The NHL start for realsies earlier this month, and now the lower leagues are getting going this week. I would have posted about Danville, but, well, the SPHL didn't make any changes as far as I'm aware, so can refer back to that post if you'd like. So, instead, I'm going to look at the other minor league I pay some good attention to, the ECHL. The ECHL is equivalent to AA, if you're looking at it by baseball terms. Unlike AA baseball, though, the ECHL really solidified itself and grew into its position pretty recently. Especially when compared to the AHL, which has been the AAA league for a long time. Thus, the ECHL has quite a few markets that are considerably bigger than their AAA counterparts, as the ECHL had a better chance to fill in some hockey vacuums that more established teams did not. The Blackhawks organization is a prime example of this. Their ECHL affiliate is the Indy Fuel, and their AHL affiliate is the Rockford IceHogs. You probably don't have to go running for a map to know that Indianapolis is a much bigger city than Rockford, IL. It doesn't always work this way, obviously, but you'll see a good handful of examples as we go through this. The ECHL is also a much bigger league than the SPHL or the FPHL, so we're going to break these up into divisions rather than blow through the whole league at once. I am going to privilege the Central Division first, though, because that's the division I most care about. This division is part of the Western Conference. We will get to all the others, though, I promise. Also, the average attendance numbers are based on last season, for whatever that's worth to you. Cincinnati CyclonesFrom: Cincinnati, OH Population: 309,317 City; 2,256,884 Metro Home Arena: Heritage Bank Center Capacity: 14,453 Built: 1975 Avg. Attendance: 5,212 21-22 Record: 36-23-3, 76 pts. Inaugural Year: 1995* 2 Championships (2008, 2010) Affiliates: Buffalo Sabres, Rochester Americans *There were two previous iterations of the Cincinnati Cyclones, one founded in 1990 and sold two years later to become the Birmingham Bulls. The second was founded in 1992 in the IHL, and died in 2001 when that league did. The current Cyclones were founded in 1995 as the Louisville RiverFrogs, then moved to Miami, and then finally back to Cincinnati in 2001. Fort Wayne KometsFrom: Fort Wayne, IN Population: 265,974 City; 423,038 Metro Home Arena: Allen Co. War Memorial Coliseum Capacity: 10,480 Built: 1952 Avg. Attendance: 6,838 21-22 Record: 40-25-6, 87 pts. Inaugural Year: 1985* 3 Championships (2003 [UHL], 2012 [CHL], 2021) Affiliates: Edmonton Oilers, Bakersfield Condors *The original Komets were founded in 1952, but moved to Albany for the 1990 season and immediately folded after one season in New York. This Komets team was bought from Flint to replace the moved team and adopted the original team's history. Indy FuelFrom: Indianapolis, IN Population: 887,642 City; 2,111,040 Metro Home Arena: Indiana Farmers Coliseum Capacity: 6,200 Built: 1939 Avg. Attendance: 3,481 21-22 Record: 34-33-2, 73 pts. Inaugural Year: 2014 0 Championships Affiliates: Chicago Blackhawks, Rockford IceHogs Iowa HeartlandersFrom: Coralville, IA Population: 22,318 City; 171,491 Iowa City Metro Home Arena: Xtreme Arena Capacity: 5,100 Built: 2020 Avg. Attendance: 1,961 21-22 Record: 29-33-9, 68 pts. Inaugural Year: 2021 0 Championships Affiliates: Minnesota Wild, Iowa Wild Kalamazoo WingsFrom: Kalamazoo, MI Population: 73,598 City; 335,340 Metro Home Arena: Wings Event Center Capacity: 5,113 Built: 1973 Avg. Attendance: 3,367 21-22 Record: 36-35-1, 73 pts. Inaugural Year: 1999 1 Championship (2006 [UHL]) Affiliates: Columbus Blue Jackets, Cleveland Monsters Toledo WalleyeFrom: Toledo, OH Population: 268,508 City; 608,145 Metro Home Arena: Huntington Center Capacity: 7,389 Built: 2009 Avg. Attendance: 7,358 21-22 Record: 49-19-2, 102 pts. Inaugural Year: 1991 0 Championships Affiliates: Detroit Red Wings, Grand Rapids Griffins Wheeling NailersFrom: Wheeling, WV Population: 27,062 City; 145,205 Metro Home Arena: WesBanco Arena Capacity: 5,406 Built: 1977 Avg. Attendance: 1,681 21-22 Record: 37-31-4, 78 pts. Inaugural Year: 1981 0 Championships Affiliates: Pittsburgh Penguins, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Comments are closed.
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