Expansion Teams

[perusix]

Is there a list?

[Minor League Man]

Is there a list?
We don't know how many (if any) expansion teams will join the SPHL at this time.

I think the most likely guesses are Lakeland and Daytona Beach.

[rams80]

We don't know how many (if any) expansion teams will join the SPHL at this time.

I think the most likely guesses are Lakeland and Daytona Beach.

I think the SPHL will be in other places than Florida. Especially if those rumors about SMG doing what they do best (being evil) and driving Jacksonville out are true.

[robster2001]

The SPHL footprint right now is Richmond, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville in the "East", and Huntsville, Columbus, and Knoxville in the "West". That assumes, as it appears now, that Jacksonville is on its way to a suspension (And how quickly do we think the ECHL will snap up the building if the 'Cudas drop out? But that's another story.). Lakeland and Daytona Beach become more problematical from a travel perspective, among other problems.

I think the most likely scenario is that the SPHL goes with 6 teams in 2007-08. They're playing just a 52-game schedule, so you won't get too bad of a case of fan burnout in seeing the same 5 teams over and over. They'd probably have to regionalize the schedule - 12 or 14 games against each of the two teams closest to you, and 6-8 games against the each three teams on the other "side" of the league. I'm sure they'd rather do that than bring in questionable teams with just 4-5 months to set up shop, sell tickets, and find sponsors... especially in markets like Lakeland and Daytona Beach which aren't exactly hockey hotbeds.

That said, I wouldn't be stunned to see another run taken at Roanoke or Birmingham first, they're closer to the existing footprint... but it might be best for the SPHL to award 2008-09 franchises rather than 2007-08... unless they get existing teams jumping from other leagues.