An Era Ends

On Sunday afternoon, 10,211 packed the arena formerly known as Worcester's Centrum Centre and watched the IceCats fall 2-1 to the visiting Manchester Monarchs. When the clock hit 0:00, the season, and the team, were gone...

Worcester, along with Saint John's, Newfoundland, are the latest teams from the once New England and Maritimes dominated American Hockey League, to close shop and move west. With the move comes much higher travel costs, and oftentimes, much lower attendance (just ask Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, and my favorite, Cleveland). Good luck, you're going to need it.

R.I.P. - Worcester IceCats 1994-2005

http://www.worcestericecats.com/news/html/story978.html

Lots of issues here. Most of them unrelated to each other, but related to the story:

#1) Bettman was an idiot for trying to make the AHL into IHL2... the original folded for a reason. Even baseball doesn't fly cross country for AAA level games. Was it necessary for Manchester to fly to Utah this month? Unbelieveable.

#2) This team will get to the midwest just in time for new rivals Cleveland and Milwaukee to fold. Awesome! I can't wait to see what Cincinnati does when Disney finishes purging their sports holdings. But you can play intrastate rival, Chicago, 20 times a season until fans stop showing up... but not before they stop going to see you visit Chicago... since you're freaking Peoria.

#3) It's really sad to see the team that paved the way for the Lock Monsters and Monarchs (certainly more than the other 3 older franchises in New England) move away.

#4) Is there a more troubled non-sunbelt team, other than Pittsburgh, than the the Saint Louis Blues? Aren't they busy enough there running their own franchise into the ground?

#5) Not to totally blame the Blues and the NHL for this, this move says alot about the City of Worcester. Worcester was once New England's #3 city (and #2 if you don't count Connecticut, an issue I waver back and forth on). Now what are they? 4th? 5th? They should be embarrassed by how far their city has fallen while Providence and Manchester have risen. Look in your rearview Worcester... that's Portland and Lowell... and that's sad.