The Birth, Ill-fated Life, and Ultimate Death of the Abbotsford Heat
In 2007, the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate team was the Quad City Flames, located in Moline, Illinois. The Q.C. Flames stayed in Moline only two years, before it was announced that the team would be relocated to Abbotsford, BC for the 2009-2010 season.
There was a positive spin put to the move; the closer proximity to Calgary meant that it would be easy and convenient to move players between the AHL and NHL clubs when required. Makes sense, right? As it turns out, that’s probably the only thing that made sense about having a Calgary Flames farm team in what is essentially a Vancouver suburb.
To start with, while Abbotsford is certainly much closer to Calgary than any previous AHL franchise, they are an eternity away from the rest of the AHL. The Heat were easily the westernmost team in the league, by much more than a country mile. The next closest AHL rival team? The Oklahoma City Barons, some 2548km away. The majority of AHL teams are in and around New York State, roughly 4000km from home. This caused all sorts of logistical headaches. In order to accommodate the difficult travel arrangements and control travel costs, the Heat would often have to play two consecutive road games in an opponents arena, and visiting teams would often have to do the same in Abbotsford. There was talk that the Heat may have lost around 40 practices a season due to travel. It’s actually pretty remarkable that the Heat always iced competitive teams. In their five seasons, the Heat had winning records in each, and made the playoffs three times.
The next big problem? Vancouver. If you happen to live in or around Calgary, and happen to be a Flames fan, ask yourself this question. If the Vancouver Canucks were to set up their farm team in Cochrane, Okotoks, or maybe Strathmore, would you buy season tickets? Yeah, the good people of Vancouver couldn’t really get behind the Heat either. Despite playing out of a modern 7000-seat facility in a municipality that should be hockey-friendly, and icing good, competitive teams, the Heat struggled with attendance every year, and never exceeded an average of 3900 tickets sold annually. They had the worst attendance in the AHL last season.
Both of these root problems caused a bigger problem. Money. Or more accurately, a lack thereof. The Heat lost money, and lots of it. The agreement to bring the Heat to Abbotsford in the first place was a 10 year deal with a guarantee for a $5.7M break-even annual budget. Over the first 5 seasons, the taxpayers will have already paid $7.24M to make up the Heat’s shortfalls. It was estimated that the Heat would lose another $11M over the final 5 years of the contract, so City Council was forced to act. They paid $5.5 million just to get out of the remaining five years on the contract. In all, Abbotsford taxpayers will have lost around $12.7M on the Heat. Not what they had in mind when they decided to bring an AHL team to town, I’m sure.
If the fate of the Calgary farm team remaining in Abbotsford was already set in stone, there was still a glimmer of hope for Abbotsford to at least keep an AHL team. The Flames and Canucks held discussions on the idea of transferring the Abbotsford franchise to the Canucks, who would then have had their farm team right in their own backyard. The travel problems likely scared the Canucks off, however, and on March 29th of 2014, the Canucks purchased the Peoria Rivermen from the St. Louis Blues and announced their relocation to Utica, New York.
And so, on Tuesday, April 15th of 2014, the announcement was made. The Heat would no longer remain in Abbotsford.
A New Beginning, with Lessons Learned
With bated breath, Flames fans awaited an announcement on where the farm team would go. On May 5th, it was announced that the AHL board of governors had approved a relocation to Glens Falls, New York. A name was not yet announced, but the Flames’ organization (and fans) had some great reasons to be optimistic. There are many benefits to choosing this particular locale.
First off, 20% of the AHL is in New York state. Those league travel problems are are thing of the past. Missed practices, goofy consecutive home or road games against the same opponent, and regular 4000km+ trips to a game; all of these issues will be virtually eliminated.
From a player development standpoint, the advantage is obvious. In the words of Flames GM Brad Treliving:
…ultimately the reason you have your team out here is for development purposes. With them being in such close proximity to several other AHL franchises, they can easily bus to games and return home the same night. Gone are the days when every road trip included a flight and a hotel stay. You keep the players on the ground. You get them in their beds more often. Ultimately, there is more practice time, more rest and recovery time, and a better development model.
But what about the new problem with a much longer trip to call up players? It’s 4033km from Calgary to Glens Falls! Treliving downplayed the impact, saying:
…we only play 41 of our games in Calgary so there is opportunities where we could be somewhere else when a player is recalled.
True enough. All of the Pacific teams (and Western Canadian teams in particular) deal with this issue, but it can be managed.
In addition, the municipality itself has a strong history with hosting AHL teams. The Detroit Red Wings has their AHL affiliate in Glens Falls for 20 years, from 1979-1999. The Philadelphia Flyers had their AHL club there since 2009. Glens Falls is a hockey town, and there are no immediate rival fans to refuse to go to games. They even packed the arena and gave a standing ovation to the Flames brass when the official announcement of the team was made! The facility may be smaller at just 4800 seats, but chances are that it will be full often.
With all of the pieces lining up, the fans and team just needed a name. And as of May 16th, they have it.
Adirondack Flames
Lo’ and behold, they even brought back the Atlanta Flames’ blazing “A”. I’m not sure that there could have been a better choice of name and logo. It’s perfect.
What’s past is now past, and what’s done is done. The Abbotsford Heat are gone, and the Adirondack Flames are the present and future.
In the fall of 2014, the gates will open at the Glens Falls Civic Center for the first of what we should all hope will be many enjoyable Adirondack Flames’ games. Let’s just hope that the good folks of Glens Falls actually put themselves in the seats to watch the great entertainment. There is every reason to think that they will, and that is a good thing.
PostScript
Of course, we can’t look back at the Abbotsford Heat without reflecting upon this glorious moment in hockey history, brought to us by the incomparable Jim Playfair, Head Coach of the Heat during this infamous game against the Hamilton Bulldogs on March 27, 2010. It likely reigns supreme as the most memorable moment in the Heat’s short history, and is always worth another look.
Ah, Jim, nobody does it better. Now, tell me again why nobody went to the games?
