Minor league hockey team destroys hotel

Not sure what team it was (thanks CNN) but apparently this happened in Jamestown, NY, after the league canceled the season.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/02/17/vo.ny.hockey.vandalism.wivb

 

The Jamestown Vikings of the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League. ...

From the Buffalo News. ...

Police say retaliation against owner sparked hockey players’ vandalism spree

By T.J. Pignataro NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 02/16/08 7:11 AM
As many as seven Jamestown Vikings hockey players who vandalized a century-old Jamestown building in an alcohol-fueled rage early Thursday told police they mistakenly believed the building was owned by the man who ran their team and hadn’t paid them in about two months.

Felony criminal mischief charges may be filed against the hockey players as soon as Jamestown police and the Chautauqua County district attorney’s office finish their investigation. That could be as early as next week.

“One of our felony prosecutors walked through the scene [Friday],” Chautauqua County District Attorney David Foley said late Friday. “We’re going down a path where criminal charges are likely to be filed.”

The players received notice late Tuesday from their team that the five-team Mid-Atlantic Hockey League was immediately suspending the 2007-08 season to “reorganize” for next season. Financial and other considerations were cited as the reason for the shutdown.

Police believe the players, who told them they had not been paid by the team, retaliated by trashing the former Vikings Lodge on Washington Street, where some of them were staying.

Officers found nearly every antique leaded-glass window in the building was smashed. Bar stools had been thrown through doors. Paint was spilled around a historic third-floor dance hall. Police said the players also tried to start fires in the kitchen.

Witnesses who saw the damage said Friday that it reeked of beer and rotting food and they saw a bar stool suspended in a wooden door.

The owner of the Vikings, Andrew G. Haines of Canton, Ohio, was shocked by the news. He said he hadn’t talked to any of his players and is content to allow “the police to do their job.”

“From what I understand, it wasn’t the whole team,” Haines said. “Once we find out who it was, they’ll be suspended from this team and the whole league. And, we’ll make sure other leagues know about this.”

The building first housed the Fraternal Order of Eagles before being purchased by the Jamestown Vikings in 1941. A year ago, it was sold to a Florida man, and he was negotiating to sell it to Haines. However, the deal had yet to be closed, Haines said.

The Florida owner was on his way to Jamestown to assess the damage, according to Foley.

Officials at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena, home to the Vikings hockey team, warned the players beforehand not to let their emotions boil over after receiving word of the canceled season.

“We just knew they were upset and we didn’t want them to retaliate in any way,” said Erica Maloney, marketing and sales manager for the arena. “The players knew Mr. Haines was in the process of purchasing the building.”

“We wanted them to understand the building was a historic part of Jamestown.”

Maloney said it was known that the team was behind in meeting the players’ payroll. Sometimes, arena officials even “paid cash to the players from ticket sale proceeds,” she said.

“The arena tried everything we could to help the players and support the players,” Maloney said. “The community embraced the team and the league.”

Players told police that besides not being paid, they were living in substandard conditions — in some cases, sleeping on mattresses on the floor with no access to showers.

Haines said the players were not obligated to accept the housing there — which was free.

In an e-mail to The Buffalo News, one of the players accused Haines — who also partially owned two other league teams — in Wooster, Ohio, and Indiana, Pa. — of failing to pay players there, as well, eventually resulting in the league’s demise.

Reports published Tuesday in the Indiana Gazette, suggested members of the community’s team, the Indiana Ice Miners, also hadn’t been paid “in weeks.”

The Vikings’ player also detailed accounts of injured players having to pay for medical bills out of their own pockets. He said players couldn’t “get home because they had no money” and “also could not eat.”

“We had coupons for a few restaurants around town for one meal a week,” he said. “This is how most of us ate during the weeks.”

The Associated Press contributed

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c82_1203291869

 

They did some good work on that hotel.

 

See, if they had brought their fuckin' toys, they would have been occupied.

 

This "league" makes beer leagues all over North America look like the NHL.

The MAHL's leading scorer played college hockey for Penn State for a few years. Yeah, he's a ringer.

However, I love this quote:

The owner of the Vikings, Andrew G. Haines of Canton, Ohio, was shocked by the news. He said he hadn’t talked to any of his players and is content to allow “the police to do their job.”

“From what I understand, it wasn’t the whole team,” Haines said. “Once we find out who it was, they’ll be suspended from this team and the whole league. And, we’ll make sure other leagues know about this.”

There is no team and there is no league.

Sorry, but what other leagues could he be talking about?

Still, the players were assholes and they should have their asses kicked.

 

BTW, where do Americans come up with all these "semi-pro" leagues?

Other than the AHL and maybe the ECHL, they're all a scam.

 

Life in the lower rungs or bottom of the food chain of minor league hockey.

 

Oh no, JR ... there's the Central and United leagues.

 

I'm always amazed that someone mentions leagues like the "Mid Atlantic Hockey League" and no one in Canada has ever heard of it.

 

None of this would have happened if they drank that stinkin root beer

 

This league has been kicking around in a variety of forms for the past several years. There was something called the North East Hockey League (IIRC) that had a team in York, Pa., among other hot spots.

 

That bar stool through the door is a nice touch. Seems like one of the players was the guy in the viking costume from the Snickers commercial.

Noooooooooooooooo! Yesssssssssssss!