Stockton Hockey purchases ECHL Boardwalk Bullies franchise and will relocate to the East Bay for the 2005-06 ECHL hockey season

Breaking news from Boardwalkbullies.com:

Stockton Hockey Acquires Boardwalk Bullies; Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies To Relocate To Stockton, California For 2005-06 ECHL Season

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Atlantic City Hockey LLC, the parent company of the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies of the ECHL, have announced the sale of the Atlantic City ECHL membership to the Stockton Hockey Franchise Group, which is owned and operated by Michael Reinsdorf. Atlantic City will relocate to Stockton, California upon conclusion of the 2004-05 ECHL season and remain a member of the ECHL in 2005-06.

"This was simply a business decision made in the best interests of all involved, and in the best interest of our league partners and the ECHL," said Boardwalk Bullies Vice President and General Manager Dan Belisle. "The Boardwalk Bullies have remained in the Atlantic City market for four years because of our confidence we had in the market potential, but in those four years the organization has contributed almost $12 million to the local economy and has sustained losses in excess of $5 million."

The team name "Boardwalk Bullies" has been retained by owner George Shinn.

"I am deeply saddened by todays events because Atlantic City is one of my favorite places to visit," said Shinn. "Yet despite our continued success year in and year out on the ice, we were not successful in creating a large enough fan base to sustain operations. I do wish to thank Boardwalk Hall and all of the loyal fans within the community who continually supported us despite the obstacles that we faced."

Currently in their fourth season in Atlantic City since relocating from Birmingham, Alabama in 2001, the Boardwalk Bullies have perennially been one of the ECHLs strongest members on the ice. Atlantic City finished the 2003-04 season with a 14-year club-best record of 47-19-6 and became just the 14th team in ECHL history to reach the 100-point plateau. In four years, the Bullies have compiled an impressive overall record of 152-72-32 while capturing the 2003 Northeast Division title, the 2003 Northern Conference Championship, and the 2003 ECHL Kelly Cup Championship. During their inaugural season of 2001-02, the Bullies advanced to the Northern Conference Finals.

The Boardwalk Bullies franchise name has been retained? [see note at end of post] The name works, but it would probably not draw large numbers of casual fans out to attend a game. The Boardwalk name could work well with Stockton's new arena and waterfront development plans.

The Sharks franchise name was a marketing coup because it embraced a local icon, and had an old school Pacific design to go along with it.

I am not sure about the rights involved, but if the new ECHL franchise decided to try a new franchise name, I would have to recommend the Stockton Seals. It is a throwback to the NHL history in the East Bay, it embraces a local icon, and it sounds like a jersey I would want to own. If they went with the green and yellow of the Oakland Seals, it would tie in even more to the past. It would also be similar to the color scheme of the Oakland Athletics.

Then again, the ECHL Victoria Salmon Kings, and the Japanese baseball Hokkaido Ham Fighters are a little more entertaining. The new Washington Nationals MLB franchise missed out on a golden opportunity to embrace the Greys franchise name from its Negro league roots.

[Update] Dan Chapman Named President of Two New Stockton Sports Franchises - stocktongov.com.

Michael Reinsdorf, CEO of both Stockton Hockey Franchise Group, Inc., and Stockton Football Franchise Group, Inc. announced today the hiring of Dan Chapman as President of both the ECHL and af2 [arena football?] teams which will play in the Stockton Events Center. The new 10,000-seat Stockton Events Center will open in October 2005.

Good luck with the franchises Dan. I would market the hockey team at the final two Stanford-Cal Big Freeze games of the season, the SJSU-USC double header to end their regular season, and at the 4 team Pac-8 tournament being held in Berkeley just to have a jump on getting the Stockton name out there to local hockey fans.

[Update2] Three Professional Sports To Play In Stockton - KCRA Channel 3.

[Update3] Stockton hockey tickets will be available for fans to purchase next week according to Record staff writer Scott Linesburgh. Season tickets will range from $325-$900. It also looks like there will be a franchise naming decision that will take place in March, with fan input. After adding Stockton to make 9 teams in the West, a 10th team will probably be added to the Conference this week.

[Update4] Reader Ed Early adds a few notes to my post on Stockton Hockey. Note that I am colorblind green and yellow.

Just a thought in regards to the Boardwalk Bullies' relocation to Stockton - according to the press release, the name "Boardwalk Bullies" was retained by Shinn and not the incoming ownership group (which I'm sure would want to choose their own name).

As for a new name, I wouldn't oppose the use of "Seals" - I grew up in the Bay Area when the Seals were still around. In fact, I have a pennant from the 1974-75 Seals. I don't know about the Charlie O. color scheme, though - the Seals' original colors (kelly green, royal blue and white) were also distinctive, and I liked the abstract seal logo.

It must be noted that there's currently a team in the Southern Pro Hockey League called the Florida (formerly Orlando) Seals, but their colors are red, white and blue.

Sharkspage in the Zone

BYU DAILY UNIVERSE SPORTSZONE

Last week the BYU Daily Universe ran a hockey special on page 4 of their Wednesday issue. In addition to a thumbnail on the front, they used 4 of my photos along with 3 of their articles on the BYU hockey team's swing out West. The Ice Cats picked up an 8-0 win against Cal, and two third period comebacks gave them a 5-5 tie, and a 5-4 win over San Jose.

Unfortunately 2 days later one of their young forwards, #11 Jaxon Logan, was hit in the chest after he went down to block a slapshot against Northern Colorado. He collapsed as he tried to skate off the ice, and died after suffering a heart attack.

This was my post after it happened.


#11 JAXON LOGAN

I am mailing a DVD of the pictures to BYU coach Matt Beaudry. I wish the team well for the rest of the season, and his family all the best during what has to be a difficult time.

Hockey sur Glace photos from France

PHOTO BY LAURENT

Photographer Laurent sent me a link to a few galleries of hockey photos taken of Grenoble in France. I would buy a copy of the photo above, but some of the others are cool because they have even more ads than a German hockey jersey. Visit Laurent's hockey galleries and vote for them at the bottom of the page. Click all galleries on the top to see all of his pictures.

Laurent uses a Nikon d70, a 70-300mm sigma 4-5.6 lens, with 800 ISO. Someone needs to get him a 70-200VR lens, and ship him to Germany for the DEL hockey playoffs.

I have been using 800 ISO for my photos at Logitech, with mixed results. 1600 might be better for such a poorly lit rink. I am in the process of switching from a Nikon d100 to a d70.

[Note: Picasa2 is out and at a very good price, free. Noise Ninja has a beta noise reduction Photoshop plug-in that is free for a few weeks. Give it a try, especially if you use a high ISO at Logitech.]

[Update] From Laurent: The photos above are from Ligue Magnus, the top hockey league in France.

Open questions for the NHL and NHLPA

NHL SEASON OUTLOOK IN PICTURE FORM

Before the 2004-05 NHL season was scheduled to begin, I polled both sides of the hockey blogosphere for questions they would like to ask the NHL and NHLPA. 15 questions were asked of the NHL, and 15 questions were asked of the NHLPA from members of 6 different hockey websites.

All questions were sent in to the NHL and NHLPA. Click here for the complete list. NHL Executive VP and Chief Legal Officer Bill Daly answered one of my questions on NHLcbanews.com about what fans will get out of a new CBA agreement. 1 out of 30 is better than 0 out of 30 I guess.

I am posting these here to take a look back before I try to write a lockout post that I have been working on for awhile.

Local hockey notes

Just a quick note about the local Bay Area club hockey teams as the 2004-05 season comes to a close. Berkeley is on the road this weekend at UCLA and Long Beach State. Friday February 4th is the last Cal home game of the year against Stanford. The Big Freeze series is split at 1-1. Both teams play again Saturday night at Stanford. Berkeley also hosts the 4-team Pac 8 tournament from Feb 18-19th.

After putting an 8-0 hurting on 3rd-ranked USU, San Jose State traveled to Colorado this weekend to play the first and second ranked Colorado State and Colorado hockey teams. The top 4 teams in each Conference will travel to Detroit for the ACHA D2 tournament.

From SJSUhockey.com:

Spartans Win in Colorado!

The San Jose State hockey team solidified their claim to a spot in the ACHA National Tournament with a 3-2 overtime win over the No. 2 Colorado Buffalos Friday night in Boulder. The winning goal was scored by senior center Chris Lee, assisted by freshman forward Jeff Mattern. Freshman forwards Sean Scarbrough and Kelly Spain had the other goals for the Spartans. Sophomore goaltender Ryan Lowe turned away 52 of 54 Colorado shots.

The Spartans take on No. 1 ranked Colorado State Saturday night in Ft. Collins. They return home Feb. 4 and 5 to finish the regular season against USC. The win in Colorado almost assures SJSU of a spot in the National Tournament held March 2-5 in Detroit.

From SJSU captain #4 Ray Kellam, a recap of the OT period in SJSU's 3-2 win over Colorado Friday night:

OT: one minute in, Lovins chips the puck past a CU player to Jeff Mattern. The Cu player finished his hit on Lovins and took both of them out of the play. Mattern turned on the after burners and scorched past a CU defender, slid the puck across to the high slot where Chris Lee promptly smoked a frozen rope past the CU tender. The CU tender may have been screened by his own defender. The shot was epic. A rowdy celebration huddle insued.

[Update] A. Sheldon writes up the 8-0 SJSU win over USU last weekend.

Panek said the rookies were finding their roles and the veterans were really stepping it up in the leadership position.

“This is my third year on the team and this is the best I’ve ever seen a State team play,” Panek said. “Everyone was contributing the way they had to.”

Panek said the huge win was exactly what the team needed heading into a two game road trip to Wyoming and Colorado to go up against the top two teams in the west - Colorado State and University of Colorado.

“To carry this much momentum into Colorado is huge - the best thing to happen to our team,” Panek said.

[Update2] Local sports update: The San Jose Stealth play the Colorado Mammoth tonight in a NLL lacrosse matchup at the HP Pavilion. The game time has been changed from 7:30 to 8. The San Jose Spiders NWBL womens basketball team faces Birmingham tomorrow at 4PM. Soccer Silicon Valley is preparing for the upcoming Earthquakes MLS season. Mavericks Surf Ventures announced that the Mavericks Big Wave surfing contest will be the subject of a first-of-its-kind live Internet webcast this season. The contest is on 24hr-notice for weather conditions until March 31st. There, that is all the press releases I have recieved in the last few days.

[Update3] SJSU lost to first-ranked Colorado State 3-1 on Saturday night. Adam Dekeyral picked up the goal for San Jose. If you are a parent or a player, drop me an email to the right and let me know about the game and the fans.

ESPN 360 free broadband video preview - Farjestad vs Modo

Last week I mentioned a QMJHL game being streamed online for free on Fridays by Eastlink.ca.

This weekend ESPN 360 is having a