[News] City of Abbotsford terminating contract with the Heat. Heat are moving.

[nwflamesfan]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

The Flames managed to get Gaudreau and Arnold to Vancouver from Philadelphia, on a Saturday night in time to play Sunday. I'm sure the travel logistics of moving the team to the east will be able to be handled with minimal disruption. The bonus is less day to day travel for the AHL team, more practice time and more rest.

They were both flown in on the Friday Night not Saturday.

[moon]

Originally Posted by nwflamesfan

They were both flown in on the Friday Night not Saturday.

Gaudreau was at the Hobey Baker ceremony on Saturday so that seems unlikely.

Edit: never mind seems that was on Friday for some reason I thought it was Saturday.

[SuperMatt18]

Would have been a kick in the nuts to Abbotsford but with the Flames and Hitmen both out of the playoffs it would have been awesome to be able to play all the Heat playoff games in Calgary.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by moon

Gaudreau was at the Hobey Baker ceremony on Saturday so that seems unlikely.

Hobey Baker ceremony was Friday night and the plane left immediately after the ceremony ended.

[Puppet Guy]

guess I'd better order a puck for my collection now.

[FAN]

I was never a fan of having the farm team in Abbotsford. The biggest advantage really was to spite Canucks fans. Our prospects deserve to play in front of a packed house when they are giving their all and winning.

[calgarygeologist]

Maybe they should move to Salt Lake City in order to prime the residents for a future NHL team.

[heep223]

Move them to Calgary. They can play in the Corral under the watchful eye of the Queen.

[McG]

I would think that playing heat playoff games at the dome would generate more than enough gate revenue to compensate Abbotsford city council for the loss.

It would be great for fans, it would be great for the flames, and the players would get a massive boost playing in front of a large crowd at the dome aka great for development.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by McG

I would think that playing heat playoff games at the dome would generate more than enough gate revenue to compensate Abbotsford city council for the loss.

It would be great for fans, it would be great for the flames, and the players would get a massive boost playing in front of a large crowd at the dome aka great for development.

and a big FU to the few fans in Abbotsford that actually supported the team

[Reaper]

I love how everyone is suggesting cities with more complicated/poorer travel conditions as being "perfect." How close the farm is to the parent club doesn't matter much. How close the farm is to other farm clubs matters a lot.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Reaper

I love how everyone is suggesting cities with more complicated/poorer travel conditions as being "perfect." How close the farm is to the parent club doesn't matter much. How close the farm is to other farm clubs matters a lot.

Agreed. However, in the "horrible travel" vein, the Jets want to move their AHL franchise to Thunder Bay, but they are trying to ensure a replacement team ends up in St. Johns. Could be an opportunity to return to Atlantic Canada.

[sun]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

and a big FU to the few fans in Abbotsford that actually supported the team

I'm sure they are both pretty choked.

[868904]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Yeah the owners had their noses out of joint when the Heat moved to Abbotsford as it would put their Chilliwack CHL team in jeopardy.

That would be Brian Burke.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by flameswin

The corral has never closed. It's still has ice most nights and is used for beer league hockey. I don't think you realize how bad it is these days.

It would require almost a full rebuild from scratch. The stands are warped and not level in a lot of places, the dressing rooms aren't even close to being suitable for professional hockey players in 2014.


It's just not even close to being a viable option.

Actually, the Corral stands are not 'warped', they were actually built that way, because there is two more rows in the ends than there are on the sides. There are a fair amount of concerts there, Disney on Ice was there for a week last month, and they had 300 kids a day in there for Aggie Days last week.
Having said that, your overall point is valid. Part of the reason the Hitmen played in the Dome when they first started was because the Stampede wasn't going to put almost a million in improvements int he Corral to get it up to WHL standards...and that was in 1995.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

St. John's is looking for an NHL club to partner with.

[goodyear]

How about the Keystone XL Omaha Ak Sar Ben Knights v2.0?

[PIMking]

Calgary got a sweet deal in qc then they ran out of cash and backed out. They moved to Abby for another sweet deal and they were bleeding money. Calgary cares less if it doesn't cost them to run their farm team. If they have to pay for it I'm sure they will do their research about the next landing spot

[PeteMoss]

Flames are now searching for the next city to hoodwink into paying them to have the team in their city.

Pretty clear they'll go to whichever city pays them the most considering they were located across the continent from the rest of the league for the past few years.

[Locke]

The Fort McMurray Heat.