Tuesday, June 05, 2001
Cyclones up in air as IHL folds
Report has them headed to ECHL
The Associated Press
The American Hockey League is adding six of the 11 teams from the International Hockey League, which officially folded Monday.
The AHL, founded in 1936, already had 20 teams — including the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks — and has become the main developmental league for the NHL. All 30 NHL teams will supply players to the AHL.
The 56-year-old IHL, based in Detroit, had lost eight teams in the past four years.
The IHL's Milwaukee Admirals, Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins, Utah Grizzlies, Houston Aeros and Manitoba Moose are joining the AHL.
Plans for the Cincinnati Cyclones, until Monday an IHL team, are undetermined. Doug Kirchhofer, who owns the parent company of Firstar Center and the Cyclones, said the Cyclones would return in a different incarnation for their 12th season.
“Today is the end of a chapter in Cyclones history but certainly not the end of the book,” he said. “It's maybe bittersweet because this kind of formalizes (the end of the IHL). But we're looking forward to seeing what our next chapter is.”
Kirchhofer said the Cyclones, like a few other IHL teams not absorbed into the AHL, would play in a different league next season.
“Given the circumstance of the (Firstar Center) bankruptcy filing and the change of ownership of the building, a final decision about where we're headed won't be made until later this month,” he said.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Cyclones will probably join the East Coast Hockey League, where they started in the early 1990s.
Staff writer Neil Schmidt contributed to this report.
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Cyclones up in air as IHL folds
