RichardGraham
06-02-2007, 03:41 AM
Hey Folks,
Here's an article I wrote for England's Total Hockey magazine a few year's back. You may find it interesting.
***
Stars & Stripes
by Richard Graham
Don’t give up your day job…. if you want to play professional inline hockey, that is.
Pro inline hockey’s pinnacle was from 1993-1997, when Roller Hockey International had a five-year run. In 1998, RHI took a one-year hiatus, played again in 1999, and planned to come back in 2000 as Major League Hockey, but never again got off the ground.
Promoter David McLane’s first attempt, the World Roller Hockey League, had a one-year run in 1993 at Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida. Several years later, his Pro Beach Hockey league, a made-for-television event for the espn2 cable channel ran for three years from 1998-2000. The event placed a rink on the sand in Huntington Beach, California, utilized a ball, and had ramps behind the nets. Players wore shorts and shin guards that color-matched their jerseys.
Major League Roller Hockey began in 1997 as a professional league, and in 1998 hoped to take advantage of RHI’s hiatus that year, but later became a non-professional league called MLRH-AAA, and still exists today.
The league’s founder, Bill Raue, is upbeat.
“This is the breakthrough year. We have signed up some major buildings like Marple Arena (Philadelphia) and Breakaway Center (Denver) for our MLRH Players Association membership program (insurance, etc.); there are almost 300 teams in these buildings alone,” Raue said. “The other leagues have collapsed and everyone now recognizes that we are the real deal. I think we have about 30 facilities and we have until the end of August to commit more. Also, Hockey Business News is doing its roller hockey issue feature on yours truly and MLRH. It's sort of the Pope's blessing.”
Since 1997, there have been several other attempts at professional leagues, including the following “announced” leagues, none of which ever got off the ground:
* The Extreme Hockey League was a 1998 plan by the Buffalo Wings (formerly of Major League Roller Hockey) and Planet Hockey for a league with teams in the Northeast and Canada.
* The National Roller Hockey League was proposed in 1998 as a West Coast league by former organizers of RHI, and later renamed Pro Inline Hockey.
* The X-Treme Roller Hockey League was another made-for-TV league planned for the summer of 1998 with games to be taped at Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Center in Irvine, California.
* The Great Lakes Pro League (also known as Extreme Hockey International) was a league that threatened to sue an inline hockey web site for negative comments on its message board before the league even started in 2000. Fortunately for the sport, it never got rolling. One of its rules included a shootout after the third quarter of every game that would determine who would win a tie game, but would become meaningless if the game didn't end in a tie. It’s no wonder the web site’s readers reacted with scorn.
* The North American Roller Hockey League intended to play in 2001 but quickly fizzled out.
This year, Charley Yoder, the father of two of America’s top inline hockey players, CJ and Jami Yoder, founded the Professional Inline Hockey Association. The league is supported by four inline hockey manufacturers (Tour, Nexed, Mission and Labeda), and each company sponsors two teams.
In early July, at the halfway point of the PIHA season, Yoder wrote on the league’s web site, “The Labeda Lunatics get the publicity prize… landing the front page of the sport’s section in Harrisburg’s (Pennsylvania) largest paper. It was a great article with color photos.”
In an exclusive interview for Face-Off, Yoder said, “The league is doing fine. More than 4,500 fans have come to our games so far this year. We are in some local papers on a regular basis and have gotten some television coverage too.”
According to Yoder, there is a woman player in the league who stands up to the men. “Her name is Cheryl Morgan and she plays forward. The fans and her peers both have accepted her. My son CJ said she sees the floor well and can pass with the best of them.”
As for foreign- or American-born players making a living in his league, Yoder says that’s a bit premature.
“We are not at the point were a player can make a living, so besides their visa, they would need to make a living other than the PIHA,” Yoder said. “I am very happy with what we have. It can work, it is working, but we are still at least one more year away from expansion. One of the things we know is not to run before you can walk. We will stay with our two divisions for next year and make sure we cross all the t's and dot all the i's.”
As this article was going to press, another league announced its entrance on the scene. The Buffalo Wings Roller Hockey Club is forming a new “pro-style” roller hockey league that will be based in the Great Lakes Region and will begin play in the summer of 2003. The new league, to be called Inline Hockey America, will comprise at least eight teams in major markets.
“At one point in the mid-1990’s, professional roller hockey was at its peak with a national television contract, national corporate sponsors and playing in large arenas before thousands of fans,” said Benny Gulakiw, vice president of the Buffalo Wings. “Many feel that professional roller hockey failed because of mismanagement, poor decisions and rapid, uncontrolled growth. However, roller hockey has grown at other levels, particularly the collegiate level. There has also been growth in the number of quality, dedicated roller hockey facilities and corresponding amateur leagues.”
Players will not be paid a salary at any point during the 2003 season. However, league officials are working to establish a player prize pool where players will be awarded a cash prize based on their finish in the playoffs.
So, if you want to make big bucks in inline hockey, perhaps it’s best to become a doctor - treating inline hockey injuries.
For more information on Inline Hockey America, please see http://www.inlinehockeyamerica.com.
For more information on Pro Inline Hockey Association, see http://www.proinlinehockey.com/home.htm.
For additional information about Major League Roller Hockey, please see http://www.mlrh.com.
Here's an article I wrote for England's Total Hockey magazine a few year's back. You may find it interesting.
***
Stars & Stripes
by Richard Graham
Don’t give up your day job…. if you want to play professional inline hockey, that is.
Pro inline hockey’s pinnacle was from 1993-1997, when Roller Hockey International had a five-year run. In 1998, RHI took a one-year hiatus, played again in 1999, and planned to come back in 2000 as Major League Hockey, but never again got off the ground.
Promoter David McLane’s first attempt, the World Roller Hockey League, had a one-year run in 1993 at Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida. Several years later, his Pro Beach Hockey league, a made-for-television event for the espn2 cable channel ran for three years from 1998-2000. The event placed a rink on the sand in Huntington Beach, California, utilized a ball, and had ramps behind the nets. Players wore shorts and shin guards that color-matched their jerseys.
Major League Roller Hockey began in 1997 as a professional league, and in 1998 hoped to take advantage of RHI’s hiatus that year, but later became a non-professional league called MLRH-AAA, and still exists today.
The league’s founder, Bill Raue, is upbeat.
“This is the breakthrough year. We have signed up some major buildings like Marple Arena (Philadelphia) and Breakaway Center (Denver) for our MLRH Players Association membership program (insurance, etc.); there are almost 300 teams in these buildings alone,” Raue said. “The other leagues have collapsed and everyone now recognizes that we are the real deal. I think we have about 30 facilities and we have until the end of August to commit more. Also, Hockey Business News is doing its roller hockey issue feature on yours truly and MLRH. It's sort of the Pope's blessing.”
Since 1997, there have been several other attempts at professional leagues, including the following “announced” leagues, none of which ever got off the ground:
* The Extreme Hockey League was a 1998 plan by the Buffalo Wings (formerly of Major League Roller Hockey) and Planet Hockey for a league with teams in the Northeast and Canada.
* The National Roller Hockey League was proposed in 1998 as a West Coast league by former organizers of RHI, and later renamed Pro Inline Hockey.
* The X-Treme Roller Hockey League was another made-for-TV league planned for the summer of 1998 with games to be taped at Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Center in Irvine, California.
* The Great Lakes Pro League (also known as Extreme Hockey International) was a league that threatened to sue an inline hockey web site for negative comments on its message board before the league even started in 2000. Fortunately for the sport, it never got rolling. One of its rules included a shootout after the third quarter of every game that would determine who would win a tie game, but would become meaningless if the game didn't end in a tie. It’s no wonder the web site’s readers reacted with scorn.
* The North American Roller Hockey League intended to play in 2001 but quickly fizzled out.
This year, Charley Yoder, the father of two of America’s top inline hockey players, CJ and Jami Yoder, founded the Professional Inline Hockey Association. The league is supported by four inline hockey manufacturers (Tour, Nexed, Mission and Labeda), and each company sponsors two teams.
In early July, at the halfway point of the PIHA season, Yoder wrote on the league’s web site, “The Labeda Lunatics get the publicity prize… landing the front page of the sport’s section in Harrisburg’s (Pennsylvania) largest paper. It was a great article with color photos.”
In an exclusive interview for Face-Off, Yoder said, “The league is doing fine. More than 4,500 fans have come to our games so far this year. We are in some local papers on a regular basis and have gotten some television coverage too.”
According to Yoder, there is a woman player in the league who stands up to the men. “Her name is Cheryl Morgan and she plays forward. The fans and her peers both have accepted her. My son CJ said she sees the floor well and can pass with the best of them.”
As for foreign- or American-born players making a living in his league, Yoder says that’s a bit premature.
“We are not at the point were a player can make a living, so besides their visa, they would need to make a living other than the PIHA,” Yoder said. “I am very happy with what we have. It can work, it is working, but we are still at least one more year away from expansion. One of the things we know is not to run before you can walk. We will stay with our two divisions for next year and make sure we cross all the t's and dot all the i's.”
As this article was going to press, another league announced its entrance on the scene. The Buffalo Wings Roller Hockey Club is forming a new “pro-style” roller hockey league that will be based in the Great Lakes Region and will begin play in the summer of 2003. The new league, to be called Inline Hockey America, will comprise at least eight teams in major markets.
“At one point in the mid-1990’s, professional roller hockey was at its peak with a national television contract, national corporate sponsors and playing in large arenas before thousands of fans,” said Benny Gulakiw, vice president of the Buffalo Wings. “Many feel that professional roller hockey failed because of mismanagement, poor decisions and rapid, uncontrolled growth. However, roller hockey has grown at other levels, particularly the collegiate level. There has also been growth in the number of quality, dedicated roller hockey facilities and corresponding amateur leagues.”
Players will not be paid a salary at any point during the 2003 season. However, league officials are working to establish a player prize pool where players will be awarded a cash prize based on their finish in the playoffs.
So, if you want to make big bucks in inline hockey, perhaps it’s best to become a doctor - treating inline hockey injuries.
For more information on Inline Hockey America, please see http://www.inlinehockeyamerica.com.
For more information on Pro Inline Hockey Association, see http://www.proinlinehockey.com/home.htm.
For additional information about Major League Roller Hockey, please see http://www.mlrh.com.