The Utah Grizzlies have found a new home.
On Monday, the Grizz are expected to officially depart the soon-to-be defunct International Hockey League for membership in the American Hockey League. Five other IHL franchises — the Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins, Houston Aeros, Manitoba Moose and Milwaukee Admirals — have signed letters of intent and are also planning to join the AHL, which will become the parent National Hockey League's primary development circuit.
A press conference is set for Monday afternoon at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield, Mass., where the AHL board of governors will meet. The Deseret News has learned that Grizz owner Dave Elmore will be in attendance. A media advisory says details of the league's expansion plan are to be announced.
Until then, however, Grizzlies spokesman Ian Furness said the organization can't comment on the matter. Despite the silence, the team has distributed informational packets on the AHL to local media outlets.
The IHL office wasn't as forthcoming. Communications manager Nicole Norris said league president Doug Moss was out of the office and would not be available for comment until Monday. She declined to say whether or not the 56-year-old IHL decided to cease operations in the wake of a board of governors conference call on Friday.
Recent developments off the ice, however, indicate the AHL's only Triple-A counterpart has decided to call it quits after 56 seasons.
In Kansas City, Blades general manager Doug Soetaert confirmed the end is near.
"The Blades are toast," he told the Kansas City Star. "The league is folding, the franchise is folding."
An official announcement is expected early Monday morning.
The IHL's Detroit Vipers closed their doors when the parent Tampa Bay Lightning signed an affiliation agreement with the AHL's Springfield Falcons earlier in the week. Tom Wilson, president of the management group that owns the Lightning, Vipers and NBA's Detroit Pistons, said time had simply run out.
"We held out faint hope that the IHL would continue," Wilson told the Detroit Free Press. "If it did, because of our situation in Tampa Bay, there was a chance we'd come back with the Vipers. But we couldn't afford to wait any longer."
Initially a success story, Detroit gradually saw its fan base at the spacious Palace of Auburn Hills (also owned by the group Wilson represents) dwindle since relocating from Salt Lake City in 1994. The former Salt Lake Golden Eagles reportedly lost more than $1 million last season.
Financial difficulties plagued many teams in the IHL over its final years. After growing to an all-time high 19 teams in 1995, the league finished the 2000-01 campaign with just 11 — including the Cleveland Lumberjacks, who were kept afloat by the league after team owners wanted to cease operations in the middle of the season.
Unable to find a buyer, the IHL recently folded the team. In addition to Detroit, Cleveland and Kansas City, two other operations are expected to follow suit. The Cincinnati Cyclones are in bankruptcy proceedings, while the IHL champion Orlando Solar Bears are reportedly set to shut down because their operation hasn't been profitable.
"The IHL went out in the early '90s and made some bad decisions," Moss recently told reporters. "They put teams in markets they shouldn't have and in general made bad business decisions."
The most glaring mistakes involved escalating salaries and drawing the ire of the NHL by moving into similar markets and moving away from player development. The AHL, meanwhile, developed into a successful enterprise — a blueprint for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's dream of establishing a single Triple-A hockey league. Independent operations aren't welcome here, just teams with affiliations.
"It's time for minor-league hockey to get under one roof," Griffins coach Bruce Cassidy told the Grand Rapids Press. "NHL franchises build from within because there's not much movement with free agents and trades. They want their prospects playing the same style of hockey at the highest minor-league level. It's too bad if that means the IHL goes under. Progress can be painful. I think that's what we're seeing now."
Though stronger as a whole, the AHL isn't without troubled franchises. The Louisville Panthers have suspended operations, while the Kentucky (Lexington) Thoroughblades were recently purchased by the NHL's San Jose Sharks. The affiliate will likely play in Cleveland next season.
With the departure of Louisville and the addition of expansion teams in Manchester, N.H., and Bridgeport, Conn., active AHL membership is currently at 21. Add in the six IHL survivors and the Eastern-based league extends its reach as far west as Utah and south to Texas.
"The objective of this expansion is to further solidify the American Hockey League in its role as the primary player development league for National Hockey League clubs," AHL president David Andrews revealed in a statement void of specifics that was released earlier this month. "The AHL brand will be strengthened, and our marketing potential increased. Our strategic plan has been built upon the skill level of our players and the intensity of AHL competition. As we wind up our 65th anniversary season, we look forward to the prospect of delivering AHL hockey to an even greater fan base in the future."
To offset travel costs, the IHL additions (who are each reportedly paying $1 million over 10 years to join the league) are expected to form their own division and play a vast majority of their 80 games against each other. Other AHL teams will likely make the longer journeys on a rotating basis.
Despite the added mileage gap between the league's distant points — Utah is more than 3,900 miles away from the AHL's Saint John's Maple Leafs — it could be argued that traveling to Salt Lake City or Houston with major airports could be no more taxing than trips to current franchises in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and New Brunswick.
Another plus for the IHL squads is attendance. The six teams each surpassed the AHL average of 5,673 fans per game last season. In fact, the IHL as a whole has led the minor leagues in attendance for 12 consecutive years.
All the survivors want, according to Grand Rapids co-owner Dan DeVos, is a stable league in which to compete.
"The last few months have been tough on everyone with all the uncertainty," he told the Grand Rapids Press. "The most important thing now is to get some direction for every team. We all need stability to the situation."
It's expected to come Monday.
E-mail: dirk@desnews.com