The Hockey Wolf in Triple-A Clothing?
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by Mlnsports
This fall, the International Hockey League returns to existence. Okay, not really. The United Hockey League (UHL), one of the oldest minor leagues in the game, folded over the summer after it collapsed under the ethical scandals of its presdient/commissioner, Richard Brosal, and failed to keep growing the sport for its member clubs.
Brosal, when it came to finding owners for his league, was a bit like the rat in Ratatouile who says "Once you get past the gag reflex, a whole world of food choices opens up." His masterpiece was the acquisition of James Gallante's Danbury Trashers (See: " Trashing Danbury," SZ. 03.30.06 ) where the UHL Commish was caught on FBI surveillance tapes of Gallante allegedly "fixing" a few problems for the Trashers owner, who was allegedly funnelling money to players under the table in violation of league salary caps from his rubbish hauling biz.
Brosal retired earlier this year (See: " Richard Brosal Departs. Good for the UHL. Good for Hockey. Good Riddance." MAJOR BLOGS 02.09.07 ) and it was thought that the UHL would find another comissioner and move on. Dissension was high, though and several clubs, looking at the prospect of playing in the larger and more stable Class-AA ECHL bolted.
The remaining hockey clubs trying not to go belly up or wander into hockey obscurity like the ACHL/WHA2/SPHL went in search of a home.
They knocked on the Central Hockey League (CHL's) door, but the higher requirements of the league, particularly capital requirements, were out of reach.
What does a venerable old league do with a handful of clubs and a tarnished rep? Change names! This summer the remaining clubs announced that they were "leaving" the UHL to join the International Hockey League (IHL).
For those of you older than 13 and living outside of New York, Chicago, or LA, you may remember the IHL as the old Triple-A league of the National Hockey League (NHL).
The IHL imploded under bad management and poor gubernatorial leadership in 2001. Its healthy clubs were sucked up by the then Class-AA American Hockey League, which moved to the head of the hockey class and became the new Triple-A affiliate of the NHL.
So why does one failed league want to take on the mantle of another failed league?
In class AA hockey, the CHL and the ECHL both have grown, and taken on most of the viable markets for minor league Class AA hockey. Marginalized, the UHL has been scrounging for ways to keep up with the Double-A Joneses.
Just as the new ABA in basketball, with its red, white and blue balls, is designed to evoke memories of the Dr. J. ABA, the "new" IHL is designed to bring us to the notion that, perhaps, this is some sort of revival of the triple-A greatness of the IHL during its heyday.
For a bunch of teams trying to make a "fresh" start, why pick the IHL monicker? If you're trying to establish your credentials as a new, better league, why take on the name of a failed league, and disavow your clubs' sometimes storied past?
Okay, so maybe the guy reading the paper in New York notices, burying about sixteen pages back in the "who cares" part of his sports section, the IHL initials and thinks that the Triple-A is back.
Most of the fans living in the minor league burgs are smart enough to know that it is the UHL in sheep's clothing. The change doesn't do a thing to build their trust, particularly having watched what a terrible job the league governors did in regulating and controlling the Brosal-led UHL.
The UHL should not have changed its name. It dumped its long history of records and achievements along with its name, when cleaning up house would have probably done better.
For the healthy clubs that jumped to the ECHL, there is a future. For those that couldn't, or wouldn't, running a small Sixth Sense league that doesn't know it is dead yet, particularly under the mantle of a once-great hockey league, is a level of delusion that they might want to practice upon themselves, but should not be perpetrated upon the paying hockey public.
Right now the IHL stands for the Immoral Hockey League. New initials don't take the stink out of what they want us to swallow, and I can't get past the gag reflex.
Triple A:
American Hockey League (AHL)
Double-A
ECHL Central Hockey League (CHL)
Class-A
International Hockey League (Formerly the UHL) SPHL
Junior hockey feeds both the major and minor leagues, which is where it gets a bit confusing, and is something that the NHL should regularize a bit more. The leagues of the Junior level are:
Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Western Hockey League (WHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and a couple of others that I'm missing off of the top of my head.