There is a chance that Palm Springs could soon be home to a minor league hockey team.
The Seattle NHL franchise doesn’t yet have a name and won’t take the ice until 2021, but the team is planning for the future and that includes finding a spot for its future affiliate in the American Hockey League, which serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League.
As KING 5 Seattle’s Chris Daniels reports, that decision is down to two possible spots: Boise, Idaho and Palm Springs.
.@NHLSeattle_ CEO Tod Leiweke tells @Softykjr and @dickfain Boise and Palm Springs are the markets being analyzed for the Seattle AHL affiliate.@SportsRadioKJR #NHL #AHL
— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) May 29, 2019
And while Palm Springs may not immediately scream hockey town, there are a crap ton of Canadiens around during the season, so, yeah, that could be a thing that works.
It appears that each city has advantages / disadvantages:
Mentioned this earlier: 2 locations making sense, logistics or geography.
Boise: established arena (5K capacity) with attached luxury hotel, airport just 10 min away.
Palm Springs: clean slate to build ideal facility, 5 teams within 7 hrs drive or less. https://t.co/zKZpPxuHSb
— Mike Benton (@Benton_Mike) May 29, 2019
And hey, how about a rad potential name for the franchise:
Coming Soon To The AHL….Palm Springs Cactus
— Sean Blair (@ElLocoGaijin) May 29, 2019
As it’s early on in the process, there is no word at all about where the team would play – then again, maybe they can announce a $300 million stadium and then just pray someone gives them all they money for it.
