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"South Atlantic Professional Hockey League"?

JMCx4

JMCx4

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No ... really?!

Professional Hockey League Coming To The Sunshine State​

Posted on October 26, 2022
By Shawn Johnson

It all started with a simple Facebook status by Nicholas Russo: “When you don’t like the way things are run and done, buy and start your own league. Lol, hello Florida!”. If you don't know who Nick Russo is, he has been involved in hockey for many years. Most recently, with the Motor City Rockers of the Federal Prospects Hockey League.

I reached out to Nick yesterday regarding his post and he asked me to give him a call today. He wanted to cross his t’s and dot his i’s before spilling the beans. Well, we had a great conversation and he is a pleasure to chat with. Here is what we now know:

The league is called South Atlantic Professional Hockey League. The league will consist of 6 teams all in the state of Florida. Nick will be the commissioner and his business partner will own 1, possibly 2 teams. They are currently gaining interest from investors to own the other 4-5 teams.

As of right now, the cities are not set in stone, but Nick did say that the Space Coast region will be headquarters for the league. Cities that are being considered are as follows: Orlando, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Manatee County and Space Coast. ...

Read (if you dare) more at: Professional Hockey League Coming To The Sunshine State | Bench Minor Hockey
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Ratitude

Ratitude

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May 2, 2020
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How about a new league with a broad footprint potential. How about the Eastern Seaboard Hockey League lol? That way a league could operate from Maine to Miami and not appear geographically inept lol. Always loved the name East Coast Hockey League but let's be honest the league long ago backed themselves into an identity corner. The league known simply as the ECHL and not East Coast drives me crazy, no logic. How about the Elite Continental Hockey League (A.K.A Premier AA league of North America).
 
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CHRDANHUTCH

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Ratitude said:
How about a new league with a broad footprint potential. How about the Eastern Seaboard Hockey League lol? That way a league could operate from Maine to Miami and not appear geographically inept lol. Always loved the name East Coast Hockey League but let's be honest the league long ago backed themselves into an identity corner. The league known simply as the ECHL and not East Coast drives me crazy, no logic. How about the Elite Continental Hockey League (A.K.A Premier AA league of North America).
Click to expand...
AHL fell into that same footprint once you started expanding to the midwest and Pacific
 
CrazyEddie20

CrazyEddie20

Hey RuZZia - Cut Your Losses and Go Home.
Jun 26, 2007
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The "SAPHL" is going to have a 40-game season. Say they do it over 20 weeks, which would be roughly the next to last weekend in October to the first weekend in March.

Twenty of those games are road games. A coach bus costs $1,000/day, minimum. There's $20K. Next, you have to cover worker's compensation insurance. Say that costs $75K for the season.

You need to pay your coach, equipment manager, and trainer (or maybe just not have a trainer and equipment manager, as if that's a good idea...). Say the coach gets $45K, the trainer gets $45K, and the equipment manager gets $30K.

Divide the remaining $105K amongst, say, 17 players, and each player is allotted $6,562.50 per season - $328.125 weekly. If you aren't providing housing, where is anyone going to be able to live and eat in Florida at that pay rate?

And, oh yeah, this doesn't account for hiring anyone to sell things like tickets and sponsorships.

I don't see how this could fail!
 
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Ratitude

Ratitude

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CHRDANHUTCH said:
AHL fell into that same footprint once you started expanding to the midwest and Pacific
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I was going for a little comedy or satire. But yes the ECHL name drives me crazy as the league expanded it's footprint away from the East Coast aka Eastern Seaboard. It was bound to happen anyway as the American league expanded theirs but at least the American league had a whole country within their name.to work with. See at least the same can be said of the Federal league to, they can expand anywhere their hearts content in the lower 48 and there is no confusion lol. I still think they should eliminate "prospects" from their name and keep it simple, the Federal Professional Hockey League, at least the SPHL kept it right.
 
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JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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Ratitude said:
... See at least the same can be said of the Federal league to, they can expand anywhere their hearts content in the lower 48 and there is no confusion lol. I still think they should eliminate "prospects" from their name and keep it simple, the Federal Professional Hockey League ... .
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The Fed name change was purely & simply a legal move. Nothing geographical - nor professional - about it.
 
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JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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St. Louis, MO
Ratitude said:
... at least the SPHL kept it right.
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You must surely be a Confederate States sympathizer in Yankee clothing, if you think "Southern Professional Hockey League" is an accurate descriptor of its current membership ... 🇺🇸

1669386884809.png
 
JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
14,066
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St. Louis, MO
CrazyEddie20 said:
... Divide the remaining $105K amongst, say, 17 players, and each player is allotted $6,562.50 per season - $328.125 weekly. If you aren't providing housing, where is anyone going to be able to live and eat in Florida at that pay rate? ...
Click to expand...
Expand your mind via the internet, Eddie. Players will sleep on the bus on weekends, and inside the home arena (or short naps in their POVs on the lot) during the week. Double-shifts on weekdays at local fast food joints (ref. Indeed.com data - this schedule also complements the in-vehicle cat-napping time limits cited above), and completely legal Team Dumpster Diving as needed for nutritional & consumer goods supplements (which will double as team building exercises). 21st Century Minor Pro Hockey Business Modeling 101. 🎓
 
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Jackets Woodchuck

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JMCx4 said:
Expand your mind via the internet, Eddie. Players will sleep on the bus on weekends, and inside the home arena (or short naps in their POVs on the lot) during the week. Double-shifts on weekdays at local fast food joints (ref. Indeed.com data - this schedule also complements the in-vehicle cat-napping time limits cited above), and completely legal Team Dumpster Diving as needed for nutritional & consumer goods supplements (which will double as team building exercises). 21st Century Minor Pro Hockey Business Modeling 101. 🎓
Click to expand...

In other words, the hockey version of the Pecos League?
 
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battra

Registered User
Oct 24, 2017
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JMCx4 said:
Expand your mind via the internet, Eddie. Players will sleep on the bus on weekends, and inside the home arena (or short naps in their POVs on the lot) during the week. Double-shifts on weekdays at local fast food joints (ref. Indeed.com data - this schedule also complements the in-vehicle cat-napping time limits cited above), and completely legal Team Dumpster Diving as needed for nutritional & consumer goods supplements (which will double as team building exercises). 21st Century Minor Pro Hockey Business Modeling 101. 🎓
Click to expand...
Dude, get six dudes together and you can easily afford a nicely furnished studio.
 

CHRDANHUTCH

Registered User
Mar 4, 2002
36,420
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Auburn, Maine
CANADIENSFAN90 said:
I would be nice if they put a team in Manchester,nh
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same answer.... need ownership and a proposal to reestablish pro hockey and not repeat the mistakes made by either the Kings or the local ownership that followed, depending on which side you believe caused the eventual termination of pro hockey in NH
 
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GindyDraws

GindyDraws

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Mar 13, 2014
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To take a break from the whole "starving artist" thing we're riffing on with the league budget and all, any league that seems to want to hedge their bets on Florida as a key destination to start is doomed to failure. In the past 25 years, we've had three examples; the Southern Hockey League (which at one time, was wanting to call itself the Sunshine Hockey League) back in 1995, and the whole WHA2/SEHL nonsense in the early 2000s.

It's not that hockey in Florida is impossible, but the idea of you doing hockey exclusively in Florida or that 60-80% of the franchises in that state is a sound investment is not ideal. But what do we know?
 
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