[Iowa] Stars Leaving Des Moines

[Jer]

According to KCCI, the Iowa Stars are leaving as soon as next season. They say that a new team will take over in it's place but I don't follow Hockey so I don't know the prospects of that happening.

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[HILLCYD]

You could see this coming a mile away. Can't wait to hear Marty talk about it tonight on the way home, you know he was the only one who knew it was coming.

 

[jtaconutz]

There is a hockey team in DM other than the Bucs?

 

[cybsball20]

They need to just get a Blackhawks AHL team here and Des Moines will officially be 'Little Chicago'

 

[HILLCYD]

Whatever team they replace it with will last a maximum of another 2-3 years.

 

[Dave19642006]

And the New name will be "Iowa Walkers"

 

[thunderdave]

You could see this coming a mile away. Can't wait to hear Marty talk about it tonight on the way home, you know he was the only one who knew it was coming.

Probably heard it from his dentist!:biglaugh:

 

[HILLCYD]

Probably heard it from his dentist!:biglaugh:

The first person to know anything from Marty is usually his proctologist.

 

[Jer]

It's not worthy anything, but here's my opinion on the whole minor league system and Des Moines....

The I-Cubs are a natural fit for Iowa and they're success with having the great attendance shows that. Hockey, Arena FB and D-Leauge NBA are completely different stories. Hockey is a sport that has been on life support for a long time now. Arena FB is decent but not well covered on TV and the like so it's easily forgotten about. The D-League is newer and has potential but with College BBall and the NBA going full tilt at the same time, it's hard to get people to go out to the games in the dead of Winter.

The biggest problem that I think has plagued all of the minor league teams in Iowa, besides the I-Cubs, is the lack of constant marketing. I think Arena ball was a fairly good fit for DSM but it was easily forgotten about because you never heard anything about it or saw ads for it. Granted that costs money but it really does take money to make money. Hockey has no legit chance of being a long-term solution in the Wells simply due to the cost. The Bucs can succeed because it's cheap and they have a cheap building with long-time fans and plenty of parking. Going downtown is a whole different story and the target audience is somewhat different due to the cost and locale.

Anyways, to sum up my opinion.... The I-Cubs are a rare thing and unless somebody else is willing to actually market their product like they do, they aren't going to succeed in the DSM area for more than a couple years.

 

[cybsball20]

I think the main thing that hurts the minor league sports, other than baseball, is that you really can't track their careers. With the MLB - MiLB model, all players have a chance to be called up at any time, or traded to another team that can call them up, they are 'Property' of that team. You also have the chance to have players come down and play with the farm clubs for rehab. I am not sure if Hockey is similar or has more of an NBA DL model, but Hockey is just hurt that it's a fringe sport, the AFL has a better TV contract than hockey. In fact, I think there might have been more Professional LaCrosse games on network tv lately. The only way for the NFL D-League to truely thrive would be for players to be 'property' of their parent clubs. Here is my short little model

Expand the draft to four rounds. Players are all givin signing bonuses and lower round players have a 3-5 year 'development' deal with the parent club paying around 50-75k a year depending on expereince, to be paid by the parent club. They are all property of the parent club and can be traded, moved up and down, etc.

This would hurt college basketball a little bit, but would greatly benefit the NBADL.

 

[mike4cy]

And the New name will be "Iowa Walkers"

I will only support that if you mean Walker Texas Rangers

 

[HILLCYD]

I will only support that if you mean Walker Texas Rangers

If we wanted our kids to be wussies we would have named them Doctor Quinn and Medicine Woman.

 

[brianhos]

This is old news. They talked about it a few months ago, but the big question is who is coming to Iowa next. Ownership insists there will be a new team there, but with attendance the way it is, I cannot see anyone wanting to come. The Iowa Stars have to go to be losing money at an alarming rate.

 

[CYdTracked]

Stars were a bad idea from the start really. Already have the Bucs in town then on top of the the Stars front office management really had no clue either. The birds have been circling this slow dying thing for awhile now...

 

[Jer]

This is old news. They talked about it a few months ago, but the big question is who is coming to Iowa next. Ownership insists there will be a new team there, but with attendance the way it is, I cannot see anyone wanting to come. The Iowa Stars have to go to be losing money at an alarming rate.

I wasn't aware they had announced they were leaving but I haven't watched it much since I'm not a hockey guy. It would be interesting to see if somebody actually comes in though.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Too bad really - it would have been one of Quad Cities' rivals. But the writing was on the wall when Omaha moved to the Quad Cities in the first place. I think the only real natural rivals for Iowa and Omaha were each other, and I supposed nothing changed much for Iowa when Omaha moved to Moline, but the bottom line is Iowa's not even one of our major rivals - we've got big things going on with Rockford and Peoria, and to a lesser extent, a third with Chicago. And as for Des Moines trying to land the Blackhawks' AHL franchise - that's not going to happen as it's in Rockford, a natural location fit for the Blackhawks.

 

[thunderdave]

Can you really have rivalries in minor league sports?
I'm going to assume, every athlete on a minor league team, couldn't care less about so called "rivals", but more about making it to the major league level.

 

[cybsball20]

Can you really have rivalries in minor league sports?
I'm going to assume, every athlete on a minor league team, couldn't care less about so called "rivals", but more about making it to the major league level.

Your only 'rivals' in minor league sports are the guys sitting next to you...

 

[jdoggivjc]

Can you really have rivalries in minor league sports?
I'm going to assume, every athlete on a minor league team, couldn't care less about so called "rivals", but more about making it to the major league level.

You know nothing of the hatred of each other that goes with living in Rockford, Peoria, or the Quad Cities then...

But to argue that point - do any of the Red Sox or Yankees especially care about the rivalry other than catching the team that happens to be in first place (or staying there)? Not especially. It's really only the fans and the owners (basically fans with large sums of $$$) that really care about the rivalry.

 

[wartknight]

Anyone know what the attendance is like at "The Well" as compared to other AHL teams?