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Sports & Recreation > Hockey > Hockey Fails In Cleveland... Again.
 

Hockey Fails In Cleveland... Again.

It was announced yesterday that the AHL Cleveland Barons are packing up their zambonis and heading to Worcester, Mass. This is the fifth hockey franchise to leave Cleveland in the last 40 years.

The Cleveland Indians were the first pro hockey team to grace the North Shore. They won the first ever IHL League Championship in it’s inaugural 1929 season. They changed their name to the Cleveland Falcons in 1934, and again to the Barons when the franchise moved out of the Elysium in 1936.

The original embodiment of the Barons played in the Cleveland Arena from 1937-1972. Featuring stars like Freddy Glover and Johnny Bower, the Barons became the most successful team in AHL history, winning nine Calder Cups. They left in 1972 when the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders split the market and forced the Barons to move to Jacksonville halfway through the ‘72-73 season.

The Crusaders didn’t last all that long. They played in Cleveland four years, from 1972-1976. In 1976, the NHL came to Cleveland. The California Golden Seals moved into Richfield Coliseum and became the Cleveland Barons v 2.0. The Crusaders subsequently moved to Minnesota where they became the Fighting Saints.

The NHL played hockey in Cleveland for a whopping two seasons. Richfield Coliseum held over 18,000 people, but it was located 25 miles south of Cleveland, and the Barons’ attendance only broke 5 figures a handful of times over two years. Poor attendance led to payroll problems which eventually forced the team to merge with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978.

Cleveland was without hockey for 14 years until the IHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks moved into the Coliseum in 1992. Fans embraced the Lumberjacks, and although they experienced moderate success in Cleveland, the entire league folded in 2001.

That same year the San Jose Sharks moved it’s top developmental team, the Kentucky Thoroughblades to Cleveland’s Gund Arena (recently renamed “The Q”) and adopted the Barons’ name.

Unfortunately, Clevelanders never really got into this version of the Barons. Of all the games I ever attended, we were able to buy seats in the first or second row at the box office a few days before the game. Their attendance consistently ranked among the worst of AHL teams.

A lot of people say that minor league hockey will always fail in Cleveland, because Cleveland is a major league sports town. AHL teams traditionally thrive in smaller market cities like Hershey, PA, or Rochester, NY. Between football, baseball and basketball Cleveland already has their hand in major league sports throughout the year.

Cleveland was under consideration for an expansion team in 1997, but the Lumberjacks’ lease prevented Cleveland from bringing in another pro hockey team. The success of the ECHL’s Columbus Chill prompted the NHL to award Columbus the last spot in it’s four city expansion.

Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert may be in the market for a hockey team, and there are several AHL franchises that could be willing to move to Cleveland. However, an NHL team coming to Cleveland seems as unlikely as ever. The league has recently said that there are no plans for expansion anytime soon, and teams looking to relocate would surely look at Las Vegas, Houston or Hartford before they considered Cleveland.

Let’s just hope that Cleveland’s next team adopts the Barons’ name. It would be a shame to look up and not see names like Glover and Bower hanging from the rafters.

posted on Sept 29, 2007 2:50 PM ()

Comments:

Another great post!
comment by blog on Jan 8, 2008 3:06 PM ()

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