago).

Uggh. Yes it absolutely is. One of the reasons Muni was extended down that way along the Embarcadero in the first place was because of the number of people who took BART into the city for games. They also charge $50-60 a game for parking SPECIFICALLY to encourage people to take public transportation to and from the games.

And yeah, again, no s**t there wasn't the "same amount of concentration of public transit in that area 15 years ago". The China Basin was skid row! It was the spot where all the junkies hung out to overdose on smack and watch dead bodies float down Mission Creek into the bay. You didn't just merrily jaunt down to the China Basin to take in the scenery and grab a loaf of sourdough before AT&T Park was built.

When was the last time you actually went to a Giants game at aT&T Park? Have you ever actually been to a game at AT&T Park?

And Niners fans somehow seemed to get to games despite public transit being practically non-existent at Candlestick.

This kinda kills your claim that people don't care about teams that aren't on the waterfront, huh?

It's not access that keeps people away in SF from the minor league sports that have called the city home and subsequently failed.

Not completely, but it's still a huge part of it, which you admitted to just two sentences earlier! "The Cow Palace is a complete dump that it was a mistake for the ECHL to allow a team to be placed in. It's the same mistake the NASL soccer league is setting itself up to make talking about putting a team in Kezar Stadium."

As for your third point, not sure why funding of new venues is necessarily an issue you raised. But now that you have, why does SF feel it gets a pass on public funding when cities like San Diego, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Anaheim have opened their wallets or are opening their wallets despite the state's budget troubles.

Because those other cities you mentioned are run by complete jackasses?

Been about 4 years since I've been to a game at Pac Bell. I only go for A's or Padres away games for obvious reasons. But I've been there plenty of times. But the most recent interlude might explain the disconnect. I guess in the last few years the team has seen a spike in the number of fans going via public transit (mainly since they won the series in 2010). So I concede that point as well.

However my original contention wasn't just that SF only roots for teams on the waterfront, it was that they only root for good top level teams as well. The city has never been a great supporter of the minor league sports. And even with their top level teams, namely the Giants, attendance was starting to creep down as the ballpark shine wore off and the team was middling until 2010 when they won the series and piqued everyone's interest again. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years if they stay a sub-.500 team.

As for your final point, Rams80 beat me to it. They're not called the "Board of Stupidvisors" by many residents without cause. They're just as willing to piss away public money on their pet projects as leaders in Anaheim, San Diego, et al... sports just isn't one of their favorites unlike almost every other major league city in America. And it's already cost them their football team because there's always someone else willing to spend if you're not when you live in a world with places like Santa Clara and Cobb County, GA. Oakland will be finding out the same lesson here before long though so don't feel like I'm just picking on SF for this issue.