FHL Barons bail out of Binghamton

[blackngold]

Franchise seeking new home

CHENANGO BRIDGE — The Federal Hockey League has left Broome County.

The Broome County Barons postponed their scheduled home game Friday night against the Rome Frenzy, and by Saturday morning, all signs of the team's existence were removed from Chenango Ice Rink.

"The team will no longer be playing out of Chenango Ice Rink," said Phil DeFranco, chief administrator of the FHL. "We just didn't have the attendance. We thought putting the team there was a good idea, but we found out having an AHL team (the Binghamton Senators) a few miles away was just a bad move. We thought we'd get better crowds, but the ownership was losing money hand over fist. They have a good team; it's just attendance. We had a group of people who had shown interest in having a team next year, and they wouldn't be opposed to hosting the team for the remainder of this season."

Entering the weekend, the Barons were 10-6-3 (23 points), one point out of second place in the six-team league standings.

The Barons' average attendance was 314 through the first 11 home games, but many of those tickets were given out free of charge. Having only 75 paying fans for Johnny Bower Night on Wednesday pushed the local ownership group, which has lost tens of thousands of dollars in December alone, over the edge.

Continue Reading

[PilotsFan]

I hate it but you cant blame the owner for pulling up stakes. 314 and only 75 paid is pathetic.

[Purely_Purinton]

Sounds like the other markets were better choices to begin with, and they should have known that there would be no co-existing with the Sens. (who aren't exactly a top draw in their own right) Hopefully the new location comes out in droves and the franchise can be stabilized. I can't think of many leagues that have succeeded when teams folded halfway through their first season as a league.