[News] Stockton Heat to play in Calgary

[sureLoss]

seems weird considering the AHL just announced their schedule today

Darren Dreger @DarrenDreger
Strong chance the Stockton Heat play in Calgary this AHL season. Needs provincial approval, but health officials in California aren’t able to sign off on the Heat playing in their county. If Alberta clears, the Heat are likely sharing Calgary with the Flames.

News Update

looks like this confirmed

https://www.recordnet.com/story/news...on/4252186001/

The Stockton Heat professional hockey team will not be playing in the city this season.

City and county officials confirmed that the franchise has decided to play its games in Calgary, Alberta, the hometown of its NHL parent organization, the Calgary Flames. The news comes just days after the Heat released its 2021 schedule. The decision does not mean the team will not return to Stockton in the future, according to city officials.

Officials with the Flames and Heat declined to comment on the situation. Stockton community relations officer Connie Cochran said the city was informed late last week that the American Hockey League franchise would be playing in Canada, reportedly because of COVID-19 concerns.

The Heat’s original five-year lease to play at Stockton Arena officially ended last season, but the team and city agreed to a one-season extension this season while contract negotiations continued.

“From what I understand, they felt they were at a point where they had to make a decision where they would play this season, and they made it,” Cochran said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t play here in the future.”

Cochran said there are not any updates on the contract situation or how the extension will be handled.

The decision came as a surprise to the Heat’s fans and at least some of its employees. On Friday, a schedule was released indicating the Heat would begin the season in Colorado on Feb. 5 and would play its first home game on Feb. 14 against the Bakersfield Condors at Stockton Arena. On the same day, Darren Dreger, an NHL writer for Canada’s The Sports Network, tweeted there was a “strong chance” the Heat would be relocating to Calgary for the season because it had not received clearance from health officials in San Joaquin County.

News Update

https://theahl.com/stockton-heat-to-...son-in-calgary

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … American Hockey League President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Howson announced today that the Stockton Heat have requested a provisional relocation for the 2020-21 season to play their home games in Calgary, Alta.

The Heat will join the Belleville Senators, Laval Rocket, Manitoba Moose and Toronto Marlies in the AHL’s Canadian Division for 2020-21.

The schedule for the Canadian Division, as well as a revised schedule for the Pacific Division, will be released in the coming days.

[keenan87]

That would be pretty convenient.

[Rick M.]

That would be exciting.

[Fire]

Makes a lot more sense to have the Heat in Calgary with the current Covid-19 circumstances. All Canadian teams should do the same.

[Jordan!]

Can't say the players would be mad. Stockton suckssssss

[Flashpoint]

This would be a great move if true.

[The Yen Man]

Who would they play? Just the AHL teams of the rest of the Canadian teams? Guess Flames and Oilers farm teams can play out of their NHL cities instead, while Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and Ottawa have their teams in Canada already. Looks like Vancouver shares their team with St. Louis, so not sure how that would work.

[Vinny01]

That would be awesome.

I have said it for a while the Flames farm team should be in Saskatoon and the Oilers in Regina. Adds a neat layer to the rivalry by bringing in another province.

[Enoch Root]

It would only be great if there were other teams in Canada to play

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

It would only be great if there were other teams in Canada to play

Well if the Oilers and Canucks don't follow suit, there is still Toronto, Manitoba, Laval, and Bellville.

[getbak]

The plan was/is for the 4 Canadian teams to play all of their games against each other, so adding another one into the mix probably won't be a big deal.

Arena access could be a complication especially once the WHL season gets started, but they haven't even announced a start date yet, so who knows if there will even be a WHL season.

[transplant99]

Not playing at all makes the most financial sense, but barring that playing here is probably the next best thing. At least the players dont lose any additional development time.

Going to cost ownership a LOT of money though.

[getbak]

I wonder if they could just double-up the NHL and AHL games and have the two teams travel together? They could schedule the AHL games on the NHL off nights or play in the afternoon with the NHL games at night.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by getbak

I wonder if they could just double-up the NHL and AHL games and have the two teams travel together? They could schedule the AHL games on the NHL off nights or play in the afternoon with the NHL games at night.

Was thinking the same thing. Since they're all in the same city usually for 2 or 3 game series, might as well have the AHL teams also play each other, either before or after the main NHL games.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Was thinking the same thing. Since they're all in the same city usually for 2 or 3 game series, might as well have the AHL teams also play each other, either before or after the main NHL games.

...having the AHL players travel with the NHL players would be such a silly risk to introduce.

More bodies, more risk.

The NHL would never allow it.

[Derek Sutton]

Why wouldn't they put them out east somewhere. Playing in Calgary makes no sense from a travel/ travel cost perspective. Every OHL rink is sitting empty.

[FlamesAddiction]

I guess it helps that the Flames don't need to negotiate with another city, province, or arena. The Dome is up and running and so they won't have to pay additional costs to compensate another venue.

If there were fans going, then the gate revenue would help balance that out. Plus it makes call-ups easier.

[Canada 02]

Effectively, expands the taxi squad to make all players with Stockton available. Can all 5 guys on the taxi squad play with Stockton, or would they need to be sequestered from that group?

[MacDaddy77]

AHL in calgary doesn't necessarily mean playing at the saddledome, Heat could play at Max Bell or winsport since there's no gate revenue

[tvp2003]

Makes sense. They’d only have to travel 300 km to the north to find AHL-level competition.