As someone who saw hockey at both the Cow Palace and San Diego Sports Arena.. Cow Palace has horrible sight lines + is a old dump, the Sports Arena is a dump with way better sight lines and a smaller rink
Smaller rink? I beg to differ -- the SDSA has a regulation 85x200 ice surface. It better, it was BUILT for hockey (albeit 45+ years ago), unlike a lot of other barns where an ice surface is shoehorned in.
Smaller rink? I beg to differ -- the SDSA has a regulation 85x200 ice surface. It better, it was BUILT for hockey (albeit 45+ years ago), unlike a lot of other barns where an ice surface is shoehorned in.
Looks like they are going with an SF Giants color scheme, plus gold (which they use sometimes anyway). It'll be good to see more Ducks' colors in the bay area.
Barf. I'm imagining that this is just their temporary "look".
I could see them going orange and black to gain local fans, but using the exact Duck's colors (which this logo seems to imply) would alienate local hockey fans. I certainly wouldn't buy the jersey. Especially if it IS the Ducks jersey, which is the worst 3 in the league.
San Jose would make all the sense in the world. Can an NHL team have 2 ECHL affiliates? If not, this could be somewhat bad news for Stockton.
I'll add something that an earlier poster mentioned about Stockton affiliates. The Thunder draw really well and have drawn well since their inception. So I wouldn't be too worried about them going away anytime soon.
I have to agree that the Cow Palace is horrible for hockey, but hopefully it'll work out for the Bulls.
...and yes, I've seen games at both the Cow Palace and the Stockton Arena.
I was in the SDSA for the last Gulls game against the Milwaukee Admirals in 1995. The ice looked regulation to me. I have been in a dozen or so ice arenas, seen probably 1000 games. I think I have good judgement about the size of an ice sheet.
I was in the SDSA for the last Gulls game against the Milwaukee Admirals in 1995. The ice looked regulation to me. I have been in a dozen or so ice arenas, seen probably 1000 games. I think I have good judgement about the size of an ice sheet.
Whats regulation size? I know Johnstown had under what it was an Alaska has Olympic sized ice.
Man, these guys are really punching up the marketing lately! I’m getting a new email about once a week, and they’re doing appearances all over the city.
Took a look at the season ticket options though. Does anyone know how bad the corner sections are? I may have to just pick up individual tickets for the first season and get a better feel for the Cow Palace before spending money on any of the game packs.
-Rude
BTW- The mascot was officially named Rawhide today.
The former owner also spent a lot of money on unnecessary stuff like lavish all leather office furniture for the whole staff. They tried to buy a team and it failed. I'm hoping a lesson was learned 15 years ago.
The building wasn't the reason the Spiders failed. Their management was poor and they came in too quickly after the Sharks came to town. The Sharks made a lot of Sharks fans right away but it took years to make "hockey fans" out of the people in the Bay Area. I've watched the Shamrocks, Sharks and Spiders all play there. It's not great but it will do for now. The weeks after the circus and NFR are not great but other than that they will survive.
The Cow Palace is certainly not a state of the art building but it will do until they see what they can create for a fan base. This might be the right time to bring a cheaper alternative to the area. The Sharks have created plenty of hockey fans now but Sharks tickets are not easy to get or cheap to buy. With the economy the way it is and with the North Bay virtually untouched by the Sharks starting in the Cow Palace seems like a good idea to me. Spend a couple years and find out where your fan base comes from and then decide on a permenant home if you want. The city alone should attract enough good players to field a good team. Hopefully they market it well and really put in the work behind the scenes.
It's still a difficult place to get to for the North Bay folks but if the support is there maybe a place like Petaluma would be a future option. But at least in the beginning they should draw from all three directions. It's far enough away that it won't hurt Stockton but close enough to maybe start a rivalry that all the western ECHL haters think are missing out here.
I heard the average ECHL player makes the = of $15 per hour.
Living on that in San Francisco? Can you say Frat House (all 4 lines, will have to share a 2 bedroom apartment on that salary, forget bringing home girls after the game)...
I heard the average ECHL player makes the = of $15 per hour.
Living on that in San Francisco? Can you say Frat House (all 4 lines, will have to share a 2 bedroom apartment on that salary, forget bringing home girls after the game)...
The ECHL teams provide furnished apartments for the players; it's in the CBA. The average ECHL player makes $550 or more/week, and doesn't have to pay for housing.
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Last edited by LadyStanley: 02-01-2012 at 07:21 PM.
Reason: ...
The ECHL teams provide furnished apartments for the players; it's in the CBA. The average ECHL player makes $550 or more/week, and doesn't have to pay for housing.
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Didn't know that, but a team paying for a furnished apartment in San Francisco, is light years different, from what one team would pay in Wheeling.
The ECHL teams provide furnished apartments for the players; it's in the CBA. The average ECHL player makes $550 or more/week, and doesn't have to pay for housing.
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The weekly salary cap for 2011-12 is $12,400 and the weekly salary floor is $8,700.
Teams are required in 2011-12 to pay rookie players a minimum salary of $380 per week and returning players a minimum salary of $425 per week. A returning player is classified as a player who appeared on a team’s season-ending or playoff roster or who has played in 25 or more professional hockey games.
The weekly salary cap for 2011-12 is $12,400 and the weekly salary floor is $8,700.
Teams are required in 2011-12 to pay rookie players a minimum salary of $380 per week and returning players a minimum salary of $425 per week. A returning player is classified as a player who appeared on a team’s season-ending or playoff roster or who has played in 25 or more professional hockey games.
Just to add to this a bit. While the salary cap is as stated, the total payroll for ECHL teams is much higher; it just isn't paid by the ECHL team.
For instance, a player who is on an entry-level NHL contract usually has an AHL salary of about $60,000 per year and a bonus of approximately the same. These players total compensation is in the $100,000-$150,000 range. Other AHL/NHL contracted players have lesser deals, but make significantly more than ECHL contracted players.
In any case, affiliated players cost ECHL teams only $525/week regardless of what their actual compensation level is. AHL and/or NHL teams pay the bulk of these players' salaries.
Just got off the phone with my tickey rep. The Bulls are unveiling their jerseys on March 7th. Also, is this a possible leak of their logo?
I love the colors. Will be great to see the jerseys. The only weird thing is that logo reminds me a lot of that Wrestler The Rocks logo from late 90's WWF!
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