Thursday
Jul222010
AHL Logo Map
Thursday · Jul 22 · 2010 | 9:10 AM PDT
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Yesterday's NHL map was such a hit I figured you guys would enjoy the AHL today. It's crazy to look at this one. I can't believe the concentration of teams in New England. Plus, New York has five teams while Illinois and Texas each have three. What about the west?!
The Abbotsford Heat and Manitoba Moose might as well play in Europe with as far as they have to travel during the season. I'm honestly floored. I never realized how lopsided the AHL map was until this morning.
What are you thoughts on the AHL's spread of locations?
Reader Comments (38)
Illinois has three teams??
Surely, it's all because of travel... but all that NE congestion is ABSURD!
You gotta make a ECHL map next chris!
also the travel for players being called up and down in western nhl teams is ridiculous
The AHL is all about cost effectiveness so this doesn't shock me in a business sense as much as it does visually, because of how bad it looks...but a 1,2,3, or 4 hour bus ride is always cheaper than a flight, no matter how short i supppose!
The AHL was basically a northeast-based league for most of it's existance. Not to mention these minor-league teams don't have the cash to travel all that far. Why calgary put a team in Abbotsford we'll never know. Stupid decision.
Don't forget, the Central Hockey League fills some of the gap in the west. Go Eagles! Don't know about the West Coast though...
This is why they need to get the Heat out of Abbotsford. The AHL has been located primarily in the east coast since the start, and that's rarely changed. The Heat are, in the AHL, in the middle of nowhere.
The Heat must hate the travel. I didn't realize the alignment was this lopsided.
I live in Vancouver, so the Heat and Moose get some press (The Moose being the Canucks affiliate), but not as much as the WHL/CHL - we are flooded with teams here.
Wow, the AHL planned out their teams really stupidly!
Chris:
I just noticed your response on the NHL Logo Map about the locales. Sorry for the wanton criticism.
Poor Abottsford
If this was posted two eyars ago, Illinois would have three and a half teams (Quad Cities) and Iowa would have one and a half. Stupid Schelegls for screwing us Iowa fans and stupid Flames for thinking Abbortsford is better than Omaha or QC.
We had a nice set up with Iowa, Omaha/OC, Rockford, Milwaukee, Peoria, Chicago, and Rockford. Manitoba was far, but not that any different than the two (at that time) Texas teams.
The three Texans plus Oklahoma set up is nice.It would be nice to see some of the New England block broken up and spread out. A couple of 4-6 team blocks around the country to make real divisions within 3-5 hours on a bus would be ideal.
Two things:
1. Regarding Abbotsford's travel, it's probably not as bad as you'd think, because they get to fly everywhere. I bet lots of teams have to bus most places. I'd rather fly than bus.
2. Chris, can you add the NHL affiliate to the description of the team?
I'm suprised that there are so many teams in the Northeast.
Imagine what would happen to the AHL if Hartford got a team....
Would there be another team in New England?
I wish minor league hockey was more like minor league baseball. Much more organization and even dispersal amongst teams. That being said, I think the AHL should be predominately in the east like it used to be and a second league should form up in the west. The winners of the two leagues then should play each other in a Best-of-7 series. What does every one else think? 2 Leagues with 15 teams. 3 divisions of 5 in each. Top 2 teams in each division make the playoffs. The 2 best division winners get a bye.
@ Tyler J
I agree with every single thing you say!
@Tyler J
This would be a very bad idea from a marketing perspective. I live in Winnipeg (capital city of Manitoba) and I'm a huge Moose fan, but it's really annoying because as far as NHL is concerned I'm a Rangers and a Sharks fan, in all the time the Moose have been in the AHL, Hartford (NYR) has NEVER visited the Moose, and Worchester (SJ) has only been here twice. The schedule in the A is already divided by geography. The Moose see their entire division fairly often, the entire western division, and then only TWO teams from the eastern conference.
If you split it up any further you'd really be dealing with some angry fans.
Even moreso you have the question of which Western cities would have teams in this league? How would affiliation work? You'd be creating a whole lot of problems. It's important to remember that as far as AHL hockey is concerned, less than 1/3 of the teams care about winning and creating an entertaining product (I'm proud to say Manitoba is one of them) but for the most part, it's a league run by the NHL in order to create talent for the future.
@Lightning25
Hartford has a team, The Wolfpack.
this map is skewed. All of the teams in penn are crammed into NY along with ott... and all teams seem to be moved in towards New Hampshire just a tad bit too much so they are more concentrated. Although yea I agree they are all in one location
Being a big AHL fan who goes to about 1/2 of my team's games (Amerks!), this isn't anything new to me so it didn't shock me, but you are right about the couple teams out in nowhere. There are a few things to remember about why it is this way: it's not just the AHL execs. being idiots...
1. As was said, the AHL was primarily a Northeastern US and Maritime Canada league until the last 10 years. The Northeastern concentration is nothing groundbreaking; that's where even the NHL was largely centered until the 90's expansion push. It's not surprising this area is the core of the AHL still.
2. The Western teams (Illinois, Texas, etc.) are a result of the absorption of the original IHL in 2001. The two leagues had a rivalry for half a century, and when the AHL finally won out, they took some of the IHL's strongest markets to their side. Now, more teams have since been added to give the former IHL'ers company, but the very fact the league even has a presence this far west is owed to the IHL.
3. Abbotsford...WAS a dumb move, no doubt about it, That one I have no justification for, and if it's like the Flames' last 2 minor league efforts, they'll go "2 and out" after this season anyways.
BTW, if you want even more of a shock, do the ECHL...like the AHL, that league is so oddly aligned because it's the conglomeration of two former leagues.
Another neat map. And it's especially cool to have the NHL and AHL maps overlaid on top of each other by adding both of them to "My Maps." Definitely shows how congested the Northeast and Illinois/Wisconsin are with hockey teams, haha.
And as already said, gotta go ahead and make an ECHL map..... though you'll have to wait for another month or so before the Hoffman Estates team unveils their new team name (it's down to the Blizzard, Hammers, Express, and Knights).
As far as the number of AHL teams in New England, they are just established hockey markets and have been in the league for years. I grew up outside of New Haven and when the arena was torn down Bridgeport (20 mins west) got a team. Providence, Portland, Worchester, Spingfield etc, all have been around for 20 yrs at the least. Springfield and New Haven were charter members of the league. Family members of mine who are older the 45 tell me in the day the AHL was huge in New England. NHL TV proliferation hadn't taken place so for alot of people that was what they had to follow locally. Trust me the teams in New England do make sense. As for the schedualing issue pointed out by the Moose fan above You have to remember the AHL pretty much became 2 leagues (east and west) when the merged with the remaing teams of the IHL 10 years ago. Teams play withen thier conference now for the most part.
ECHL map next?
ECHL next? From the looks of this map, the AHL should just take the name of the ECHL. There's more of an Eastern bias in the AHL than the ECHL.
Just wanted to point out that whenever teams come in here (Abbotsford), they always play two games at a time.
Just 2 or 3 years ago the AHL had a team in Utah- The Grizzlies still exist, but they dropped down to the ECHL for financial reasons. In addition to the Heat, the Texas Stars were also new this year and went to the Calder Cup finals vs Hershey.
....and if you think Abbotsford is a crazy place to put an AHL team, the ECHL has a team in ALASKA that was in the Kelly Cup finals vs. South Carolina two years ago. Talk about a travel nightmare!
I'm from Calgary, and as we've established, the Heat are our affiliate team.
Wow.
Just.
...Wow.
NorthEastern Hockey league? LOL.
Seriously though, they should have one of the other minor league teams with western teams merge, or if not merge, serve as the same level as the AHL and then have a playoff against them (like they do in Europe with all those leagues).
The rationale for bringing the Flames' affiliate to Abbotsford was to eliminate the travel time for those called up to the Flames. I remember people here in Calgary talking about a few times when the team was in Quad Cities and/or Omaha and the Flames had to call someone up on an extremely short notice and the guy couldn't make it.
And besides, it's no more than a 6 hour plane ride from Abbotsford to anywhere in the east. I bet some of those team bus for that long anyways.
My greatest criticism of the Abbotsford Heat is their logo. What the crap is that generic-ass...thing? You own the flaming-A logo and you don't bloody use it? Idiots.
@JD
Remember that the Heat are only home half the time. If they are away, the called up player is still going to be far away.
In the AHL practice time is more important than in the NHL and when you are flying half the time you lose many days of practice.
The AHL has always been a Northeast league because of travel. The AHL can not afford to fly. At one point I think Cleveland was the most western team in the league.
The real problem is their divisional alignment and schedule. Rochester is in the same division as Abbottsford and Manitoba and only play them a couple of times. They are also in the same Conference as the Texas' teams yet they will not play them once.
You should do a similar map of the AHL, circa the late-80's, when St. Catharines was "west" and Baltimore was "south" and the Maritimes were chock full of teams.
The reason the Heat are able to survive way out west is because they pay for the travel of teams having to go out there. Well, the tax payers pay most of it, not the team itself. That's the reason The AHL allowed them to join in the first place, it doesn't expense other teams more.
A flight to Abbotsford is better than a 10 hour bus ride to Grand Rapids.
The reason the Heat don't use the A logo with the Flames is that they don't intend to be Calgary's affiliate as soon as they can switch over to Vancover instead.
They've already changed their ECHL affiliate to Victoria, so it's in the works.
Abbotsford is actually a good choice for Vancouver's affiliate, more teams should come further west.
BTW, the retro Atlanta Flames "A" logo is used as the alternate captain's patch. While we're on the subject of Abbotsford, which is admittedly in a bad location, anyone know an American city without any hockey team east of the Mississippi where they could move? BTW Quad Cities has a new team in a league called the IHL. So, in summary, a city other than Quad City.
Oh, I just thought of it: Cleveland! They don't have any hockey team. Let's bring back the Barons.
Cleveland does have a team actually. the Lake Erie Monsters.
Yeah, found that out when I went to Cleveland and drove past Quicken Loans Arena. Damm.