The World According To Carl

Back in the mid-90s, I became a hockey fan thanks to my co-worker and friend Jonathan Dennis who introduced me to the sport when Tallahassee had an ECHL franchise, the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks. Since I grew up in Mississippi where hockey was a foreign concept only mentioned briefly on the news to announce who won the Stanley Cup or, at every four years, the Olympics, I grew surprisingly a big fan of the sport and still enjoy it today. For many years, until the team folded operations here in Tallahassee and moved to Macon, Georgia (renamed the Macon Whoopee — cute, huh?) I supported the team as much as my limited income would allow. I attended games, bought souvenirs, joined the booster club (the “Fin-natics”) and even won some game-worn jersey auctions at the end of several seasons (my favorites are the two home jerseys I won of the Tiger Sharks most famous enforcers, the Killer B’s — Louis Bedard & John Badduke — complete with rips, repairs, board burns, etc.). I still have those jerserys to this day and when the weather gets cold enough in the winter (about 4 weeks worth around here) I’ll wear them in public. Sometimes when I do wear them I’ll occassionally receive a comment from a fellow fan lamenting the loss of the Tiger Sharks back in 2001. After the Tiger Sharks moved to Macon for one season only to finally disappear altogether, the only chance I had to go to a pro-hockey game was when my wife and I traveled to Gulfport to visit her parents. We’d attend a Mississippi Seawolves game, sometimes wearing one of my old Tiger Sharks jerseys which would always get people to come up to me and strike up conversations. Great ice breaker (no pun intended). I still hold out hope that one day Tallahassee will once again be home to an ice hockey team via a smaller regional league, but pessimistically, I’m not holding my breath.

Periodically I will check up on ECHL news and the teams in the region (e.g. — the Ice Pilots and the Seawolves — Mobile, Alabama hosted the Mobile Mysticks until 2002 when they moved to Georgia and became the Gwinnett Gladiators). Today I learned that the Pensacola Ice Pilots announced earlier in June that the franchise told the league it wouldn’t field a team in the 2008-09 season or thereafter. This announcement force the ECHL to officially withdraw the Ice Pilot’s membership in the league. Although placing dead last in the league, fans were still loyal to the team and expressed overwhelming anger at the owner of the team Mario Forgione, who lives in Ontario, Canada as well as franchise President Greg Schuh. One major criticism of Forgione was that he was an “absentee owner” hardly ever staying in the Pensacola area and lived in Ontario, Canada. One angry fan wrote, “Mario Forgione and Greg Schuh are at the heart of our problem! These two men are dishonest crooks. They have lied to the fans, the players, Coach Marks, local county officials and ECHL officials.” Another fan wrote, “The ECHL, Coach Marks, competitors and fans were blind-sided by the decision, but Greg Schuh doesn’t seem suprised [sic].” All the reports I have read from Pensacola indicate the overwhelming anger and disappointment of the Ice Pilots faithful. The Pensacola News Journal put it this way:

What certainly did not work here is absentee ownership. Majority owner Mario Forgione was an Ontario-based businessman. That’s where he chose to live, and that’s perfectly understandable.

But in this market, like so many other places with minor-league sports franchises, you need the boss in town. You need the owner pressing the flesh, meeting with business owners, meeting with city officials, marketing the team, pushing the product.

The owner has to connect with the people.

That did not happen here.

Both Forgione and Schuh claim they will be looking into joining a smaller league and resume play as soon as possible however it seems no one believes them. This leave the Florida Everblades, located in Estero, Florida (southeast of Cape Coral) as the only remaining ECHL team remaining in the state. Florida hockey is now limited to only Tampa, Miami and Estero with no teams remaining in north Florida where once there were ECHL teams in Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola making for interesting rivalries along Interstate 10 (along with Mobile, Pensacola, Biloxi and New Orleans). With this departure from the league, I am now worried about the Mississippi Sea Wolves who only recently resumed play after Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged their home rink, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum. The Gwinnett Gladiators, just outside of Atlanta, are now the closest Sea Wolves’ opponent. They are approximately six hours away. The Everblades are farther away in southeast Florida. This is going to put a greater financial burden on the Sea Wolves and I am concerned that they, too, may have to suspend operations in the near future.

Trying to put a silver lining on a very dark cloud for me, I hope this may eventually pave the way for a smaller, southeastern-based league to form and create new, locally-owned franchises in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Pensacola and Mobile as well as other locations. I have heard and read various plans similarly, but thus far nothing has come to fruition.

So I bid a fond farewell to the Pensacola Ice Pilots and to all the fans over there, I truly empathize with you all.

Trackposted to Adam Lawson, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, The Amboy Times, Beagle Scout, Democrat=Socialist, third world county, Nuke Gingrich, Allie is Wired, McCain Blogs, Walls of the City, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D’ITALIA, Nuke’s News, Stageleft, and Right Voices. Also, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under LinkFests, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.