I wouldn’t ask the city of Charlotte to support both teams, but I don’t know if they would still be the Checkers. As nice as that would be, the previous owner would have to make some sort of transaction with the new franchise.

But the thing is, that is still an ECHL franchise,l. As much as the AHL is tied to the NHL, and the ECHL is tied to te A, they are still separate entites, and that is a business deal that will have to be dealt with.

But the AHL is a better fit for Charlotte, with their new big arena, and the money spent on changeovers from NBA basketball to hockey, an AHL franchise that could draw a better crowd would make that sort of financial burden a little more reasonable.

And the poor Phantonms. They had such an easy travel destination for a little while.

The theory I’ve bought into about what would happen in Charlotte is that the Checkers would be absorbed/graduated and the AHL team would then be known as the Checkers. It would put the successful ECHL team out of business but then allow for a higher profile AHL team to take over in its place.

Asking for both to succeed there would be asking a lot and there’s no doubt the kid brother ECHL team would suffer worse for it. I doubt that was much on the mind of the RN&O reporter when he got his “scoop” and ran with it.

I also had an interesting thing happen to me about 2-3 months ago. I work in Saratoga, which is about 1/2 way between Albany and Glens Falls (where the Phantoms play) and a bunch of co-workers noticed these two girls wearing cheese-hats walking around our office. They came in and informed us about a special that the River Rats were having. The girl was actually really nice, and honestly it was a pretty good deal (I forget what it was, but it was like 4 tickets to a game plus food for under $40). I was somewhat impressed that they were making a push like this to sell tickets. It’s not like they’re not trying. Unfortunately though I think AHL hockey is dead in Albany. As you said there are two great division 1 NCAA hockey teams close by, plus hockey season overlaps with basketball – and lately Siena and UAlbany have had pretty good teams.

Another part of the equation as you’ve pointed out is geography. I remember going to games when The River Rats represented the New Jersey Devils, and it seemed to draw a lot better – lots of Diablos jerseys etc. Personally, I’d probably find myself attending a lot more games if it was an NHL team that I at least loosely followed, but I can’t get myself to want to watch the Hurricanes (especially this season).

I don’t know exactly why Albany can’t draw for hockey, but I really doubt that the River Rats will exist at this time next year. Hopefully this will be the kick-in-the-ass I need to get myself over to Messa Rink or the RPI Fieldhouse to see some quality NCAA hockey!