Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL) - The Power of Positive Thinking - MLN Sports Zone

The Power Of Positive Thinking
The ACHL still believes they will have a team in Birmingham this season. Will wishes come true?

Jonathan Roybal
MinorLeagueNews.com

06.27.03 - The Atlantic Coast Hockey League [ACHL] is still hopeful of being able to put a team into the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex [BJCC] for the upcoming 2003 season.

ACHL spokesperson Jim Riggs contacted the MLN offices Friday morning in response a story published Wednesday, "Bottleneck in Birmingham". Riggs disputed the fact that negotiations between the ACHL and the BJCC had stalled.

"The landscape has changed in the last few days," Riggs told MLN. "The negotiations have reopened with a different representative, and that representative is trying to put together an ownership group."

"All I can tell you is negotiations have continued and I think Frank Poe [Executive Director of the BJCC] will tell you that," Riggs declared.

If the negotiations have continued, Poe isn't aware of it.

"There are no negotiations at all going on, " Poe steadfastly maintained. "As far as any current discussions, there are none."

Poe stated the BJCC had one conversation with the ACHL since the league failed to provide certain information by a Monday, June 23rd deadline imposed by the civic complex management. He said there has been no further dialog between the two parties.

Poe did mention there was an inquiry after Monday by people exploring the possibility of putting an ACHL team into the BJCC. He had a feeling that they may have been approached by someone from the league to look into the Birmingham market. He didn't believe anything would materialize from the inquiry.

"We don't see how anything can happen in such a short time period," Poe said, looking at a fall start only a few months from now.

When asked about the BJCC's assertion that there were no ongoing negotiations, Riggs stated he could not comment. Riggs also deferred to issues of negotiations when asked whom the ownership group interested in the Birmingham market might be.

"You have to realistically assess what you can do in three months," Poe stated. "To our way of thinking, it's way too late. This is something that should have been done months ago."

Even if the ACHL proves successful in securing the arena, success in the Birmingham market is likely to be a struggle. The rival WHA-2 has already secured a lease on a smaller facility in nearby Pelham.

The 17,000-seat BJCC arena presents many market challenges in a town, which has had historically modest attendance for minor league sports.

What would interest an owner to commit what would likely be several million dollars over the next several years to build the franchise remains to be seen, and will hopefully be addressed by the ownership group when they make their plan known soon.