CEHL Rumor ?

[hfxhockeyfan]

http://atlanticcanadaschoice.com/cehl/viewtopic.php?t=362

[BCRantzilla]

I think this league will hang on at least one more year as they do have people who can afford to keep it going. One positive I can get out of the past season is that they were able to weather a lot of early storms, something the CPHL couldn't claim and not only finish the season but do it with all of the bills paid and an entire playoffs completed.

[hfxhockeyfan]

http://www.herald.ns.ca/Sports/514414.html

bad news ?

[BCRantzilla]

Fate of CEHL will be clear by Friday

By GORDIE SUTHERLAND Sports Reporter

The future of the Canadian Elite Hockey League should become clear by this Friday, says one of its founders.

"It looks like by the end of this week we’re going to know for sure what we’re doing," said Harold MacKay, also president of the Dartmouth Destroyers franchise.

The semi-pro league — launched last August — took a hit last month when the Cape Breton Crush announced they were suspending operations for next season. That left just three teams with Dartmouth, the Summerside IceFox and the Saint John Scorpions.

MacKay said he couldn’t confirm who would be participating in the meeting, which will decide the league’s fate.

Asked what the scenarios were for the league, MacKay said:

"I wouldn’t say they’re looking that good. It depends. So many people were talking about joining the league and there was so much talk going back and forth."

As for the Destroyers, MacKay said they are in a position to continue. He estimated that Dartmouth attracted an average of about 600 fans per game.

"We paid all of our bills and met our commitments," MacKay said. "We’re fine. We’re still alive. We don’t owe anybody any money. We completed the season. We lost some money, but we didn’t look upon it as losing money in the first place.

"We look upon it as investing some money in this project to see if we can make it all work."

MacKay wouldn’t say how much the team lost.

He said it costs a minimum of $300,000 to run a CEHL franchise, including the purchasing of equipment and money paid to players.

"The positive side is the calibre of play with the league improved as the year went on," MacKay said. "The disappointment was in the crowd, the way we got off to a bad start in the marketing of the teams and everything."

( gsutherland@herald.ca)

I don't think this is BAD news per se. I would consider it pretty neutral news more than anything else. They are pretty much guaranteed to fare better next year than this past year. All they really need to do is add a new team or two and they should be all right. The question is weather or not they will actually promote the league in any manner next year.