HeadFirst
08-03-2005, 08:03 PM
Hereby soliciting any informed, articulate opinion -- mine excepted, of course, due to topic-starter's prerogative -- on this crazy situation going on in the noted hockey hotbed of the American Southwest. (Yes, for the record, I'm aware that the CHL is the best-drawing "AA-level" league. Still. The ECHL rocks.)
But I digress, as I often seem to have to do. Though I know virtually nothing of the intricate legalities involved, I opine that the language of the agreement stipulates that the "25-mile radius" clause strictly means that another franchise's home arena cannot exist within a circle so described. The Eagles argue that the two franchise's circles would intersect, thereby violating the agreement. I think they'll lose in an arbitration. It's the center of Broomfield's circle that would need to be inside of the Eagles' circle's center for their argument to be valid. But I dunno.
It is curious, though, that a league would suddenly sue one of its members, seemingly before a more surreptitious settlement was even attempted. I wonder what spawned that first blow across the bough.
Anyway, my brain spun off an interesting what-if. The Colorado Eagles have shown themselves to be a strong franchise on- and off-ice. The inevitable angry litigation and payment of league exit fees aside, I dream of a world in which the Eagles "reward" their fans, sponsors and players by applying for membership in the more acclaimed and more NHL-centric ECHL -- and subsequent affiliation with the nearby Avalanche, and natural rivalry with the Utah Grizzlies -- thereby solving their little rift with the CHL, which retains their major metropolitan exposure through the Broomfield UnNamedz.
Okay, alright. To be fair, the CHL can have the Texas Wildcatters.
Never will happen. (Or will it?) But it can be fun to make the puppets dance.
But I digress, as I often seem to have to do. Though I know virtually nothing of the intricate legalities involved, I opine that the language of the agreement stipulates that the "25-mile radius" clause strictly means that another franchise's home arena cannot exist within a circle so described. The Eagles argue that the two franchise's circles would intersect, thereby violating the agreement. I think they'll lose in an arbitration. It's the center of Broomfield's circle that would need to be inside of the Eagles' circle's center for their argument to be valid. But I dunno.
It is curious, though, that a league would suddenly sue one of its members, seemingly before a more surreptitious settlement was even attempted. I wonder what spawned that first blow across the bough.
Anyway, my brain spun off an interesting what-if. The Colorado Eagles have shown themselves to be a strong franchise on- and off-ice. The inevitable angry litigation and payment of league exit fees aside, I dream of a world in which the Eagles "reward" their fans, sponsors and players by applying for membership in the more acclaimed and more NHL-centric ECHL -- and subsequent affiliation with the nearby Avalanche, and natural rivalry with the Utah Grizzlies -- thereby solving their little rift with the CHL, which retains their major metropolitan exposure through the Broomfield UnNamedz.
Okay, alright. To be fair, the CHL can have the Texas Wildcatters.
Never will happen. (Or will it?) But it can be fun to make the puppets dance.