SPHL set to expand

ORLANDO, FLA – Following an off-season that saw its ranks buck the national trend by expanding, it looks like the Southern Professional Hockey League is on the verge of once again adding to its list of cities. At the recently held league winter meetings, the six-year old circuit entertained a presentation from an investor group looking to join its membership. The presentation was one of two items that drew the most attention from the two-day affair held in Concord, North Carolina. “The presentation went very, very well. We’re looking forward to making an announcement about expansion shortly,” Commissioner Jim Combs told ProHockeyNews.com when reached by phone on Wednesday. “It will definitely be within the (next) month.” Both the Knoxville News and the Augusta Chronicle reported that the investor group may be specifically targeting Augusta, Georgia as the home base for their franchise. Augusta had been the home of the ECHL’s Augusta Lynx until the franchise closed its doors in December of 2008. “It is a very good market that would suit our footprint and our business model very well,” Combs said of Augusta. Combs, who prefers to keep negotiations and names under wraps until deals are signed, characterized the group as “having a specific city in mind” but declined to identify which city. “I have had many meetings in Augusta,” Combs said. “I’ve had many meetings in other cities as well but I’ve also had many meetings there. I’ve had meetings in six cities over the last four months.” When asked if the particular city and others where he has had discussions were on the eastern side of the SPHL footprint, Combs coyly said “all of them are east of Lafayette (Louisiana)”. He also said that the league could still possibly get to 10 teams with two additional cities beyond the one expected to be announced. In a related matter, Combs said that Bob Kerzner, who owned the Twin City Cyclones team that played in Winston-Salem, is still searching for a place to relocate his franchise to. He said that as far as the league is concerned, April 15th would be the latest Kerzner could come back to the league with a location and deal in hand in order to participate in the 2010-2011 season and that a return to Winston-Salem is not currently under consideration. “Winston-Salem is not on the radar at this time,” Combs said. The other big item that came out of the meetings was a decision on the format for the 2010 playoffs. The Board of Governors chose to revert to a format used two years ago, scrapping the four team, two round format that produced a scintillating seven game final series a year ago. The format calls for the top six teams at the end of the regular season qualifying for post-season play. In the first round, the number one seed will take on the sixth seed in a best-of-five series with the winner guaranteed a spot in the finals. The second and fifth seeded teams will battle in a best-of-three series as will the third and fourth place teams. The winners of the two short series will then meet in a best-of-three series with the victor heading to the finals. The finals series will revert to a best-of-five match-up that Combs said will because of building commitments be over no later than April 24th. The date is later in the year because of the regular season having been extended by a week to create more weekend dates because of Christmas. “It (format) provides the most amount of team to get in there and it’s competitive,” Combs said. “Unfortunately due to time restraints, we have to have a formula that gets our hockey season over sooner rather than later.” Combs said that three different variations of the six-team format were discussed, including teams getting first round byes. He said that in the end, the choice was made to go with the 2008 format. “It was definitely all discussed and the only one the made the most amount of sense was the one we voted in,” he said. He added that as far as he is concerned, whether the finals are a best of five, seven or whatever, it will be exciting hockey. “Last year, you could have said it was so exciting that we could have had a best-of-nine or a best-of-13. A best-of-five is going to be exciting. A best-of-seven is going to be the same way,” he said. “Unfortunately with the amount of time and weekend dates available to our buildings for the most part during the playoff season, we can’t go past April 24th.” Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com