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Beast Iced By Carolina
Unexpected divorce leaves New Haven AHL club scrambling
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Business New Haven
6/14/99
By: BNH
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The future of the Beast of New Haven hockey club was very much in doubt at press time after talks between the two-year-old AHL club and its NHL affiliate, the Carolina Hurricanes, over renewing the affiliation agreement, collapsed.
The development placed the future of the New Haven team in jeopardy, as club president and general manager David Gregory was left with barely one week to forge an affiliation agreement with a different NHL team or face the prospect of shutting down for the 1999-2000 season.
During its first two seasons in New Haven, the Beast shared an NHL affiliation with the Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers. Earlier this year the Panthers announced that their AHL affiliate for next season would be in Orlando, Fla.
That left the player- and cash-strapped Carolina club, which relocated from Hartford in 1997, standing alone. As a result, Paragon Sports Properties, which owns the Beast, would have had to purchase the former Carolina Monarchs franchise from the Hurricanes for more than $2 million, according to reports.
Instead, Carolina will have no AHL affiliation for the coming season. Its sole minor-league affiliation will be with the Cincinnati Stingers of the International Hockey League.
To meet the June 14 deadline imposed by the AHL Board of Governors to forge a new affiliation, Beast officials were said to be discussing a one-year agreement with the Detroit Red Wings. That club just concluded 20 years in Glens Falls, N.Y. as the Adirondack Red Wings.
If successful, that would allow the Beast ownership time to pursue a long-term pact with another club, commencing with the 2000-01 season. And although Gregory won't discuss specifics, he says, “I remain optimistic that despite the short window, an agreement will be reached.
“If and when an agreement is reached,” Gregory adds, “it will take the cooperation of the city, the fans, area businesses, the New Haven Coliseum and our hockey club to demonstrate what I know to be true: that the city of New Haven is an excellent community for professional hockey.”
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