The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

NEWS 9 Sports Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma City will be without professional hockey this season.


After 17 seasons, the Oklahoma City Blazers have suspended operations. The Blazers have not renewed their lease with the Ford Center, informing the Central Hockey League of their decision Wednesday.

"It was purely an economic decision. The franchise has operated on a loss for the last six or seven seasons. We tried to make cutbacks the last few years, but it just didn't work," Blazers Assistant General Manager Josh Evans said.


The Blazers won the 1996 and 2001 CHL titles, but struggled with a decrease in ticket sales.


Oklahoma City, however, may not be without hockey for long. The city is set to begin negotiations to bring an American Hockey League franchise to town for the 2010-2011 season.


The city council is scheduled to vote Tuesday to approve a "Letter of Intent" between the city and AHL Hockey Club, LLC.


The Edmonton Oilers of the NHL own a dormant AHL franchise.


Discussions have taken place about the possibility of relocating that team to Oklahoma City.

For many faithful fans, they've known for some time that something was up. In fact, the coach voiced serious concerns about the future of the team not long ago to NEWS 9. It was back in December when we met Coach Doug Sauter at Express Ranch and he didn't hide his fears or feelings. He knew back then his team was already skating on thin ice.

"You know, the entertainment dollars are shrinking," said Coach Sauter who added his team took a double whammy last year when the economy started to shrink and the Thunder stormed into town. He said the team was left fighting for the leftovers of Oklahoma sports fans.

"We're kind of the forgotten team. There's a lot of talk and hype for the Thunder and football and we've just been here for a long time," Coach Sauter said in a December 2008 interview.

The owners of the Blazers confirm the team was suffering financially, long before the NBA bounced into the Sooner State.

In the meantime, fans across the metro have been reacting with mixed emotions.

"Really? They're leaving? Wow," Dylan Duke said. The 17-year-old Oklahoma City Blazers fan said he'll miss the interaction with the audience during the games on ice.


Many others said they'll miss Oklahoma City's hockey team, but even life-long fans said it's the price you sometimes have to pay for progress.

"If you got to have one or the other, I'm going to say keep the NBA," said Oklahoma City resident and Blazers fan Bryan Nix.

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=10637625

That's too bad, it was a fun rivalry game for Tulsa and they provided another entertainment option in OKC.  But honestly, I just hope we don't spend any state money to bring in the AHL team they were talking about.  I trust those aren't "quality jobs" or the statute won't be amended to make them such.

FOTD - there is your example of not enough dollars chasing too many entertainment options.

Not necessarily the case.  The Blazers were viable BEFORE the Thunder became the Ford Center's primary tenant, which the Blazers already had a stipulation in their lease with OKC/FC saying that if a major league team were to move to the OKC area and land at the Ford, that they (the major league club) would get primary tenant status.  OKC from what I understand simply wanted the Blazers to pay around the same rent that the Thunder were paying, and not much better at the Cox Center either.  Not possible with ANY minor league club.  They  priced them out

The difference with the AHL is that all their teams have affiliations with parent NHL clubs that help foot the bill.  Sucks for a lot of my OKC friends who are Blazer fans.  One of them told me he'd be making several trips up the pike to watch the Oilers play now.

Tulsa really needs to move up to the AHL now, and bring Wichita with us, they have a new arena too. The OKC and Wichita rivalries were the only redeeming things about the CHL. Tulsa, Wichita, OKC, Houston, Austin and San Antonio would make a good division in the AHL.

Actually, I am in total agreement with one caveat.

That the current owner has NOTHING to do with the AHL franchise here.  Lund is horrible.

Now that is something we can agree on.....

And the funny thing is that I love hockey so much that no matter how much I b!tch about Lund, I still get season tickets every year.   ???

Kinda sad.

Hard to keep track of the Lunds..... back in January, Brad resigned from the Blazers and ended up in Independence running the CHL expansion team there.... fyi, Brad Lund was the point man for OKC/Edmond's MLS bid in 2003...

http://blog.newsok.com/blazers/2009/01/02/qa-with-brad-lund/

For me, that's old news.  He's been their CEO in Missouri since they announced it.  The Funks pretty much tagged him as persona non grata after they did the Blazer front office shakedown toward the end of the hockey season.

And he was asked to resign from my sources.

I think Tulsa and Wichita (both with new arenas) will eventually come on board with Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Oklahoma City.   Look for Tulsa to receive an AHL franchise sometime after 2010 or 2011.

I have a hard time seeing that come to fruition unless Monte Miron gets involved.  He tried to get AHL hockey here several years ago at the Fairgrounds.  That, plus the fact that the AHL is currently full would mean that a team would have to lose an affiliate and relocate here.

No Lund/Chen involvement is all I ask.

Blazers' end might spell trouble for Tulsa Oilers
By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
Published: 7/15/2009
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?subjectid=29&articleid=20090715_216_B1_THEDEM646959

After losing a reported $6 million over the last nine seasons, Blazers officials announced recently that they had discontinued operation and no longer would compete in the Central Hockey League.

The news had a chilling effect on Oilers owner Jeff Lund.

As Oklahoma City loses its CHL team, the Oilers could be doomed to losing a lot of money.

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Okay, so that averages out to losing $667,000 per season.
I always assumed the Blazers were close to being "in the black" every year.

What gives?  Did they lose $1mil the last season or two with the NBA in town?
Were they close to breaking even in 2000?

Express Sports isn't in the financial position they used to be-- divorce settlements will do that to ya'........ so who's gonna be the "local investors" for an OKC team in the AHL?

Would the NBA Thunder and their drain on corporate sponsorships really allow for an AHL team to locate to OKC in these economic conditions after a successful CHL team has failed due to losses like this?

It just don't add up.

Keep up with the news.  The business model of giving away so many free vouchers just to pad attendance stats came back to bite them.  This was pre-Express Sports.  The Funks tried to reverse that and had done so to some extent until the economy went in the tank.

The Thunder are paying to renovate the Myriad AND put in a new ice floor for the new club.  That's coming directly from Clay Bennett.

The AHL club is partially subsidized by the parent club, although the farm club has to pay an annual fee for being a farm club.  The parent club also takes on part of the sarlary burden.

Funk has been pursuing this now for over a year, without letting the Blazer CHL fans in on it.

Nothing is concrete, but several NHL clubs have expressed interest in the market, namely the Edmonton Oilers.

Once again, it doesn't add up.

Bob Funk Sr. bought the Blazers in 1999; he and Brad Lund were the driving force behind MLS in OKC/Edmond.... Funk Sr. fought the effort for an AHL team in OKC tooth and nail..... and won.

Travel costs for AHL teams will be alot higher than CHL.

If you're asking me to "keep up with news," I will counter that NewsOK.com/The Daily Oklahoman rarely provide news...... just rah-rah sis-boom-bah coverage....

If OKC gets AHL, will Express Sports own it?  Or will Clay Bennett?

Funk Jr created an LLC that's totally separate from Express for the purpose of an AHL club.  So while Funk will run it, Express won't be behind it.  Funk Jr just moved back to OKC from LV fairly recently anyway, so he's not really huge part of Express other than having the namesake of his father.

Bob Funk Jr. ‘has made his own name’
BY ROBERT PRZYBYLO, Staff Writer, bprzybylo@opubco.com
Published: July 12, 2009
http://newsok.com/bob-funk-jr.-has-made-his-own-name/article/3384758

And as the city kept growing, thoughts of placing an AHL team in Oklahoma City kept growing.

"The thought itself has been on my radar for quite a while. Did I think it would be a reality? Honestly, I’m taking a shot in the dark,” Funk said. "I think we have a good opportunity in front of us.

"I’ve been thinking about this ever since the sports environment changed in Oklahoma City. It has matured as a market since we bought the team nine years ago.”

That led to AHL Hockey Club, LLC, a company formed 14 months ago by Funk and Oklahoma City-based attorney Armand Paliotta.

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Hmmm.  14 months ago?  Wasn't that pre-divorce?  Enquiring minds wanna know.... I wanna know.   ;D

They've been talking about this in hockey circles down there for at least that long.  Stemmed out of the failed attempt to move the IHL KC Blades to OKC (when the IHL was solvent and a farm system for the NHL).

Bob Funk cashed in on an opportunity and he wanted to be the one to bring NHL, or AAA hockey back to Oklahoma City so that's why the KC Blades did not make it to Oklahoma City (Funk, purchased Blazers)  and it was a blessing because the whole league (IHL) failed.

The current ticket prices that Funk was charging to see the Central Hockey (Goon) League are comparable to the current AHL structure.  Unless, Funk prices himself out of the market; he will have Blazer diehearts and a year's rest (hiatus) to get it right.

It wouldn't surprise me to see the AHL average 11,000 its initial year in Oklahoma City unpon ice hockey's return; they will be playing in the 13,909-seat Cox Convention Center across from the Ford Center.    Potential rivals will be Houston, San Antonio (NBA cities), and Austin.

It wouldn't surprise me to see an AHL franchise relocate to one or both  Tulsa's BOK Center or Wichita's new 15,000-seat Intrust Bank Arena (currently under construction) and form the Golden Triangle (OKC-Tul-Wich), a threesome of cities which are arch-rivals.

Intrust Bank Arena Progress Link:  http://www.sedgwickcounty.org/arena/construction.asp

The CHL aint a goon leauge far from it these days......

Amen.  In the early days it WAS a goon league and did have skilled players.  Nowadays there are so many leagues that fight for AA level talent it's a crapshoot.

Hell, we had two former NHL players on the Oilers for three seasons or more (Craig Coxe, Mike Berger).  You barely get two in the entire league now.

Taylor hall played a few in the show as well........As did Sean Whyte....