Tuesday
Aug072007
Holy Shit! MacLean Buys Bolts!
Tuesday · Aug 7 · 2007 | 11:31 AM PDT
Sorry, I know this doesn't fit into the uniform/logo news I typically post, but as a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, I've found myself upended by the sudden sale of my team. I didn't even know they were up for sale! Shows how much I know.
If you're inclined you can watch snippets of a press conference with Doug MacLean, Jeff Sherrin and Oren Koules from Absolute Hockey Enterprises. They now own the Bolts and — good news — say they plan on keeping the team in Tampa for the foreseeable future.
MacLean, for those of you unaware, coached the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and most recently was the GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Wow.
Reader Comments (4)
I wish some teams would move from bad hockey cities to a city that cares about hockey more
No offense but Tampa isn't exactly the biggest city for hockey I mean the last 4 teams that won the cup barley ever fill their arena New Jersey has proved many times that they can't have fans in any sport
Tampa Bay is in Florida and not too many people like hockey there, they didn't even start getting fans till after they won the cup
Fort Lauderdale (The Panthers) is a city with alot of Canadians but this is pretty much a retirement city with vitually no fans
And Anaheim, I understand they are in California and you could have a pencil sharpening contest and fill seats but there are more deserving cities Hamilton or Halifax could do well for hockey and I'm sure there are also other northern amewrican cities that could support a hockey team
Well anonymous, though Tampa is in Florida, percentage wise they were 6th in the league in attendance playing at 100.6 percent capacity per game. That's almost 20,000 fans average per game. It seems like hockey's popular enough in that area if it can get that amount of humanity outta their houses on any given night.
and get them away from that amount of humidity that's down there. :P
Great -- another Canadian who thinks they deserve more teams just because they're Canada.
Get over yourselves.