The Fault
Lies Not Within The Stars, but Within Themselves
The UHL had a responsibility to the fans of Columbus,
where the Stars operated for less than half of a season.
OPINION
Brian ROSS
Sr. Editor
MLNSportsZone.com
01.15.04 - As as child,
my father set me straight on the difference between ignorance and stupidity.
"You can lead a
horse to water," he said."A stupid horse won't know that it's water.
An ignorant horse won't care." |
|
You can feel sorry for
the stupid horse because it doesn't know any better. Ignorance, he told me,
was willfully refusing to see what was right there in front of your face because
you just didn't want to see it.
The Columbus Stars closed
on Friday, after less than half a season of operation.
A top team in the United
Hockey League with a coach and a handful of players were headed for the UHL
All Stars, they were drawing under a thousand fans for many games. Now all
of them are looking for work. (See: "It
Was in the Stars All Along," SZ. 01.09.04)
The Stars were owned by
Joe Milano, a businessman and sports entrepreneur with a poor track record
in his prior hockey operations.
Red Flags &
Whistles
Milano jumped into the
fledgling Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) by buying rights to not
one but two franchise operations.
His Waco Wizards made
it through a difficult first year of operation. The league worked with Milano
to find another owner for the club when it became clear that the Wizards would
disappear when the funding ran dry.
Sources tell me that
the relationship was so sour after the Wizards situation that the league would
have been very happy not to see Mr. Milano exercise his second option to open
a team.
That option, apparently,
was iron clad, however. Milano looked to Tucson, Arizona for his next sports
enterprise.
Tankin' in Tucson
The Tucson Scorch never
took the ice. Failure to provide insurance for the home ice, low season ticket
sales, and the danger signs of...
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