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1 hour ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

First won since the franchise moved to Charlotte though...I could be wrong. 

First for this iteration of the checkers.  The ECHL Checkers won the Kelly Cup (echl equivalent of Calder) in the 95-96 season. They existed in Charlotte from 1993-2010 until the Albany River rats moved here in 2010 and assumed the Checkers name.

I dont know much about minor league hockey but it seems like the ECHL and AHL are relatively equal in stature. Both are farm leagues for the NHL and attendance figures and salaries for both leagues seem pretty equal.

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1 hour ago, Niner National said:

First for this iteration of the checkers.  The ECHL Checkers won the Kelly Cup (echl equivalent of Calder) in the 95-96 season. They existed in Charlotte from 1993-2010 until the Albany River rats moved here in 2010 and assumed the Checkers name.

I dont know much about minor league hockey but it seems like the ECHL and AHL are relatively equal in stature. Both are farm leagues for the NHL and attendance figures and salaries for both leagues seem pretty equal.

ECHL and AHL are not equivalent in stature.  Both are farm leagues but one is a lower tier in the system than the other.  AHL is the hockey equivalent of AAA in baseball whereas ECHL is equivalent to AA. You routinely see guys going up and down between the AHL and the NHL; ECHL players usually have to play a stint in the AHL before they are promoted to the NHL.  AHL is top quality hockey with serious NHL prospects whereas ECHL is less so.

Side note: I think the fact that the Checkers won the cup was in no small part due to the contingent of 3 or 4  players who got sent back to Charlotte from the Hurricanes after their run to the Eastern Conference Finals in the NHL.  So if you watched the Checkers later in their playoff run, you were watching not only NHL caliber players, but NHL caliber players who were, just a few weeks prior, on a Stanley Cup chase.  

Edited by cltbwimob
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I went to a few games and wondered about this so thanks for the synopsis!Does anybody know how their facility ranks in the league?

As an aside, I think it's borderline dangerous when full. I'm surprised it meets fire code. It's a very family friendly place though - assuming you don't burn alive or are stampeded in the rush to the micro stand....

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On 6/9/2019 at 9:50 PM, elrodvt said:

I went to a few games and wondered about this so thanks for the synopsis!Does anybody know how their facility ranks in the league?

As an aside, I think it's borderline dangerous when full. I'm surprised it meets fire code. It's a very family friendly place though - assuming you don't burn alive or are stampeded in the rush to the micro stand....

Game 1 was scary crowded.

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Don't get your heart set on Tampa Bay moving to Charlotte:

 

NEW YORK — The Ex-Rays?

Starved for fans despite success on the field, the Tampa Bay Rays have been given the go-ahead by Major League Baseball to look into playing a split season in Montreal.

No timetable for the possible plan was announced. An idea under consideration is for the Rays to play early in the season in Tampa Bay and later in Montreal. Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Thursday at the end of the owners’ meetings, saying the executive council had granted the Rays “broad permission to explore what’s available.”

Manfred said it’s too soon to detail the particulars — as in, where the team would play postseason games, or in what stadiums. But the revelation is sure to spark interest across Canada, where Les Expos flourished for years with a truly international flair.

The Montreal Expos existed from 1969-2004 before they moved to Washington and became the Nationals. In their last two seasons before moving, the Expos played 22 games per year at San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Expos then, like the Rays now, operated with a small payroll, often losing stars to big-market clubs. Low attendance plagued both franchises.

Tampa Bay is averaging 14,546 fans per home game, ahead of only the Miami Marlins. The Rays have played at Tropicana Field since their inception in 1998 and drew their lowest home crowd of 5,786 against Toronto last month.

The Rays had looked into building a new stadium for years but in December abandoned a plan to build across the bay in Tampa's Ybor City area. They are committed to play in the Tampa Bay area through 2027.

MLB has played exhibition games in Montreal in recent years involving the Toronto Blue Jays, and have drawn well for those. MLB has loosely talked over the years about expansion into Montreal, but Manfred repeatedly has said expansion will not be considered until the Rays and Oakland Athletics get new ballparks.The Expos were MLB's first international franchise and a popular destination for fans and visiting teams when they began, offering a lively, festive atmosphere at tiny Jarry Park with their jaunty organ music, curious logo and red, white and blue colors.

Over the years, the Expos became a force with the likes of future Hall of Famers Andre Dawson and Tim Raines, but attendance lagged at Olympic Stadium, where the Expos averaged just over 10,000 in 2002, their last season of a full home schedule in Canada.

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  • 4 weeks later...

From today's CBJ - Soccer - 2019 International Champions Cup

"The nation's biggest name in soccer at the moment will be in the Queen City this weekend as part of the International Champions Cup match and related events taking place uptown.  Megan Rapinoe, a co-captain on the U.S. Women’s World Cup-winning team, will lead a skills-training session and do the ceremonial coin toss at the game, according to the Observer.  "What an exciting opportunity,” she told the daily newspaper.  “It seems like just an incredible soccer city, so to be able to bring some hype and excitement on top of what’s already happening, having those two incredible teams there, just was a no-brainer for me.”  "Plans for the fan festival were revealed earlier this month, along with a multiyear contract to make international soccer matches a fixture here for the next five years."

Pictured is a rendering of the Relevent-backed fan festival planned at Romare Bearden Park in uptown on July 19-20.
 
Pictured is a rendering of the Relevent-backed fan festival planned at Romare Bearden Park in Uptown on July 19-20.
 
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On 8/31/2019 at 4:25 PM, kermit said:

I really thought attendance would be better at a season-opening Heel-Cock game, it looks less than half full on TV.

I saw more people at the S Blvd Chic Fil A this morning.

This game always struggles with attendance. The ptb that run the event keep ticket prices high (>$70) for the nosebleeds rather than slashing prices in the upper bowl or letting the secondary market take over.

I will also say that the shaded areas on the side opposite the camera had much better attendance. It was very hot out there.

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12 hours ago, DH17 said:

This game always struggles with attendance. The ptb that run the event keep ticket prices high (>$70) for the nosebleeds rather than slashing prices in the upper bowl or letting the secondary market take over.

I will also say that the shaded areas on the side opposite the camera had much better attendance. It was very hot out there.

We were on the sunny (UNC) side.  Spent a bit of time in the club level, which was packed with people avoiding the heat.

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