ORLANDO, FLA – As the ECHL rolls on through its 24th season, everything was nice and quiet for the twenty teams that call the league home. That was until last week.
In the space of three days, three of the member franchises had off-ice situations pop up, issues that will take time to see what impact they will have on the future. Two were personnel changes while the third involved a much bigger issue that could have much bigger ramifications.
First, the big news. On Thursday, January 19th, Jim and Rob Brooks, co-owners of the Wheeling Nailers franchise, officially announced that they were putting the team up for sale. The news came on the heels of the brothers informing the ECHL at its Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday, January 18th of their intentions to search for new owners to lead the team next season.
According to Jim Brooks, he and his brother have less than two months to find a new owner or owners for the franchise. If they don’t find one by a predetermined time in March, the team may be forced to go dark for the 2012-2013 season – the first time in twenty years that the city would not have hockey.
Nailers staff members were told of the decision on Monday, January 16th in what was described as an emotional meeting. During Thursday’s press conference, Jim Brooks said that the reasons for giving up the team were neither financial nor strained relations with the city of Wheeling.
He said that the decision was made because neither he nor his brother have the time necessary to devote to the team on a daily basis. The brothers also own the Adirondack Phantoms of the AHL and are building a new arena in Allentown to house them. They also have stakes in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers baseball teams as well as Pittsburgh Penguins – the Nailers’ NHL affiliate. Jim Brooks is planning to move to Allentown full-time while brother Rob lives in Florida.
“We’re really spread thin as far as time and are trying to find more hours in the day,” Jim Brooks said. “It’s obviously something we thought about.
Brooks said that the sale price would be somewhere in the “mid-six figures”, far less than the $1.2 million he and his brother paid nine years ago. He indicated that the low price was a conscious effort on their part to entice a buyer who would keep the franchise in Wheeling. He added that the Penguins are also committed to the team staying put.
“The Penguins have been great supporters (of our efforts),” Brooks said. “I had a conversation with Pittsburgh a couple of days ago and they’re very supportive of getting a local group in or at least for the team to stay here.”
While the Nailers’ saga was playing out, two other teams were undergoing changes in their front offices. The first two moves came from the Elmira Jackals.
Last Wednesday, the Jackals announced that assistant general manager Don Lewis was leaving his position to take a new job. As it turned out, the new post is that of co-owner of the Elmira Pioneers of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. The PGCBL is a wood bat summer league for college players to hone their skills and be seen by major league scouts.
Lewis’ co-owner just happens to be Nellie Franco Nichols, the wife of Jackals general manager Robbie Nichols. Just prior to last Friday night’s game against Trenton, Robbie Nichols announced that he too was leaving the Jackals organization. He did not give any specific reason or reasons why he was resigning but he did say he was going to stay in the area. He added that
Just hours before Robbie Nichols made his plans known there was a shakeup in the front office of the Kalamazoo Wings. Team president Paul Pickard, who took the reins of the team and Stadium Management Co. in 2007, resigned from his position.
Pickard’s history dated back to 1981-1983 when he played for the K-Wings and later coached on an interim basis in 2002-2003 when then-coach Mark Kaufman was fired part way through the season. He also was an owner and coach of the Junior K-Wings team from 1988-93. Under Pickard’s presidency, the K-Wings moved from the IHL to the ECHL in 2009.
The team said that an interim president would be announced at a later date.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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