Shows you how much I’m out of the loop on hockey lately. I hadn’t heard any rumors about the Phantoms being sold. I knew they lost their spot at the Spectrum for yet another unnecessary, overpriced shopping center the tax payers of Philly will be saddled with. Oh yeah, it will create jobs…crappy, low wage retail and food handling ones which can’t pay the bills in the country’s fifth largest city.
For a long time, the alleged plan was to move the AHL franchise over the river since New Jersey had some openings in one of their nearby communities.
Instead Comcast-Spectator (the primary owner) decided to sell the team. No only was this asinine, the buyers (The Brooks Group) have partial ownership of the Flyers’ cross-state rival, the Penguins. I read all the wishes about keeping them close to Philly from the Comcast-Spectator flak. It’s not going to happen much like the long shot I could hope for, this is the team the Austin Stars will transform into—the Stars will probably be one of the financially faltering franchises already in the West Division; smart money says the Quad City Flames.
The loss of the Phantoms is going to hurt the Flyers in the long run. In my opinion, having its AHL partner in the same city and its players practicing, celebrating and working with the NHL parent team made a difference. Toronto caught on which is why the Marlies moved. Sadly, this hasn’t yielded any improvement from the Leafs but I think the NHL’s cornerstone team has a mental problem to overcome first. Now the Flyers are going to struggle even more because the replacements will lack the cohesion they developed over 12 years from this past arrangement. I fear they’ll become similar to all the other teams with cycles of being Atlantic Division chumps for several seasons, sucking on purpose to get draft picks like the Penguins. Then there will be a surge of winning which won’t last thanks to Bettman’s salary cap, or as my friend Brian calls it, all the special rules to keep the Red Wings down.
I’m not naive but I don’t care to waste the energy on being cynical. Professional sports is a business, even John LeClair accepted that when he was tossed aside after a decade like a worn-out sock. However, the ownership should always, always strive for winning. Otherwise, the team is just a tax write off as my father once said. He certainly described Dollar Bill Wirtz to the letter.