Ice Pilots Fold

By Randy Patrick Sports

Team that started playing hocky in Pensacola in 1996 has its franchise terminated by ECHL. Ice Pilots Fold

Published: Mon, June 23, 2008 - 6:11 pm Last Updated: Mon, June 23, 2008 - 10:42 pm

Randy Patrick

The ECHL announced in a news release today that the team’s membership was terminated effective immediately.

“On behalf of the ECHL we are very disappointed both for the Ice Pilots fans as well as the other member teams of the ECHL,” league
commissioner Brian McKenna said in the release.

The termination came as result of the Ice Pilots ownership group notifying the league that it did not intend to have a team in the ECHL for the upcoming 2008-09 season. Ice Pilots management wanted to relocated the team into a lower-level league, either the Central Hockey League, or the Southern Professional Hockey League.

"The (ECHL) league model just does not work for us here'' said team president Greg Schuh, a minority owner in the franchise.
"We had every intention of putting a team on the ice, but not in the ECHL. We're disappointed the league took this stance."

Schuh said the rising fuel costs, coupled with the struggling economy were a double shot the team could no longer handle in the ECHL. In a lower level league, Schuh explained, there are less games, less travel, lower salaries and lower operating costs.
If hockey is to remain viable in Pensacola, Schuh said, it would have to be in a cheaper league.

He said the Ice Pilots sold 675 tickets for next season, but were expecting to reach 1,100 -- the number they hit last year.
"All of our season-ticket holders will receive full refunds," Schuh said.
"We gave the ECHL the option of bringing an individual or group to take over this market, but they declined. Their response was to terminate our membership and that was disappointing."

The Ice Pilots finished the 2007-08 season with a record of 19-44-4-5, the worst in the league.