LAREDO, Texas – Saturday night’s game at the Laredo Energy Arena wasn’t a nail-biter, but at least the home crowd saw something they had only seen 13 times this season – a win.
The 2-1 victory over the visiting Missouri Mavericks was bittersweet for the Laredo Bucks, whose celebration was soon overshadowed by the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees’ controversial 5-4 defeat of the visiting Texas Brahmas.
The Killer Bees, who won a season series against the Bucks for the first time on February 26th, also managed to earn the eighth and final playoff berth in the Central Hockey League’s Berry Conference, thereby eliminating Laredo from post-season play for the first time in their nine-season history.
The Bucks, who have struggled financially as well as on the ice for the past couple of seasons had been looking at other less expensive options to playing in the CHL.
Following the lead of the Corpus Christi IceRays, who abruptly left the league shortly after the 2009-10 season ended, Laredo was pursuing a move to the well-established North American Hockey League, a Junior A Tier II league, sanctioned by USA Hockey.
However, just one day after defeating the visiting Texas Brahmas 6-5 in the final game of the regular season, Bucks CEO Glenn Hart released a brief statement about the future of the franchise:
“The Laredo Bucks have withdrawn our application to the NAHL and intend to compete in a professional league next season. No further information will be made available until the end of April, please be patient while we work on the details. We appreciate the support from our fans, corporate and media partners and we look forward to our tenth season of professional hockey in October of 2011.”
Conspicuously, there is no reference to the CHL, just a stated intent to “compete in a professional league.”
So what does that mean? The American Hockey League and the ECHL can likely be counted out, considering cost and travel factors. That makes the Southern Professional Hockey League the likely benefactor – purely speculation, of course – but is there another alternative?
It makes sense from a financial standpoint – the operating budget for a team playing in the SPHL is said to be about a million dollars less than playing in the CHL. Player salaries are significantly lower, equipment costs are less and the league plays ten fewer games than the current CHL schedule.
Bucks players celebrate a goal during a recent game with the Texas Brahmas
Then there’s the possibility of other CHL teams making the jump to the SPHL. Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs owner Tommy Scott spoke openly about this in an article in the Shreveport Times earlier this month.
“I’ve been hearing we were going to the SPHL for a month,” Scott told the Times’ Roy Lang, III. “I was glad everybody had it figured out, because I sure didn’t. So I decided to reach out to them. I just wanted to know more about their model. It sounds attractive.”
Attractive indeed. Given the state of the economy and the ever-growing competition for the public’s entertainment dollars, something’s got to give. So, as usual, the off-season is going to be as interesting as ever for the Central Hockey League. And most certainly, the CHL footprint is once again about to change.
Contact the writer/photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
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