ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2008-2009 season was a tumultuous one for professional sports, especially minor league sports and in particular minor league hockey. All across the country, fans watched as numerous teams failed, leaving voids from coast to coast. The latest casualty was the single-A Eastern Professional Hockey League, which due to financial issues, was forced to abandon its hopes for a second season. However, out of the ashes of the EPHL, another group of businessmen is preparing to fill the hole in the hockey-rich Northeast.
Led by Pat Lovett and Kirk McDonough, the North East Professional Hockey League (NEPHL) is planning on hitting the ice come November with at least four teams in three different New England states, drawing on the bountiful number of local players to fill rosters and seats in rinks in Salem, NH, Saugus, MA, Fitchburg, MA and Kingston, RI.
“The NEPHL came as a take off of the EPHL of last year, which as of today, doesn’t exist. The owners felt they could run a league economically due to travel, housing and things like that if the teams were somewhat close together, almost like the Division 3 colleges do in New England,” Lovett, who will act as the league’s commissioner, said in a recent phone interview. “The owners also figured that there’s a lot of hockey players in New England who played Division 1, 2 or 3 and maybe when they graduate, their career is over but they’d love to be able to continue playing like we all did at one time. We felt that this concept could work.”
Originally, the EPHL had designs on developing a New England division of its own to go along with the Danbury (CT) Mad Hatters, the Brooklyn (NY) Aces, the Jersey (West Orange, NJ) Rockhoppers and the Hudson Valley (NY) Bears. In a release issued by the EPHL in March, it identified “target expansion markets” in Hyannis, MA, Exeter, NH, Lewiston, ME, Marlboro, MA and Foxboro, MA (the Exeter market was supposed to have a franchise in year one but financial issues forced the ownership to wait a year).
As it turned out, the EPHL needed to be working on securing the teams it had rather than expanding into where it wasn’t. Financial issues and lawsuits cropped up in Danbury, sending waves throughout the league. Then, without warning, commissioner and league founder Jim Riggs announced he was leaving to become the Executive Vice President of the Quad City Mallards in the IHL, creating yet another hole. No official word has been given as to whether the EPHL still exists or not but as far as Lovett is concerned, the EPHL is no more, giving his NEPHL room to operate.
“Jim (Riggs) was right on. That was his game plan – having maybe a north and south division. Four and four would have been beautiful and I think that was what he was planning overall,” Lovett said. “It seems like the New England thing came about but the existing teams that were there did not, i.e. Hudson Valley, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Danbury. I wish I could tell you (about an announcement on the fate of the EPHL) but because I wasn’t involved in it but I haven’t heard anything. The commissioner is gone and people involved in the league last year are no longer involved so I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Lovett and McDonough have taken the opportunity left by the EPHL and created what they think will be a solid, viable plan. While many of the details of the business plan are still to be worked out, one of the key points is a salary cap that keeps costs under control.
During its six years of existence, the Southern Professional Hockey League has utilized a weekly player salary cap of $5,600 to cover 16 skaters and two goaltenders. According to the March EPHL release, the league operated with a $5,000 per week cap. Lovett said that the NEPHL plans on using a weekly cap number of $4,000. Unlike other leagues, all of the payrolls, insurance and worker’s comp coming out of the league office from monies sent in by the individual teams each week.
“We’re not going to leave anybody out hanging,” Lovett said. “This league is a very tight knit, owner-oriented league. Everyone is for each other. That’s the only way it can work.”
A major part of the difference in salary cap has to do with the players themselves. Lovett said that with the league focusing on a small area and local players, owners will not be providing housing and travel is expected to be much less expensive. He added that tryouts will be held in each of the four teams’ areas in order to try to attract local talent.
“We feel that we’ve brought a different concept due to proximity and expense. We’re not going to offer housing, which was a major thing. The travel that the teams incurred was a major expense,” he said. “Being in New England, a team – let’s say Saugus to Salem for an example – is probably going to be 40 miles. Fitchburg to Saugus is probably going to be 60 miles. That’s where I think the difference is going to be and not have all the time and major expense over your head and care more about the quality of the player and the play under these four umbrellas (teams).”
Lovett was quick to give credit to former ECHL executive Stirling Wright, who owns the Salem and Fitchburg franchises, for laying the groundwork for the league’s footprint. The owner of the Kingston team is no stranger to hockey either. Dave Adams, who at one time owned the Macon Trax and was going to be the owner of the EPHL’s Cape Cod team, has transferred over to join the NEPHL. (Editor’s note: Adams recently contacted PHN to say that he is not involved in any way with the NEPHL.)
Lovett said that the 44-game schedule would begin in early November. He also noted that the league has set December 28th for an All-Star game in Salem with the hopes of capitalizing on holiday and school vacation audiences.
“It’s school vacation week so the rinks are all full and again we’ll be putting our league in front of the crowd,” he said. “It will help people to know who we are and what we are doing and it will be a great night for the players to be touted for their achievements halfway through the year.”
According to Lovett, ticket prices are expected to be in the $10 range. He said that the building sizes (Salem at 2,400, Saugus at 1,500, Fitchburg at 3,000 and Kingston at 2,400 to 2,600) are perfect for the league’s purposes and fan-friendly pricing. Corporate advertising will be an important revenue stream and to that end the league will have its own sales staff to seek out larger sponsors while the teams will be charged with tapping the local markets.
When asked about whether the NEPHL could compete with all of the other hockey options in the region, Lovett was confident that the league will prosper.
“We think the clientele that’s going to come to this league is going to be the Division 1,2 or 3 person who’s graduated and brings that older clientele with him to the game,” he said. “We’re going to be OK and we feel pretty good about it.”
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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