Staff Writer
A push to bring minor league hockey back to Augusta in the form of a Southern Professional Hockey League team picked up momentum Monday. It was a topic of discussion at the SPHL's Board of Governors winter meetings in Knoxville, Tenn.
"We had a lot of discussion about expansion teams, and we're currently working with a group in Augusta to put a team there," SPHL commissioner Jim Combs said Monday evening. "I think the discussions are getting deeper and deeper. I know they can support a team in Augusta."
A statement from the league said the Board of Governors, made up of owners from the SPHL's six teams, discussed the possibility of expansion and that the league office is "reviewing several cities and ownership groups for the 2009-10 season."
The statement also said no final decisions concerning expansion will be made until the league's summer meetings in Huntsville, Ala., on June 13-15. Combs did say the league could approve a new team before that time.
"If it comes down to something where we receive an application (to put a team in Augusta) then the owners can vote on that over the phone."
The SPHL, in its fifth season, first looked at Augusta as a possible expansion city in the days after owners of the Augusta Lynx folded the team by releasing its membership to the ECHL during a league owners' meeting Dec. 2.
Lynx co-owner Dan Troutman said the expenses of running an ECHL team were too high.
"We had it to where we were looking at a balanced budget before most of the economic problems hit," Troutman said. "But so much of our cost in the ECHL was tied to things we couldn't affect. I was looking at it, and 50 percent of our budget we had absolutely no control over. Things like payroll and travel."
Troutman said the Lynx had an annual operating budget of $2 million. Combs said an SPHL team's annual expenses are about half that, which has allowed all of the league's teams to turn a profit or break even.
"In our league, hockey in places like Knoxville, Huntsville and Columbus is more popular now than it was at any other time," he said.
Troutman said the reduced cost of running a team in the SPHL could make a team in Augusta possible.
"Do I think an ECHL team is possible in Augusta? No," he said. "But I think an SPHL team is a very viable option."
The trade off would come in quality of play, as the SPHL is considered a step below the ECHL in terms of the players' skill.
Sam Roney, a longtime Lynx season-ticket holder, said he likes the idea of an SPHL team coming to Augusta. He and several other former Lynx season-ticket holders have taken road trips to Columbus, Ga., to see what the action is like at the SPHL's Columbus Cottonmouths games.
"Those in our group actually felt the players we saw in this SPHL brand game were trying harder and playing harder throughout the entire 60 minutes of hockey," Roney said. "There was no let up in intensity ever, something we definitely did see often in the ECHL brand."
Reach Billy Byler at (706) 823-3216 or billy.byler@augustachronicle.com.
