With the NHL apparently ready to expand back to Atlanta, Georgia somewhere in the following decade, it would be logical if other competitions prepare for that final expansion. Both the AHL and Echl have already affiliated their teams with NHL teams, so adding more teams would be useful for future expansion. In the case of the ECHL, however, they are still one team shortly after the expansion of New Mexico was announced, but they erased that problem today with their last announcement. The best part of this announcement is that it seems as if the Echl will benefit a lot from this decision, while a city that once had professional hockey will see it again. The Echl is expanding again, people!
Announced by the competition today, the new team will move into Augusta, Georgia Where the Echl once called at home. The Augusta Lynx Were Once The Raleigh ICECAPS, But That Team Was Forced To Move in 1998 After the Carolina Hurricanes Finished Their Arena Build in Raleigh With The Intention of Moving There in 1999. The Lynx, The Looka-on-Nose “Left” Left “, Left” Left “, Left” Left “, Left” Left ” Made the Playoffs in Six of Their ten Seasons in Augusta, but only won two playoff rounds in their history. They reached 82 points in a season with 2006-07 as the highlight with 39 victories, and in the 1999-00 season the team dropped in the Echl-Halve Final of the Greenville Grrowl as their best result of each season. Remarkable players are Tom Draper, Joaquin Gage and ZAC Bierk, Mike Legg from Lacrosse Doel Roem and former avalanche attacker Patrick Bordeleau.
De Lynx folded 18 games in the 2008-09 season on December 2 and became the first team in the 21-year history of the Echl to give up her membership in the middle season. Owners claimed that financial problems and not finding new investors were the reason to close the franchise. Those financial problems seemed valid because the team was not higher than the 20th of the 23 teams present in one of their last three seasons in Jim Brown Arena. Not good, right?
Apart from a short, three years run by the Sphl’s Augusta Riverhawks, the majority of the professional hockey history of Augusta is at the Echl. By announcing that a team will return to Augusta for the 2027-28 season in 2027, it seems pretty clear that Augusta needs to support his team and needs owners who have deeper bags. With all Atlanta Gladiators, Savannah Ghost Pirates and South Carolina Pijlbaartrograys on less than three hours from Savannah, the new Augusta team must have their own dedicated fan base in and around the city if they hope to have a longer time line than the Lynx.
The city has more than 610,000 people in the Metro Augusta area, so supporting an Echl franchise with 6000+ fans per night should not be too difficult to sell. The greatest employers are Augusta University, a core of energy facility called the Savannah River site and the US Army. There is a growing cyber security industry in Augusta, and the city has both large newspaper and television sales points that will probably cover the team in depth. The building blocks are present in Augusta.
From July 22, 2024, the effort to Build a new arena of 10,500 seats Augusta is going on in the center. “The new Augusta Arena” replaces the old James Brown Arena on the same site and will be opened in 2027. With regard to the old arena, many of the characteristics of the former building were recycled. According to WRDW’s Hallie Turner”[t]He was removed for the demolition and other luminaires and were sold or given away “while concrete was used to fill the hole that had been left by the arena and the steel was recycled in the building, so that this new Arena project helped to keep the budget while it is progressing.
I said it should have the ownership of having deeper bags, simply because of the competition in the area for fans, and the Echl announced that this new Augusta franchise will be the property of former NFL and College Quarterback Tim Tebow and David Hodges, CEO of Hodges Management Group, LLC. Although both men have some wealth individually, it seems that they will re -combine their efforts, just as they did on a number of other companies, including the Tahoe Knight Monsters from the Echl, which had an average of 3427 fans last season.
Hodges Management Group has real estate investment firms in Georgia and has minority interests in the Jacksonville Igememen of the EHCL and Savannah Ghost Pirates. Hodges Management Group recently came from the car sales activities after the sale of two dealers – One by a record price. In short, Tebow and Hodges have a company history together and have enough companies to spread the risk of failure over those other companies. The profit margins look thin, but the Echl seems to have faith in Tebow and Hodges when it comes to possessing several teams, just like they do with the Zawyer group.
There is no reason why hockey cannot work in Augusta, but it seems that there must be a lot of basis when building a special fan base for the new franchise. With the Augusta team that was predicted to take the ice in 2027-28, it gives the Tebow-Hodges ownership for some time to develop the market for another professional hockey team, and the usual tasks of the team “name the team” Betststen, Jersey and Logo-Onthullingen and Community performances by players, the team and a Hit. There is plenty of a runway here to let this new Augusta team fly, so we will see how this goes.
Augusta, Georgia is best known for the Masters, but today’s news has the Echls who again tries to control the Augusta market.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
#goal