Report: AHL hockey team moving from Omaha to the Quad-Cities
TODAY: (Updated 6:51 p.m.) Quad-City Mallards president Tim Taylor would not confirm a Tuesday report on the Omaha World Herald Web site that said the American Hockey League’s Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights are relocating to the Quad-Cities.
“That is a speculative report,’’ Taylor said. “We have no comment.”
The Mallards, though, previously expressed interest in moving up a notch or two next season from the shrinking ranks of the United Hockey League, a league that has been their home since the team debuted in 1995.
Furthermore, as recently as two weeks ago, when the UHL announced the Mallards would be among eight teams returning to what had been a 10-team league next season, Taylor would not rule out a change of plans, saying the Mallards would consider an offer to move up.
“I think any business would always look at the options that are presented to them,” he said then.
According to the World-Herald report, that opportunity now is at hand, with the NHL’s Calgary Flames ready to move their AHL operation from Omaha to The Mark of the Quad-Cities.
The newspaper said two sources close to the Omaha team confirmed the Knights would not return after two seasons at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, and the report said the team was “expected” to land in the Quad-Cities.
Adding possible credence to the report was the Tuesday morning sighting of Flames general manager Darryl Sutter at downtown Moline hotel by a pair of Chicago newspaper reporters who knew Sutter when he coached the Chicago Blackhawks from 1992-1995.
Taylor declined comment when asked if Sutter was in the Quad-Cities Tuesday.
The Flames owned 50 percent of the Knights franchise and Calgary executive Michael Holditch told the World that the Knights had suffered “serious operating losses” the last two years.
Despite finishing first in the Western Division with 49-25-5 record, Omaha finished 25th among the AHL’s 27 teams in attendance this season, with an aveage of 3,474 fans.
The Mallards finished sixth in the 10-team UHL with an average of 3,120.
The Mallards and their first-year ownership group, Quad-City Sports Ventures, did apply for admission to the ECHL earlier this year but that application was denied because the closest ECHL team was 8 hours east in Dayton, Ohio.
In the AHL, the Mallards would join nearby teams in Rockford, Chicago and Peoria, Ill., as well as Des Moines, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids, Mich.
Contact Craig DeVrieze at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com