I was saddened (if not surprised) by the announcement that the Adirondack Frostbite will cease operations. This upcoming winter will be the first that the Glens Falls Civic Center won't host professional hockey since the building opened in 1979.
For the last 20 years, going to watch hockey at the Civic Center on Saturday evenings has been a winter tradition for me.
However, it's sadly become a tradition for fewer and fewer people. Average attendance for the American Hockey League's Adirondack Red Wings was over 4500 throughout the 1980s but started declining in the early 1990s. In 1999, the AHL team left was replaced by a United Hockey League franchise (the Icehawks, who became the Frostbite a few years later).
Attendance kept falling after the UHL's arrival and never recovered. In the most recent season, the Frostbite averaged about 1900 fans per game despite having a pretty successful team.
Sadly, some fans are blaming co-owners Steve Levy and Barry Melrose (more well-known as ESPN hockey commentators). The fact of the matter is that Levy and Melrose saved the franchise from collapse two and a half years ago. They lost a lot of their own money on the franchise and it was grossly unfair for some partisans to blame them for the team's demise. It's easy to say 'stick with it' when it's with someone else's money!
The bottom line is that thousands of fans who regularly attended the AHL Red Wings never even considered going to a UHL Icehawks/Frosbite game. I never hesitated despite the drop in level because I love hockey and because it's not like there's a ton of stuff to do in Glens Falls during a Saturday evening in the winter. But too many so-called fans never came back. If the game's entertaining, then that's what it's all about.
But too many local hockey fans never gave the UHL a chance. That's not Barry Melrose's fault. Far from attacking him and Levy, fans should be thanking them for giving us two and a half more years of hockey.
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