RIP Manitoba Moose 1996-2011

With the Jets moving back into town, the Manitoba Moose were given their walking papers. And although the franchise will be moving to Saint John's, they will most certainly not be called the Moose. The Moose have been my favorite team since I became a BIG minor league hockey fan back in 1996, so it will be a strange feeling next October when the AHL season starts, and there is no Moose.
I have been collecting Moose media guides since 1996, and also have the two Minnesota Moose guides as well, so I was little surprised when I realized that I had not purchased my copy of the 2010/11 media guide and the season was over. Once I realized that the Moose were done, I made sure to place my order online. Luckily for me, I managed to get my order in just weeks before the official Moose merchandise store closed its doors forever.

Happily they threw in a copy of the 2010-11 Year Book with my order, along with a package of Moose holiday gift tag labelz.
My one one big disappointment is that the final 2010/11 media guide is not a print book, but rather a CD-ROM, which may be great for quickly finding stats, but its not going to be much use in 10+ years when there is no such thing as a CD-ROM player!

2008 Champions DVD & Photo Book

Being a huge Chicago Wolves fan, I was thrilled when they won the 2008 AHL Calder Cup. The next season, the Wolves started selling the 2008 Champions DVD & Photo Book on their web site for $29.95. Ever since then, I have had the page on their online store bookmarked knowing that at some point I would be adding it to my collection. Recently, I saw that they had reduced the price to just $15. I quickly placed my order. The package contains a 36 page soft cover book featuring photos from the championship winning game and 2 DVDs. The first with the complete final game, and the second disc filled with bonus materials. I have already sat and watched the full game, and look forward the bonus disc when I get the chance.

If you have never seen a Wolves home game, you are missing something special. They have by far the best pre-game show of any team I have ever seen... and I have seen a ton of games (my minor league hockey game collection is well over 2500 games). If you are interested in seeing their pre-game, there are all kinds of clips on Youtube. Just search for Chicago Wolves intro and you will find a bunch to choose from. And check out the amazing photos on Wobbly85's Flickr photostream.

Abbotsford Heat Inaugural Game

The family and I attended the inaugural game of the newest AHL team the Abbotsford Heat back on Friday, October 9, 2009. I am thrilled that the AHL has come to my area so that I can have the opportunity to see some of my favorite hockey teams come though town; Manitoba Moose, Grand Rapids Griffins, Houston Aeros, Milwaukee Admirals.
I would be surprised if the team is still here in a few years though, if they do not make some big changes in ticket prices. I wanted to attend with my wife and 4 year old and also take my father in law who lives in Abbotsford and likes attending junior hockey games with us. The problem is that although the ticket price of $18 for upper bowl tickets was not unreasonable, the problem was in the fact that they were not willing to offer discounted tickets for my 4 year old son, or senior father in law, both of which are used to getting reduced cost tickets to other local games. Then there were all the extra service charges etc which I am also not used to paying when I attend a WHL or BCHL game. So, although I am a huge minor league hockey fan and really excited about seeing AHL hockey, I have only been to the inaugural game so far. I won't be attending another game until some in January, and mostly likely will attending the game on my own, leaving 3 other other possible ticket sales at home because of the ticket cost.
I could understand not giving a discount for kids or seniors if they were selling out each game - why discount a seat that you can get full price for filling. But the trouble is that they are selling less than 50% of the seats for most games so far - even the inaugural home opener was not a sell out. They need to fill those seats and get people out to the games - and that won't happen if it costs a family of 4 over $100 to attend a game.
Once they start offering discounted kids tickets and seniors tickets, they will have 4 more seats filled as I start attending games with my wife, son and father in law. Until that time, I will be listening to the games on the radio for free!
*The ticket shown with the post was found on the floor after the game. Our actual tickets were just plain ticketmaster type tickets with no logos.

Abbotsford Heat Logo Not Even Lukewarm!

The Abbotsford Heat (joining the AHL for the 2009/10 season), unveiled its new logo today... and what a disappointment it is!
I was already underwhelmed by the name, the Heat, but the logo is just about as lame as you can get. The logo in no way looks like a hockey team logo, there is no appearance of flames or heat, the colours are extremely dull and the font they created for the logo looks like something you would find on one of those lame free font web sites. This is not good enough for a high school team, let alone a professional hockey team.
Along with the new logo, is a sketch that was used in the initial creation process of the logo. You will have to figure out for yourself which is the finished product ;-)
I can guarantee you that I won't be wasting my cash to purchase anything with this logo on it!