ACHL provides a slim hope for hockey in city June 30, 2002

By Phillip Ramati
Telegraph Staff Writer

If hockey has any hope of surviving in Macon in the future, its hopes will be tied to the fledgling Atlantic Coast Hockey League.

A day after the Whoopee had its ties severed with the East Coast Hockey League when the franchise was moved to Lexington, Ky., Macon team governor Dr. Jeffrey Fried said a lower level league such as the ACHL was the lone chance for hockey to return to the city this fall.

"I guess the only option would be the ACHL," said Fried, a minority partner in Macon Sports Group, which owns the Whoopee name and lease. "I don't know if anyone (in the ECHL) would move a franchise here."

There have been no formal talks between the ACHL and MSG for a while, partly because of the ECHL's presence in the market.

"We would never go in (the Macon market) until that situation was resolved," ACHL founder Bill Coffey said Friday night. "We've never had anyone from Macon call with any interest."

Still, Coffey acknowledged that the Macon area would be a good fit geographically for the ACHL, which has seven teams set for play in October. Franchises in Florida are Orlando, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Lakeland and St. Petersburg join those in Fayetteville, N.C.; and Knoxville, Tenn., in the debut season.

The ACHL also is looking to place a team in Savannah for the 2003-04 season.

"It's not that we wouldn't do Macon," Coffey said. "I won't even say we wouldn't have a team in Macon. We'd like to have a team there. We're hoping to have a team in Savannah in 2003."

Coffey had originally said the league's cutoff date to accept teams for next season was July 1, but indicated now that it would be July 15.

Macon would have to overcome a host of logistical problems to put a team on the ice this fall. The Whoopee has had no front office staff since the end of the season, no coach since Gord Dineen left last month to take over the Richmond Renegades and has not even declared its intentions for the upcoming season.

Despite that, Coffey thinks that an ACHL team here could be viable because Macon has an established fan base and corporate partners.

"We've talked about it, me and some of the other owners," Coffey said. "Macon played last year, like Knoxville (in the United Hockey League). I wouldn't rule it out. But I couldn't imagine anyone getting (a team started) after July 15."

The ACHL is fashioning itself to be a less-expensive, more-developmental league than the ECHL. Rosters are limited to 16 players and the schedule consists of 60 regular-season games per team. ECHL teams have 18-player rosters and play 72-game regular seasons.

Whether MSG or anyone else pursues an ACHL franchise for Macon still seems a longshot.

"There were a few discussions, but they didn't come to anything," Fried said. "I think it's unlikely (to have hockey next season) but nothing is final yet."

Besides the ACHL, Fried also mentioned that MSG had looked at junior hockey, but nothing came of it in part because it would have been hard to attract top junior players to this part of the country.

Fried said that the ECHL was too expensive for Macon, even though teams in similar-sized Augusta and Columbus have survived in the league.

"I'm not sure if Augusta is making money or not," Fried said. "Their owner has deeper pockets than we do. It's the same thing as far as Columbus. They have very deep pockets, plus a nicer facility that's attractive to fans."

While the budget for an ECHL team, approximately $2 million a year on average, proved too much for the Whoopee, Fried said it was a lack of support that ultimately did the team in. Macon finished last season 26th in the 29-team ECHL, drawing an average of 2,700 fans. Counting only fans who actually went through the turnstiles, rather than tickets sold, the average was 1,100 less.

"Poor attendance was the main reason," Fried said. "The other pro sports teams are not doing well here, either. This is not as big a market as some of the other teams in the league. We had a reasonable lease with the city, but the main problem was attendance. I think we gave it our best shot here."

The Macon Braves, a minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, will leave the city in September at the end of its South Atlantic League season to play next year at a new stadium in Rome. That leaves the Macon Knights, a member of arenafootball2, as the city's lone professional sports team.

The city has contracted with a consulting firm to help bring a team to the city to replace the Braves.

Home