Ticket Prices, CHL Ownership, PHPA Meetings, Skinner, & More

Brett Skinner photo by SceneByKimberly.com

Nice to see so many American's fans congratulating Brett Skinner and his Grand Rapids Griffins on winning the Calder Cup last night over the Syracuse Crunch. I am sure it has happened before but to be part of two championship teams in one season is a remarkable feat. As a reminder how important Brett was to the the Americans championship season he was the quarterback of the power play while in Allen and his 30 assists in the 28 games he played was third on the team for the entire season. The power play while he was here was at 25% and after he left it struggled to stay above 10%.You work so hard to win a championship and then you get two rings in one year. Again as a reminder you could say that Brett Skinner’s journey to the AHL championship as a member of the Grand Rapids Griffins’ blueline was longer than most. He just finished the eighth year of his professional career. He’s suited up for 15 different teams, spanning six countries, 10 states (and one province) and three trades between seven different NHL organizations. Job well done Brett as this couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

- Boston Pizza Restaurants has assumed ownership of the Quad City Mallards, the Mallards announced at a press conference today.
Jordan Melville, president of the T & M Group of Companies, the owner of Boston Pizza Restaurants, will serve as a director of QCM Holdings- the Mallards’ ownership group- and as a member of the CHL executive committee.  Rick Kozuback will also act as a director of QCM Holdings. Mr. Melville confirmed at the press conference that the CHL ownership has changed and now all the teams in the league share in ownership.

- It seems to me several of the other teams in the CHL (Rapid City, Missouri, Quad City) have reached out to their boosters/fans to talk about what has transpired with the league but the Allen Americans have made a decision to not talk about what has happened. There approach seems to be we were in the CHL last year and we are in the CHL next year so what is the big deal. Let's just talk about the championship and not these other distractions. If that was a decision that management made it is unfortunate in my mind. I hope I am reading this wrong and we will still hear something and can then move on.

- The Professional Hockey Players' Association (PHPA) is holding their annual meeting of player representatives this week in Orlando, Florida. One Player Representative from each of the thirty American Hockey League (AHL) twenty-three ECHL, and ten Central Hockey League (CHL) teams attend the meetings on behalf of his teammates, providing input and direction to guide the Association for the coming year. The American's player representative is Mike Berube. Haven't heard from Mike but saw a message from one of the attendees that said, "long first day of PHPA meetings. Unfortunately had to spend almost entire day focusing on 1 of our 3 leagues. Tough deal all around." That one league was the CHL. I know the situation in Fort Worth where players were kicked out of their apartments in violation of the collective bargaining agreement was one of the issues discussed but from what I heard there were many other concerns raised regarding the CHL.

-  Took a quick look at ticket prices around the league and the following is what I found. I tried to make this an apples and apples comparison so I looked at cost per game of full season tickets and took top price (glass seats) and end zone price rounded to the nearest dollar. I did not look at loge, suite, or club seating. A couple of teams have cheaper upper level seating but I did not include those prices. Here it is:

                Glass        End Zone
 Allen         $32         $12
Arizona      $21         $12
Brampton   $30         $14
Denver       $38         $19
Missouri    $32          $12
Quad City  $20          $9
Rapid City $27          $10
St. Charles $30          $14
Tulsa          $24          $12
Wichita      $20          $11

- St. Charles Chill sent this message to their new potential season ticket holders today:

Chill fans, if you previously placed a deposit through Paypal, those deposits have all been returned and you will need to redo your deposit by heading to www.StCharlesChill.com

- It is well known that sports fans in Europe are very passionate and that is certainly true in the EIHL where Brian McMillin just signed with the Coventry Blaze. The press release was issued in England around midnight Texas time and by the time the sun came up in Allen six hours later Brian's twitter followers had doubled.

- Sorry I don't have any new information concerning the Americans team itself. I have stopped by the AEC a couple of times but there is nothing new related to the coaches, players, etc. Most of the staff is busy with championship celebrations as the Presidents' Cup continues to be on display at many corporate sponsors. Tomorrow is our turn here at Heritage Ranch as the Cup will make a visit. Hope to do an interview with the Cup and follow it around as it goes fishing, plays golf, tennis, volleyball and visits with fan club members. Check back Friday morning for my blog post, "An Exclusive Interview With The Presidents' Cup."