Some time ago, the NHL indicated that there may be possible league expansion on the horizon. Four cities —Toronto, Quebec, Seattle, and Las Vegas — quickly announced that they were interested in getting a franchise. If the rumors are true, additional cities will show their intentions soon.
Of the aforementioned cities, two are in Canada and another is close to the Canadian border. They all have deep hockey roots embedded in their pasts. In the United States, Portland, Milwaukee, and Hartford also contain vast hockey histories and would most likely show an attachment to the game.
However, these choices contrast with some of the expansion and relocation choices made during Gary Bettman’s tenure as commissioner, as seen with the inclusion of teams in Phoenix and Miami, where there were no previous involvements with the sport. As a result, fans had to learn to understand and grow to love the game.
One franchise, Atlanta, has since been moved, and the futures of Phoenix and Florida are uncertain at best.
It would seem that the closer an American NHL franchise is to the Canadian border, the more enthusiasm for the game of hockey would be shown.
However, surprisingly close to the Canadian border is hockey’s “Death Valley,” a dreaded region where hockey at the professional level seldom survives.
This territory is comprised of two specific states in particular: Ohio and Indiana, a market currently inhabited by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who themselves have had their fair share of survival problems.
It has not helped that Columbus has had bad hockey teams during its existence (2000-present), qualifying for the playoffs just twice and only winning two games. After starting off with lots of enthusiasm, support for the team waned and has only started to come back thanks to its most successful season last year.
Such a precarious existence is not unusual for a team in Ohio or Indiana. In fact, Columbus can claim it is the most successful professional hockey team to have ever been based out of either of these two states.
Columbus is new to being a big league sports city. If you think professional sports in Ohio or Indiana, you think Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis, especially in the other three “big four” sports: baseball, basketball, and football.
All three had short, unhappy professional hockey histories.
They began with the founding of the WHA in 1972. One of the first cities to have allocated a franchise was Cleveland, whose team was dubbed the Crusaders. Cleveland seemed like a natural choice that made a lot of sense. For years, it had supported a top minor league team called the Cleveland Barons. Surely that support would’ve carried on and developed into a professional level. But, during their four years in Cleveland, the Crusaders never topped a 7,000 average attendance rate in an arena that seated 18,000.
After four years, the WHA decided they had had enough, leaving the city to the more-established NHL. It just so happened that the NHL was looking for a place to move the California Golden Seals and jumped at the chance of moving the team to Cleveland.
The WHA had failed because it was not the top professional league. Now that Cleveland was going to get a real deal team, large adoring crowds were expected. To emphasize that the team was a continuation of Cleveland’s hockey history, the Seals became the Barons.
Instead, the NHL did worse than the WHA. Only 8,900 fans turned up for the Barons first game and the team only drew 10,000 or more fans in seven out of 40 home dates.
The average attendance that first year was approximately 6,100. It dropped to under 6,000 during its last year. One night, defenseman Len Frig took off his jersey and threw it on the ice in frustration. Needless to say, after that second year, the Barons were merged with the tottering Minnesota North Stars.
To this day, no other NHL franchise, not even those the NHL has set up in unfamiliar markets in the southern United States, has come close to the horrible experience the league had with Cleveland.
Meanwhile, the WHA had two other franchises in “Death Valley.” One was called the Indianapolis Racers, which lasted for five years from 1974 to 1979.
The Racers main claim to fame is that it served as the starting team for the professional hockey careers of both Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier during their last seasons of existence. Although, the presence of the “Great One” and his illustrious colleague could not save hockey in Indianapolis. The team folded midway through the 1979 season and both players would end up in the NHL playing for Edmonton where they started the Oilers dynasty.
The other “Death Valley” WHA team was called the Cincinnati Stingers, who lasted from 1975 to the end of the league in 1979. Their history was hardly better than Cleveland and Indianapolis ranging from an attendance low of approximately 4,000 to a high of approximately 14,000 in an arena that seated 17,500.
The Stingers had a chance to join the NHL when the leagues merged in 1980, although their chances of survival were not very good. Eventually they, and the Birmingham Bulls, were paid to disband their teams while Edmonton, Quebec, Winnipeg, and New England moved on, thus ending professional hockey in “Death Valley” until the Columbus Blue Jackets were born in 2000.
The NHL-WHA experience in “Death Valley” has had lasting consequences. Columbus was the last team to be awarded an NHL expansion franchise and that was somewhat of a surprise (Houston was expected to get a team and somehow fumbled it away).
It seems that hockey in Columbus has been an experiment. Would the Blue Jackets even survive? There have been plenty of times when rumors of their impending departure have arisen. If someone were to select the order of which teams will last in the future of the NHL, the Blue Jackets would be placed near the bottom of the list.
When expansion in the NHL is mentioned, no one considers Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis, seemingly natural choices for the NHL, with their cold climates and proximity to the Canadian border. The NHL simply cannot forget its ignominious tenure in Cleveland.
No one has ever come up with an explanation as to why hockey is so unpopular in Ohio and Indiana, why this pocket between the successful franchises of Buffalo and Chicago has become hockey’s “Death Valley.”
Thanks for reading!
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