The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(01-04-2017 12:44 PM)ODU_NYG Wrote:  

(01-04-2017 12:10 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(01-04-2017 11:48 AM)djnva Wrote:  As far as local talk, the Admirals aren't going to move the needle at all at this point in time. And I enjoy watching the Tides, but I don't know that AAA baseball really generates a lot of talk.

Let's be careful what we wish for. I'm guessing we'll get some interim folks hosting for now, but I hope they can find someone at least willing to give this a go.

Both valid points. Based on what I've read, I wouldn't be shocked if the Admirals moved and that was the end of minor-league hockey in Hampton Roads (and the rest of Virginia for that matter). And while people like going to Tides games, it's almost like a backdrop for their night out and not something that, outside of Orioles fanatics, will result in sports bar discussions about players and personnel moves. Obviously they're both local teams and should be represented on a local sports-talk show, but I'm guessing there won't be a lot of interest in either, unless one of them goes on a hot streak or an A-list player does a rehab stint.

I don't follow hockey at all so I don't know the dynamics of the minor leagues. However, minor league baseball is a weird sport because the MiL managers and coaches are there for development and its doesn't matter if they win or lose the games. So its hard to get people fired up about a team where winning really isn't the primary objective of the team.

And MiLB baseball fans, outside of stat geeks and megafans of the parent club, rarely engage with the team itself outside of the 50,000-foot view. They're cheering for the name on the front of the jersey, but I'd be willing to wager that a large number of fans don't care that much about the names on the back.

Hockey has evolved into a baseball-style minor-league system, and on top of those issues, the Admirals were stuck with an absentee owner some 2,000 miles away that couldn't divest of them fast enough and almost certainly will pull their affiliation at the first available opportunity. The ECHL they're in now bears little resemblance to the ECHL of the Hampton Roads Admirals' glory days — for starters, while they had a player agreement with the Capitals, player development for the next level was their only reason to exist, and the team was built for success at that level (and if an Olaf Kolzig or Patrick Lalime came out of it, hey, so much the better). Plus they had red-hot rivalries with a bunch of regional teams, and a blue-hot one with the Richmond Renegades. Now the Admirals are playing AA-level hockey with no natural rivals and for a parent club that tolerates their existence at best. It's a sad state of affairs, but when you consider that hockey in the Mid-Atlantic has eroded greatly in the past 20 years (only one minor-league team in Virginia, only two in North Carolina, and the Carolina Hurricanes are constantly subject to relocation chatter), maybe it's an inevitable close to this particular chapter of Hampton Roads sports.