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Originally Posted by Mighty Joe Moon
As for point #1: What?? You keep the AHL over the NHL? Uh...who wouldn't jump at that chance to move on?
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veeryone would want to move on. that was my point. winnipeg was stuck with an ahl team, it wasn't what they wanted. its an nhl city that always had its eye on an nhl team.
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Point #2: True enough.
I never believed more exciting=better quality. The CFL can certainly be more exciting more often than the NFL, but a lot of the excitement comes from broken, sloppy play. I see the AHL and CHL having a similar dynamic. If you're emotionally invested enough in your team, two sides playing the trap against each other can be pretty darned exciting.
The biggest issue the AHL has, is none of the fans know anything about the opponent or its players, it's a continental league filled with second cities or suburbs of large metro areas so it's missing that extra level for rivalries. People in Binghamton know nothing of Abbotsford, people in Abbotsford aren't necessarily sure whether Manchester is in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts or England. Portland? I thought that was in Oregon. What do you mean there are two teams named 'Admirals'? What's the difference between Saint John and St. John's? It's that much harder to get excited for a game against an opponent you know nothing about. That was easily the biggest thing I didn't like about the AHL. Plus the AHL being second tier, it doesn't garner the coverage in the local papers versus the other sports options, especially in larger cities. Cleveland newspapers are supposed to divert pages from the Browns, Cavs and Indians to the Lake Erie Monsters? The CHL has no such issue. You'll learn about your opponent in your small town rag (I know plenty about the MJHL Selkirk Steelers thanks to those papers), you'll remember the players from the World Juniors. You get teams from comparable sized towns/small cities in your own part of the world, so there's that connection that is lacking.
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pretty much agree with all this. there are no rivalries in the ahl. certainly not for st.john's.