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Is the
WHA-2 Rogaine® for Hockey's Southeastern Bald Spot?
The split of the ACHL combined with the rise
of the WHA have created a new league. Will it be any better than the other
leagues out there? Possibly.
Brian Ross
Celebration, FL. - 08.14.03 - You always have that one spot on your lawn that just won't grow. You baby it. You give it special attention, but still, at the end of the summer, it's that brown hole.
The Southeast, from Richmond to Tupelo, is full of hockey's bald spots. Places where even a team of white-skated hockey-playing Baptist ministers couldn't fill the tent.
It's the place were the Atlantic Coast Hockey League set up its tent in 2002 with six franchises. As the 2002 season was coming to a close, issues with the league's operation, problems with markets not sustaining teams, and some opportunism to cash in on the NHL's misery ripped the ACHL in two and created the WHA-2
The WHA-2: Born of Opportunity in Controversy
The World Hockey Association-2 (The 2), founded by David Waronker and Peter Young, began its history in controversy.
Young, who had been brought aboard the Orlando Seals by their owner, David Waronker, first as a consultant and then as a manager, is also an active principal in the major league World Hockey Association (WHA). The WHA is slated to begin operation in 2004, in the wake of a likely NHL lock-out of players as the other major league struggles with salary cap problems (See Hockey's Big Gamble).
Waronker, a wealthy real estate developer, also owned majority interest in the Jacksonville Barracudas, and the rights to develop a minor league team in Miami.
Behind the scenes, Young sold Waronker on the idea of his fledgling league serving as a minor league to the new major league, the WHA. It would appear that Waronker believes in the credibility of a strike and the angle that the WHA is taking for him to invest substantial money in minor league hockey and put the WHA's stamp on it.
Waronker tried to buy the ACHL. When ACHL president Bill Coffey was unwilling to sell, Waronker packed up his teams and left. It was clear before the playoffs were over that the ACHL, which struggled financially through its maiden season, was about to be ripped in two.
"We felt that we weren't treated properly," Young said of the Seals exit from the ACHL. He cites issues with the schedules, and, more importantly, with the quality of officiating as reasons for the departure of Waronker's teams from the league. Young also complained that the league office was run by Coffey and a few men at the ACHL office without a clear pathway for teams or officials to deal with a number of issues.
"The ACHL league office propped up people like stick men, so to speak," said Young.
The ACHL did not take this lying down. They publicly threatened the WHA-2 with invoking their anti-competition clauses. The WHA countered that the ACHL management had failed to purchase workman's compensation insurance for which the teams in the league had already paid.
"We brought the FBI into it," claims Young. The FBI was unable to verify any active investigation of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.
Threats of lawsuits flew. Then on May 14th, the ACHL announced that there would be a settlement between the two leagues. "The agreement ends all legal issues between the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and the WHA-2" said an ACHL press release. The ACHL granted the cities for Waronker's franchises to the WHA-2. What the ACHL received remains private, but speculation is that legal action on the workman's comp claims and violation of by-laws was dropped.
The ACHL Macon Trax were also failing. The ownership, what was reported to be lost in excess of $200,000 in their first season, was going to shut down. Waronker stepped in and bought the team, moving them to Lakeland, Florida as the Loggerheads. He also made good on the Trax' debts, and reassured the season ticket holders in Macon that a team called the Trax would operate in the WHA2 in 2003-2004.
What the WHA-2 Can Do For You
The 2 will play along similar lines to the rules of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. One primary differences you will see on the ice. The other significant changes may be what you see in the community and in the business operations of the team.
"The previous league suffered from under capitalization," Young tells MLN. "The ACHL teams did not have much chance of success. They spent next to nothing in advertising. They did not get very involved in community relations."
Our WHA-2 report card gives you an idea of MLN's rough estimation of the league's potential successes, failures, and challenges that lie ahead.
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