Question Regarding Farm Teams In Same City As NHL Team

[Rifleman]

I was wondering, does any NHL team have both their farm team and NHL team in the same city? I know the Chicago Wolves play in the same city as the Blackhawks, and they've been the farm team of various NHL teams for years. Beyond that, I can't think of any other cities that have both an NHL and AHL team.

I was also wondering if it's a good idea to have the Flames farm team in the same city as them.

Personally, I'd be willing to shell out ca$h for tickets to watch the baby Flames play. I know ice conditions could be an issue with the Hitmen also playing in the 'Dome, but with a new arena in the works for the city of Calgary, maybe the old 'Dome could be used to host the Hitmen where the new arena could be used to host the Flames and the Heat? Do the Hitmen regularly get 15,000+ fans, or could they even move to a smaller venue?

Even from a purely scouting standpoint, it would be much easier and much more convenient to be able to see the prospects play and determine which ones are ready at any given time to step up and contribute to the big club. And though the cost might be just a drop in the bucket for a multi-million dollar enterprise, saving on travel expenses with recalls/demotions and having to just pay the expenses for one rink vs. two makes it seem to make sense to have your AHL affiliate in the same city, especially in a city that is mad about hockey.

What say you? Would you pay to see the baby Flames play in Calgary? I know I would, especially when you get to see the future stars of the Flames for a fraction of the cost of a ticket to an NHL game. I'd definitely go to more Calgary Heat games than Calgary Hitmen games.

[J epworth]

Toronto Marlies.

[byronkentgraham]

It would be nice, but I doubt there is enough market for the Hitmen and Heat to play in the Calgary

[Freeway]

Part of the allure behind the Hitmen is that you're seeing a top-notch/world-class team. A lot of that comes from the fact that they play in a nice (NHL) building. Cramming them into a smaller building may damage the allure.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Freeway

Part of the allure behind the Hitmen is that you're seeing a top-notch/world-class team. A lot of that comes from the fact that they play in a nice (NHL) building. Cramming them into a smaller building may damage the allure.

My concern is weather they'd be enough dates available in the Dome to add an AHL team to the mix.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Id buy season tix to the Flames farm team if it was in Calgary, and I don't even live there any more.

But a Flames forum is not the best place to gauge general interest, because we're all clearly mental about hockey.

I don't think it would make much financial difference to the owners (any increase in revenues from the Heat would probably result in similar losses in revenue from the Hitmen).

But I think that it would have huge benefits from the perspective of allowing the farm guys access to NHL-calibre training/coaching/medical/etc staff, plus it helps guys buy in to the organization more when they have daily contact with The Big Club. And that next step, up to the NHL, is so close they can literally see and smell it every single day.

I've had some experience with this system, and it's how pretty much every club in Europe works. Most farm teams are in the same city as the big team, and they share facilities, etc.

[Puppet Guy]

Originally Posted by Freeway

Part of the allure behind the Hitmen is that you're seeing a top-notch/world-class team. A lot of that comes from the fact that they play in a nice (NHL) building. Cramming them into a smaller building may damage the allure.

I'd rather watch the WHL than the AHL.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by Dion

My concern is weather

I'm pretty concerned about the weather too. There's been so much rain lately, it's pretty crazy. Whether or not that's relevant to this thread... that's up to you.

[transplant99]

I suspect that an AHL team in Calgary experiment would end up much like it did when the Oilers tried it....and Edmonton didnt have a WHL team at the time.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I suspect that an AHL team in Calgary experiment would end up much like it did when the Oilers tried it....and Edmonton didnt have a WHL team at the time.

It's very possible, but the Flames seem to market and cross promote their clubs pretty well. If they could do some sort of package where you get both Hitmen & Heat tickets it might work.

Maybe even the idea of a "double header" on weekends the Flames are out of town could appeal since both are gate driven leagues that need weekend dates.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I suspect that an AHL team in Calgary experiment would end up much like it did when the Oilers tried it....and Edmonton didnt have a WHL team at the time.

Didn't the Roadrunners have one of the best attendance records in the league? Obviously that was helped by the fact there was also no NHL season that year either.

However I agree that the Heat could not make it long term in Calgary; and I would base that upon the attendance figures when the Heat would play 1 game here. If they cannot get 5000 fans for the one game where we would all want to go see them play, I doubt they could get regular attendance to fill out a season.

[albertGQ]

Flyers used to have the Phantoms

[moon]

I can't imagine it working and certainly not with the WHL team still here.

I think the WHL can draw from a different fan base than the NHL (at least down in Lethbridge I know a ton of fans that are WHL fans not NHL fans). With the AHL I think you would almost exclusively being dealing with NHL fans as the large majority of fans. I doubt there would be much (if any corporate incentive to buy tickets) hard to imagine many Flames STH's wanting both and to the average fan the AHL doesn't really have much of a draw in a big city like Calgary.

There likely would be a great sense of support on here from hardcore fans but even as a hardcore fan myself I would have no desire to have season ticket and would maybe go to a handful of games a year depending on my schedule.

The draw of the "prospects" is nice but in reality most of the exciting prospects are rookies in the NHL or playing in CHL/NCAA. The guys in the AHL are the future 3rd/4th liners or never will be guys and for most people the AHL just ends up being a very watered down second tier league.

I also think as we see with Abbotsford the cost of running the team with travel costs makes it a much more expensive business than the WHL and with no City of Abbotsford paying the difference no real reason for the Flames to kill their WHL team to pay a couple of million to prop up their AHL team.

[albertGQ]

I rarely buy Flames tickets so I'll probably never buy Heat tix

[Resolute 14]

The simple truth is that Calgary is not big enough to support three high-level franchises. As such, the only thing the Flames could possibly do by relocating the Heat into the city is cannibalize support for all three teams. And if it came down to WHL or AHL, I'll take the WHL every single time. World class junior hockey or second rate professional hockey. Easy call.

There really is no reason why the Flames should, or would want to, move an AHL team into this city.


Also, historically, the Flyers had their AHL team located in Philly. The Phantoms relocated when the Spectrum was torn down.

[FlamesAddiction]

Even look at a massive city like Chicago where the AHL team had more fans at the game than the NHL team when times were tough. I really doubt the Flames want competition like that.

[Robbob]

When the Heat came to play the Barons at the saddledome a couple years back I think they barely managed 5000 people