Hey, I'm new to these boards, so sorry if this has been asked before. A quick search didn't reveal anything about it though, so here we go.
Do we have any idea when the NHL/AHL affiliation for the Chicago Express will be announced? Obviously, I get the feeling that the Express are going to be gunning for the Blackhawks/IceHogs for obvious reasons, but I'm just curious if the ECHL has a timetable set for when their affiliation is officially determined. Should I be expecting to hear about it relatively soon, as in once the playoffs are finished, or should I expect not to hear for sure until closer to the 2011-12 season starts?
Thanks. I only live about 10-15 minutes from where the Express are going to be playing once they open up shop, so I'm definitely looking forward to attending games in person and having a place online to talk about them once the time comes.
Welcome to the boards. To be honest it could be after the Kelly Cup Finals (Early June) but probably closer to July or August. Last year it was later in the summer when the Road Warriors announced their affiliates. Chicago would make sense but you never know. They also could possibly have two affiliates as a lot of ECHL teams do.
Yeah, like Johnny said. I admit, I see Rockford as a real possibility with Martinson as coach(man your gunna be lucky, you'll probably have the most entertaining team in the league), did whoever own the UHL Icehogs now own the AHL Icehogs? I know Martinson and him had a good relationship.
A better question for me since I believe the 07-08 Johnstown Chiefs were the last team to do it, but can teams be Independent in the ECHL anymore?
Yeah, but I get the feeling that the Express would prefer affiliation, even if it was with a team a way's away. Our area sadly had a recent bad example with another independent team, the Schaumburg Flyers of the former Northern League, which closed down deep in debt to everybody, including a local village. I worked for the Flyers their last season, and one of the things that everybody wanted to obviously know was which MLB team they were affiliated, as they just assumed that they were a normal minor league team. Instead though, the Flyers were part of an independent league, meaning that there was no affiliation whatsoever with the majors (or the minors), and I can't tell you how many times people were disappointed to find out that fact, as they knew full and well that that'd likely mean none of the players they watched would ever make it to the bigs.
Yeah, but I get the feeling that the Express would prefer affiliation, even if it was with a team a way's away. Our area sadly had a recent bad example with another independent team, the Schaumburg Flyers of the former Northern League, which closed down deep in debt to everybody, including a local village. I worked for the Flyers their last season, and one of the things that everybody wanted to obviously know was which MLB team they were affiliated, as they just assumed that they were a normal minor league team. Instead though, the Flyers were part of an independent league, meaning that there was no affiliation whatsoever with the majors (or the minors), and I can't tell you how many times people were disappointed to find out that fact, as they knew full and well that that'd likely mean none of the players they watched would ever make it to the bigs.
As the other post said minor league baseball is a different animal than hockey. Some of the independent leagues in baseball are very organized and are of good quality.
Schaumburg's league, the Northern League, was spread throughout the Midwest and up into Winnipeg and Edmonton. Too large of a footprint for a lower level league and teams. The new league that is a merger of the Northern League (Midwest). United League (Texas), and Golden League (California, Canada, Hawaii) is spread even further. Another issue is competition from various other minor league baseball teams in the Chicago area and major league teams.
The Express won't have as much of an issue because the region has the capability of supporting another hockey team (although with the addition of the team, that is probably approaching the limit) I would guess that the team is looking to affiliate with the Blackhawks, they currently share the Toledo Walleye with Detroit.
I'm surprised to be honest that the Western teams even have affiliations. They typically have older teams, not to mention they are kind of on an island.
Baseball and Hockey are completly different animals and Baseball is a heck of a lot cheaper to operate.
