The State of Professional Roller Hockey!?!?!

[kordy]

I'm curious as to what people in the roller hockey community think as to the state of professional roller hockey. Does anyone think a USA wide league will ever return to the stature of MLRH and RHI hoped to be??? PBH is making strides in California but this league features a deviation from the "norm of pro roller hockey" by using an aerodynamic curved surface behind the nets and a ball rather than a puck. I heard about a new attempt at pro roller hockey out of Michigan. Its nice to see the push to restart pro roller. I live in the Buffalo NY area and I'd like to not that despite not providing a men's pro team this season due to the lack of a league, the Buffalo Wings organization has continued to help develop and promote the sport of roller hockey in Western NY constantly throughout the Summer 2000 season. Please feel free to respond back with any comment, suggestions, or opinions on the topic of the state of pro roller hockey. thank you all for your time!!
-rob-

[deniro]

Well, ProBeach hockey is more of a TV league. I think that's one of the reasoms why they use the ball, for example. Easier to see on tv. As for the MLRH, I played in the Eastern league and it was very disorganized. The schedule was changed several times, a team was let in halfway through the season, and it was almost up to the individual teams to organize things. Some of the rules changed on us, like the checking rule, which was annoying. It just seemed like it wasn't well organized. Hopefully other teams had better experiences, but it just didn't seem like much. I'd probably have more fun by just calling these teams up on my own and scheduling some games.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Kordy,

I think the costs inherent in creating a sturdy pro league are very high, and that's probably the main hurdle. There will always be players who will want to participate, rinks that will want to host pro games, and a certain number of spectators who will pay to watch the games. However, a pro league is unlikely to blossom without television coverage, and that brings us back to costs.

Perhaps a good article for Inline Hockey Central would be one in which I interviewed people like Dennis Murphy of RHI and Bill Raue of MLRH and have them answer questions pertaining to the difficulties of making a pro league survive in the long run. If I was to do that, what sort of questions would you, and other IHC readers, like me to ask?

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[Ohmeomiah]

The main reason that all of the pro leagues have failed-in my never to be humble opinion-is that
the leagues have been undercapitalized. In order for a pro league to succeed, somebody needs to come in willing to spend a lot of money and to loose money the first few years while the league gets established. The name of the game is marketing, and in order to market you have to spend money and advertise. The one year MLRH had a team here in the Tampa Bay area, they did absolutely nothing to market their team. Their idea of a marketing program was to give away a few tickets at the local rink. I run into people to this day that are interested in roller hockey and don't know there was ever a pro team here. Butts in the seats is the key and to get butts in the seats people have to know there are seats to get in. I'm not sure I agree that TV is the key Rich, at least not initially. Minor league baseball prospers in this area with no TV. I think you have to develope your fan base in order to grab the attention of TV. Bottom line, ya gotta spend money to make money and I have yet to see any of these people with schemes to start pro leagues willing to put up the $$$$.

Mike M-