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Post by scooter on Feb 14, 2008 8:22:18 GMT -5
MAHL ends season early Founder Haines: League will re-organize, resume next year From staff reports Published: February 14. 2008 6:00AM The Mid-Atlantic Hockey League canceled the remainder of its season Wednesday and declared the Indiana Ice Miners the league champion. The first-year league was formed by Andrew Haines, former owner of the Erie Freeze indoor football team and the league to which the Freeze once belonged. The MAHL includes a team in Jamestown (N.Y.). Haines has termed the canceled season a reorganization, and said that the league will resume play next year. No reason was offered for the shutdown. The MAHL does not publicly release attendance figures. "As the majority owner of the MAHL, after consulting with the other team owners, coaches, and general managers, a difficult decision was made that it was necessary to re-organize the league and start working towards next season," Haines, the league president, said in a news release. "We apologize to our fans and corporate partners for any inconvenience caused. This action was necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the league and we look forward to coming back much stronger for the 2008-09 season." Tickets for games that have been canceled can be refunded at www.clicknprint.com if they were purchased online, and tickets purchased by hand can be refunded at the local box office. Indiana went 31-1-0 and won 26 straight games. Jamestown, whose roster included forward Evan Legace of Erie, finished 13-18-0. The league also included teams in Wooster (Ohio), Mon Valley and Valley Forge. All MAHL players are now free agents. The MAHL will announce its 2007-08 award winners and all-stars later this week. |
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Post by scooter on Feb 14, 2008 8:27:09 GMT -5
I can't even comment. It just amazes me how everything AH does ends up like this. If it weren't for M&M, we probably would have suffered the same fate.  +  +  = AH!?!?!?!?!?! I will keep my eyes out for the auctions that certainly will follow. |
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Post by UnoBomber on Feb 14, 2008 8:43:25 GMT -5
I thought this league was doing well? I guess it was just a farce. What's next for Haines? You guessed it! Professional Curling! WICAFL - World Indoor Curling Associated Federation League Look at that form!  |
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Post by Canton Cougar Fan on Feb 14, 2008 9:36:51 GMT -5
This really should not surprise anyone.
BTW, curling is marbles on steroids.
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picman
Moderator 
FAB Member
Posts: 753
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Post by picman on Feb 14, 2008 11:13:11 GMT -5
This did happen if you remeber back to the 1st year the league cut the season short and went right to the playoffs
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Post by scooter on Feb 14, 2008 12:41:52 GMT -5
The reason for the AIFL season ending early was because teams such as Richmond and Raleigh didn't secure playoff dates in their arenas so they were forced to end the season early so that the playoff games could be held.
At least that's what we were told.
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Post by Gene on Feb 14, 2008 14:32:14 GMT -5
Ok well they dont want to discuss attendance but i'll share my experience. The Valley Forge Freedom team is only 30 mins or so away from me. I went to one game. They play in a sort of practice rink that kids play on. really. My friends kids used to play their games there. The seating has a capacity of, if your lucky, 800 fans. The game i went too there werent more than 80 people there and that was a Saturday night. Things were so bad in fact that the Freedom press guy was trying to recruit fans to run the penalty box, the scoring lights and even get people to be ticket takers. I received over 5 emails to date asking if i could help them out. So yea, it was bad.
Its also interesting to note that their message board is "not available". Me thinks we have seen this before. If you plan to reorganize & come back next season this is the last thing you wanna do. My guess is they are done....
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Post by 1stDownStorm on Feb 14, 2008 17:37:42 GMT -5
The reason for the AIFL season ending early was because teams such as Richmond and Raleigh didn't secure playoff dates in their arenas so they were forced to end the season early so that the playoff games could be held. At least that's what we were told. Actually, Raleigh didn't even have an arena that year. It was pretty much all Richmond's fault if I remember correctly. Anyway, it's pretty obvious that the MAHL is and will be continue to be a joke. I liked some of the logos for the teams but that was about the only positive I got from the league. |
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Post by Standard Deviation on Feb 14, 2008 17:53:15 GMT -5
Jamestown is the only team in the league that drew a crowd averaging 1300. There arena is really nice, seats about 1900 and is really configured well. I went to three games there and they were all well attended. THey even had an ad hoc fan club of 7-8 kids that wore viking hats and went shirtless with Vikings spelled on their chest. After every goal they would take a lap around the arena and the fans would cheer them on.
I was the game announcer for Mon Valley and for most games I didnt even need the microphone, I just stood up and leaned over the glass and talked to the group behind me because thats all that was there.
Its a shame because the hockey was entertaining, high scoring, plenty of hits. They had over 30 guys called up to the ECHL. I hope they fix their problems and come back.
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Post by scooter on Feb 15, 2008 9:03:29 GMT -5
Actually, Raleigh didn't even have an arena that year. It was pretty much all Richmond's fault if I remember correctly. Anyway, it's pretty obvious that the MAHL is and will be continue to be a joke. I liked some of the logos for the teams but that was about the only positive I got from the league. You're right. Raleigh hosted a playoff game in 06. In 05 they had a road playoff game. My bad, I'm mixed up season one and two of the AH era. |
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Post by scooter on Feb 15, 2008 20:42:26 GMT -5
Article from the Jamestown Post-Journal:
Mid-Atlantic Hockey League Suspends Play 80 Games Into Initial Season
By Patrick Fanelli, pfanelli@post-journal.com
Empty seats became commonplace at arenas around the MAHL, forcing executives to call it quits Wednesday.
P-J file photos by John Whittaker
2/14/2008 - It’s hard to deny the excitement among many Jamestown residents when it was first announced last summer that the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena would host its own minor league hockey team — the city’s second professional sports franchise.
Wednesday, after league owners met during last week’s all-star break, the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League announced that it has cancelled the remainder of the season because of problems that have plagued the league since its inception, though, it is just as hard to deny the disappointment that city officials, arena managers and hockey players feel.
Michael Ferguson, ice arena general manager, said the Jamestown franchise, at least, wasn’t to blame for the league’s sudden demise.
‘‘It really had nothing to do with Jamestown and Valley Forge. It was really just the other three teams. ... They couldn’t make it work,’’ Ferguson said, referring to the Valley Forge Freedom from Oaks, Pa., the team that is in the best financial shape in the league.
According to Ferguson, ticket sales in Jamestown were well above those other three teams — in some cases five times the amount the other teams were generating — and he said the season’s cancellation is ‘‘certainly not from a lack of community support.’’
See MAHL, Page A-3
From Page A-1
‘‘We were probably one of the most successful teams in the league, and we’re sad for the fans,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘The fans turned out. ... When you take a look at what we were drawing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they are just phenomenal numbers.’’
Possible Financial Hits
While Mayor Sam Teresi was disappointed by the news, he wasn’t too surprised considering the difficulties of establishing a new league like the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League, especially in an economic climate such as this one.
‘‘I’m disappointed, but it was not totally unexpected,’’ Teresi said. ‘‘It’s really difficult to launch a brand new professional sports league, particularly in the smaller markets they were focusing on.’’
Teresi also doesn’t expect the league’s cancellation to have a significant impact on the west end of the city, which has finally begun to bounce back in recent years beginning with the construction of the ice arena.
‘‘I don’t think it’s going to be a tremendous blow to either the downtown redevelopment efforts or the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena,’’ Teresi said. ‘‘It’s a loss from the standpoint that it was another good use of the building, but that building was built to be flexible and accommodate a broad spectrum of community uses, and it will continue to do that.’’
Ferguson doesn’t expect the ice arena to suffer too significant a blow, either. He doesn’t believe he will have a problem filling those gaps in the ice time, though the Vikings did bring the arena a good amount of additional money and activity.
‘‘If they kept going, you’re looking at merchandise, you’re looking at alcohol sales, you’re looking at concessions. ... So it’s fairly significant. I’m ball-parking maybe ($25,000 to $35,000) is what we’ll lose at the end of the year,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘It’s a significant contribution to the building since we added 20-plus events we never had before.’’
Ferguson only hopes the league does, in fact, re-establish itself in the future — or that the Jamestown Vikings reform and become part of another league, especially since there has been a great deal of interest expressed in maintaining the character of the team that seems to fit so well in this city, he said.
‘‘We were hoping this could be part of the overall plan to continue to make Western New York the powerhouse it is,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘So it’s a tremendous bump in the road. But we’ll see what happens in the coming months.’’
End Of The Road
The season’s cancellation may be a disappointment for the city, and it may also be a disappointment for the ice arena and for the fans — but it probably hit the players hardest of all.
‘‘I’ll tell you, last night was horrendous for them. I know my son took it to heart, and so did the other kids. I think they are kind of almost feeling like they are at wrong — that they let the team down,’’ said Sharon Kane of Jamestown, whose son, Zach Kane, led the league in scoring by defensemen for the season.
According to Kane, who recently graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and finished the season with eight goals and 31 assists, Vikings officials called a meeting late Tuesday to inform the players that their services would no longer be required.
‘‘It was a fun time while it lasted,’’ Kane said. ‘‘I think any players especially at this level want to go as far as they possibly can. I was hoping to move up from here to the double A level. ... Now, it’s going to be tough to get a spot.’’
Players were given the same explanation the public was, that the league was cancelling the rest of the season to reorganize itself in hopes of starting fresh for 2008-09. Kane believes that is a possibility, that he may very well be back on the ice in front of the fans soon enough — but he thinks it will be a challenge for the young league to re-establish itself after this monumental setback.
‘‘It’s just hard to re-establish the credibility of a league that just started and is folding itself,’’ Kane said. ‘‘As far as credit goes, the league is about as low as you can go.’’
In the end, Kane is just grateful for the short time he had out on the ice and for the fans who came to watch the Vikings’ short history.
‘‘I just want to say thanks to all the fans. They stood behind us and they supported us immensely through the season,’’ Kane said. ‘‘We definitely put on a good show for them, and we appreciate them coming out for all the games.’’
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Post by The Picks Commissioner on Feb 15, 2008 21:02:53 GMT -5
It would be nice if they aloud Indiana and the 2nd place team to battle it out for a championship at least. Oh well, I guess since I'm a miners fan myself. Hope ya'll enjoyed losing to us. Only you Wooster Folk can say they've beaten us.
congrats Miners. 2008 MAHL Champions.
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