Ah, the tired and loathesome "support" arguments. Is this an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy?
The last incarnation of AHL hockey was brought to the area by Howard Baldwin who owned portions of the Hartford Whalers, Penguins and Minnesota North Stars. Before the first puck dropped in Iowa he sold his interests to an inexperienced ownership group in Texas. There was ONE AHL team in Des Moines. The ownership never changed, the NHL affiliation and the branding changed. If Des Moines has had two AHL clubs, one could surmise then that the Washington Bullets went belly up.
Attendance was in the middle of the pack for AHL clubs in the final season of the club. That's better than Rockford, Peoria, Omaha or Toronto for that matter.
The franchise was hamstrung by a bad lease, and ownership who treated the AHL team more like a hobby. The team was lost because the owner used the franchise as a collateral for a loan. Period.
The Wild has a vertical integration model. The AHL club in Des Moines will be owned and managed by MSE, the owner of the Wild, they also own the Xcel Energy Center. These guys are midwesterners who understand the region and who will bring a highly polished product and market the team well to the people of Iowa. These guys are total pros.
Has hockey been cut from the Olympics? For a "fringe" sport to headline the Winter Olympics is almost miraculous.