[alaskayorkie]

Originally Posted by Speed

You may have heard of the ECHL team we had here in Lafayette, LA, the Louisiana IceGators. We had record attendance for a long stretch of seasons and were 1st in the league I believe almost every year. Yet they never won the Kelly Cup. Then, almost as fast as they became popular, attendance dropped like a rock and within a few seasons of low attendance, they were gone. A team that used the same name plays locally now, but they're in the SPHL, which is a lower league with only 9 teams. They were terrible their first season and played in a bad stadium and after 1 season moved to the same place the ECHL team played which is much better. They're still not that great and their attendance hasn't been great. I have a feeling they won't last many more seasons.
It was fun to have a great team with great attendance that satisfied my hockey needs and it was sad to see it go. Now once a year or so we drive to Dallas when the Red Wings are visiting since I've been a Wings fan ever since I started watching hockey.
Well I hope you enjoy seeing the Sharks! I'd like to go see some more Stars games but it's hard to justify a 6 hour drive just to see a hockey game. We've planned a few vacations in Dallas so we could go to a Wings game but the tickets aren't cheap if you want decent seats!

Interesting. We joined ECHL in 2003 and it looks like 2005 was your last season.Bummer. Must have broken your heart when they went under. I was chatting up the ECHL last year and discovered about mid season that another YTer is a Kalamazoo Wings fan. We talked crap all year, and I'll be damned if we didn't meet in the Kelly Cup Finals! We made the trip and got to see Aces win the Cup in Game 5. It was a sporting highlight for me because I haven't been to too many championships, not since the 1970s era Oakland A's anyway.