NHL Prelude? Notion Won’t Play in Peoria

After all these months of speculation about San Diego getting a palatial new arena with teams from the National Basketball Assn. and National Hockey League, a new franchise has been landed.

And this one is part of a league that plays in Peoria, of all places. Flint, too. And don’t forget Muskegon and Kalamazoo.

What happened? Wasn’t Elkhart available?

Yes, sports fans, San Diego is a bona fide member of the International Hockey League. The inaugural season for the To-Be-Named-Laters will begin in October.

Initially, it is a little hard to evaluate whether this is a step forward, a step backward or no step at all. I would argue that it represents either a step backward or no step at all.

How, in truth, can it be argued that this represents a step forward?

The IHL is a minor league. San Diego has already proven it can support minor league hockey. It supported the minor league Gulls and the minor league Hawks, and it supported the Mariners when the World Hockey Assn. was masquerading as a second major league. San Diego doesn’t need another minor league team to prove its affection for hockey.

However, you can bet that San Diegans will be told that supporting the To-Be-Named-Laters will greatly enhance the area’s chances of getting a real, live team from the NHL, which plays in places such as Edmonton and Chicago and Boston rather than Peoria.

Balderdash.

Formal applications for one of the two or three NHL expansion franchises are due Aug. 15. The franchises themselves are expected to be awarded in December.

With this timetable, San Diego would have all of October and November to go absolutely bonkers over the To-Be-Named-Laters from the IHL and thus overwhelm the NHL with its love for the sport. This is hardly a reasonable time frame for a reasonable measure of interest.

Given then that this is no step at all in terms of moving forward to the NHL, I will concede a tiny step forward on behalf of the faithful who welcome--at reasonable prices, of course--any hockey at all. Reasonable prices mean minor league prices, such as five bucks for a good seat.

The potential for taking a backward stride lies in the potential conflict with the Sockers for dates, office space, advertising space and maybe even attendance. If a minor league hockey team should jeopardize the Sockers, it would be a major leap backward. The Sockers, after all, have seven championship banners hanging from the rafters of that arena and yet another at the seamstress.

The Sockers should get, at worst, a fair priority on weekend dates. They should be accommodated with their advertising on their dasher boards. And they certainly should not have to put up tents in the parking lot to house any of their staff.

The Sports Arena’s operators--Harry Cooper and Richard Esquinas--also happen to own the To-Be-Named-Laters. It behooves them to resist the temptation to consider their team to be the team in the arena.

It can be argued that the Major Indoor Soccer League, the Sockers’ affiliation, is not a major player on the U.S. sports landscape, but I don’t think any league that plays Peoria has ever been a candidate for the cover of Sports Illustrated, either.

What’s more, it also has to be taken into consideration that the San Diego State men’s basketball team will need a dozen or so home dates in the arena, and most Western Athletic Conference games are on Thursdays or Saturdays.

Prime home dates, thus, are going to be at a premium, especially when events such as circuses, concerts and ice shows are included.

None of these are problems that dozens of arenas across the country don’t encounter . . . and overcome. However, fairness must be a prime criterion in overcoming these problems.

What San Diego has been “granted,” in essence, is hockey’s version of an hors d’oeuvres. The IHL is hardly an entree.

San Diego deserves an entree. It has proven that.

The biggest game in town, when it comes to real major league hockey, is taking place in board rooms. The city and Cooper still have not reconciled where (and if) this palatial new arena is to be built.

In the arena area, something must be done and done quickly. It’s been bantered about too long now with nothing definitive in sight.

Will it be downtown?

Will it be in Sorrento Hills?

Will it be?

By the time the NHL meets in December, those questions had better be answered, and a ground-breaking had better be scheduled.

If nothing happens in the board rooms, nothing will happen in terms of the NHL coming to San Diego before the turn of the century. Should that be the case, get used to the To-Be-Named-Laters meeting Peoria in the existing arena. That’s all we’ll have.