Hockey writer, Naples (Fla.) Daily News

It's ECHL hockey. The letters ECHL don't even stand for East Coast Hockey League as they have a handful of teams on the West Coast.

Then again, it is hockey in Florida, so I guess the Chiefs actually did move there.

 

Aww, I don't know Reg. There's a lot of shysters in Florida.

 

Thanks for the breaking news.

 

I see papers go apeshit over minor-league teams and I wonder: Do the fans really follow the team like major league fans, or is it just a safe night out with the kids, a diversion like the movies, the beach, Chuck E. Cheese. No doubt every minor league team has the sickos that were mentioned, but of the crowd of 6,000, how many really care who wins, much less want to read shitloads of copy about it?

 

The ECHL team where I live gets about 4500-5000 fans per night. I say they come for the beer and the fights — nothing more.

 

Damn, a job I would love but I have to keep working or lose my moving expenses.

*curses*

 

um, "eeyore"?

 

I've gone to a lot of AHL games in the Midwest and Northeast, and there's always a group of rabid fans. In Milwaukee, there's a group that not only has Admirals jerseys with their favorite players, past and present, but some with Nashville Predators jerseys with those players names if they're called up.

Call me silly, but I'm not spending $290 for a Pekka Rinne mustard-colored sweater.

 

Everblades have a lot of fans, mainly because the retirees need something to do when the Sox and Twins are gone for 11 months. Yet the NBDL team there failed to catch on.

Also, I hear Florida Gulf Coast University's club hockey team has a decent following.

 

I know it's all legit. I used to listen to Everblades games on the car radio while tooling around Ft. Myers during spring training.
But really, every time I see this thread title, I make up imaginary jobs, like "sailing writer, Amarillo, Tex."
I just don't get it, not the job, the audience. If you move to Naples to get away from ice, snow, and cold, why follow hockey once you're there?
I know people are illogical, hell, I am, but this one stumps me.

 

You're 70 or 75. You're not giving away/willing away all the pension/401(k) cash. You need something to blow it on.

 

There are some SERIOUS puckheads in SW Florida.

The Everblades have a junior hockey program, with tykes who begin skating seemingly before grade school. These junior Blades routinely kick buttocks against national competition in big tournaments.