...capital and management issues of their newly-approved
franchise owner:
"No, I am not
aware, nor am I interested in them," Brosal stated when asked whether
he knew of the facts regarding the Tucson Scorch situation.
When asked if the UHL had any concern about what happened with the Scorch,
Brosal replied, "No, it does not concern me. You keep going back to
Tucson. I don't care about Tucson. I'm not going to go down the road of
what happened in Tucson."
The Long &
Winding Road That Leads To Your Door
When pressed on the idea
of doing some sort of background check on Milano, Brosal told MLN:
"When I have the President and Commissioner of
the CHL [Brad Treliving], tell me that Mr. Milano was one of the best owners
they ever had, he is the salt of the earth and we would be lucky to have
him. Well you know what, that's good enough for me," Brosal stated.
I think to myself: Maybe
we're being too hard on the big lug. Treliving's a good guy. If he says Milano's
okay, well, who are we to question it?
That's why I called Brad
Treliving, WPHL now CHL president, who is one of the most stand-up
guys in the hockey biz and a straight-shooter.
Following a CHL policy
not to engage in negative talk about other leagues, teams, or owners in the
media, Treliving did not want to comment for this article.
When asked if Mr. Brosal's
remarks were substantively as he recalled the conversation, Treliving would
not corroborate his statement to MLN.
Beyond that, think
about what Brosal said:
"...he is the
salt of the earth and we would be lucky to have him..."
Could Milano, given his
track record of failures in the WPHL, actually qualify as one of the WPHL/CHL's
"best owners?" If so, why wasn't the CHL working with him on expansion
plans in Columbus?
From what we know on
and off the record, Mr. Milano was persona non grata (That's Latin
for "The Welcome Mat Is Not Out") with the CHL, which made Brosal's
gushing over him all the more curious.
I Watch Those Car Crash Shows on TV Too...
Still, there was little
flap about Milano's operation elsewhere in the media.
Most of the Columbus
press gave the Stars little mind. None were about to invest in an exposé piece
on Milano: A minor hockey team in the Blue Jackets' back yard was going to
draw about as much excitement as Pamela Anderson running around naked would
at a Richard Simmons pool party.
There was the distant
hope that, perhaps, Mr. Milano had learned some value lessons from his past
hockey operations.
He has a United Soccer
League team called the Stars in Columbus. Think of the savings on merchandise
and advertising!
More important, Columbus
is his home base for his other business operations. Tank 'em in Tucson and
it's like the joke about the tree falling in the woods: Nobody's going to
hear about it.
Putting the old puck
in the tank for a third time in your own crib would be a serious black-eye.
Even though the UHL wasn't
willing to share the inner workings of their decision process, let the winds
of...
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