Thursday, May 31, 2001

Consolidation will make for stable league

The Western Professional Hockey League is gone, and it went the way that smaller, newer startup leagues often do in today's sports world. Franchise closings, financial issues and good business sense finally won out.
   The new and improved version of the Central Hockey League - a merged behemoth of a league that may feature as many as 24 teams - will be tougher, more entertaining to watch and more conscious than ever at the bottom line: finances.
   Wednesday's merger between the WPHL and Central Hockey League was the product of months of arduous negotiations, league officials say. It was a meeting of the minds, a realization that separate, the two leagues would never be as strong as they would be together.
   Regardless of what IceRays general manager Taylor Hall says, the CHL did not need the WPHL. It is an older, more solvent, more established league. It was the WPHL that will benefit most from this merger.
   Both obviously gain. It's just that the WPHL gained more out of this one.
   This merger wouldn't have happened had the WPHL not said goodbye to franchises in Tuscon and Central Texas, which folded last season after they could not balance the bank book and fill their arena's seats.
   Had the Scorch and Stampede not folded their tents on the WPHL, would the league have made those merger-friendly phone calls to the CHL?
   Doesn't matter. Wednesday's merger was a good one: good for the WPHL, good for the CHL, good for minor league hockey, good for the IceRays and good for the fans.
   The CHL is an established league. The WPHL, with all of its successes and growth over the last five years, wasn't.
   This merger had to happen. For both leagues. While the CHL and WPHL could have continued on their merry, separate ways, someone finally got around to asking the right question: Why should they?
   "I'd be lying if there wasn't a feeling of necessity on both of our behalf, but on the same token, we also could still both operate as separate entities," WPHL president Brad Treliving said. "Would that make us as strong as if we were to combine? Obviously not. Let's put ourselves in the position to be the best."
   And so, here we are, a city that has loyally followed its hockey team through the first three years, paid for season tickets, helped the IceRays win the WPHL's "franchise of the year" award last year, but now wondering: what does this all mean?
   The merger creates an instant Texas division, with San Antonio joining the state's WPHL family in Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, San Angelo, Austin, El Paso and Odessa. Once the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo join the mix in 2002, there will be nine CHL teams in Texas alone.
   The merger creates a reason for fans to be excited, with new teams, new players and new rivalries to buy tickets for.
   In addition, it should quiet anxieties about the solvency of the WPHL.
   To that end, we should all feel better. Hockey just got a little stronger, the CHL just got a little better, the IceRays just became a little more secure and the average fan at Memorial Coliseum should be a little happier.
   Not bad for a few months' work.
  
  
  
  

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