Jump to content

NJ Outlaws Move to Williamsport, PA


DevsMan84

Recommended Posts

Not sure if this was posted but I remember how there was a topic last year and mentions of them throughout the past year about the NJ Outlaws. It looks like this week they officially announced they are packing up the team and moving to Williamsport, PA. Since this was done in such haste, the city does not currently have a suitable arena so they are playing this coming year on an outdoor rink that is being built on a ballfield.

Outlaws ride into Williamsport PA

NJ?town unaware its hockey team plans to leave

I have heard stories and rumors about this team for the past couple of months and a lot of it sounded like the owner and the coach were not too pleased about the attendance and the income the team made. What is baffling though is that they are moving to an even smaller town with no arena and they did it without even telling the town council of Wayne, NJ.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's sad. It really is. I worked for the Outlaws as a Member of Game Day Operations. The attendence was never really awful...at least I never thought so. It's just that the ice vault had minimum seating for Outlaws games. However from what I remember they made up for this by selling quite a few "Standing Room Only" tickets...letting people with those seats stand anywhere in the arena. As far as move - it baffled me as well. When I worked there I couldn't believe the "horror stories" some had about the FHL because the Outlaws staff and organization ran thinks pretty well and put out a great product. The plan was to build an arena next to the ice vault or move to South Mountain the year after...I guess both fell through. Such, a shame. Me, my pop and my GF loved going to games, I loved working there - what's more sad? There have only been two FHL Commisioners Cup Champions. Both are either out of the league or in the case of the Outlaws...moving. No stablity within the FHL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's sad. It really is. I worked for the Outlaws as a Member of Game Day Operations. The attendence was never really awful...at least I never thought so. It's just that the ice vault had minimum seating for Outlaws games. However from what I remember they made up for this by selling quite a few "Standing Room Only" tickets...letting people with those seats stand anywhere in the arena. As far as move - it baffled me as well. When I worked there I couldn't believe the "horror stories" some had about the FHL because the Outlaws staff and organization ran thinks pretty well and put out a great product. The plan was to build an arena next to the ice vault or move to South Mountain the year after...I guess both fell through. Such, a shame. Me, my pop and my GF loved going to games, I loved working there - what's more sad? There have only been two FHL Commisioners Cup Champions. Both are either out of the league or in the case of the Outlaws...moving. No stablity within the FHL.

Over the past few months I have heard different rumors on a variety of things.

For the rumors that pertain to this situation what I have heard is that a lot of nights they would barely crack 100 in a place that listed 1,100 as their capacity (which would make it the smallest venue in the league). Another rumor I heard is that between the renting of the arena, startup costs, players and staff salary, the owner dumped approximately $3 million this past year alone just to win a trophy that looks like this:

image_24.png

I can't blame her if she is a little upset/disappointed with the way things went in Wayne if the attendance rumors are correct.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to a playoff game last year before they won. The seating was horrible. These cheap ass plastic uncomfortable seats. The team however and the game were alot of fun. Im sad to see them go because I would have gone to see more games this season. As far as attendance goes, the game I went to there were probably like 50 of us for the outlaws and maybe 30 for Danbury.

They should have looked at moving the team up to Skylands in Stockholm, NJ.

Edited by Quinn01
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live in Williamsport and have for my entire life. I'm going to school at one one of the colleges in town. I've been playing roller hockey here since I was 8. This is something I've been waiting for since I was really young. A lot of the people here are excited to finally have an ice rink. They're going to try and play on the baseball field of the local minor league team. It's a longshot, but the city is trying to find the money to build the arena. This is great for this place and there is a lot of hockey interest here and it will great to see younger kids come up through the programs that start there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i went to college in Williamsport in the mid 90's. The thugs were big in that town. Then Philidelphia sent their drug dealers etc there in a choice of that or go to jail. they beat up the old thugs and took over. Have fun out there. Cant see anyone in that general area wanting to see hockey. The only way i could imagine you could sell the locals a ticket to a game is if you slapped nascar stickers all over the players and had them make loud engine noises while skating in a circle. Zamboni would have to be painted to resemble a tractor. Shame about the Outlaws. just heard about them last year but never got to go to a game. it looked like fun.

In fairness , i did go back two years ago. the area is rebuilding and my college is actually really respectable now. I wouldnt be accepted if i was to try now.

Edited by sirbutlust
Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.facebook.com/NewJerseyOutlaws

Their FB pages redirects you to "Bring the FHL back to NJ"

Apparently you can "choose the name of the new FHL New Jersey team"

I came up with the idea of "New Jersey Continentals" Or "Jersey Core"

Yeah I saw that before too. First they need a better venue and a bunch suggest south mountain or mennan arena. Either of those is def an improvement over the ice vault.

They also need to be in a better league. The FHL is a complete jabroni league. If they can be in a more stable league where the salary cap is higher than $5050 for the entire team per week then they might have a chance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I saw that before too. First they need a better venue and a bunch suggest south mountain or mennan arena. Either of those is def an improvement over the ice vault.

They also need to be in a better league. The FHL is a complete jabroni league. If they can be in a more stable league where the salary cap is higher than $5050 for the entire team per week then they might have a chance.

There isn't really a league like that in this area. You can't expect much money to be flying around in a league that is a level below the ECHL. An old roommate of mine played in a league at this level and I don't think he ever got paid. I believe some of his teammates did but not everybody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bring back RHI. We could have some summer revenue for the Rock and something to kill the time from June to September.

There are some nationwide pro roller hockey leagues, Professional Inline Hockey Association (PIHA) and the American Inline Hockey League (AIHL), but neither of them have the money that RHI did. Players don't get paid and the games take place at local indoor roller hockey rinks rather than bigtime arenas. I play in the AIHL's minor league and even I don't think we will ever see a league like the RHI again unfortunately. Anything involving roller blades kind of peaked in the 90s and isn't as popular today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I saw that before too. First they need a better venue and a bunch suggest south mountain or mennan arena. Either of those is def an improvement over the ice vault.

They also need to be in a better league. The FHL is a complete jabroni league. If they can be in a more stable league where the salary cap is higher than $5050 for the entire team per week then they might have a chance.

Apparently either South Mountain, Mennan, Ice Palace and Boardwalk Hall are the frontrunners for the arena of the yet to be named New Jersey FHL team.

I thought New Jersey Sting would be pretty good since the state insect is the honey bee. I also offered other name ideas, such as: New Jersey Americans (ABA homage), New Jersey Revolution (due to NJ's revolutionary war history, New Jersey Energy (Thomas Edison after all...), New Jersey Waves, New Jersey Tides (since we are close to the Ocean)and the New Jersey Mariners (due to the fact that he submarine was first used in New Jersey.) Bringing back the old New Jersey Rockin' Rollers name would be neat - I assume that old trademark can't possibly belong to anyone now since the league folded.

Others have suggested - New Jersey Knights, New Jersey Rebels, New Jersey Arsenal (to reflect Picatinny)

However I still like that "Jersey Core" idea, it's catchy, it rolls off the tongue and is a nice play on the "Jersey Shore" - the chants of "GO CORE GO" would be so addicting and marketable, how could you NOT fall in love with that?

If I knew there wouldn't be a lot of backlash and complaints I would suggest New Jersey Mob. However, I KNOW that wouldn't fly if that was picked.

Edited by TheMazz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not New Jersey related but the roller hockey references in this thread reminded me of how much I miss Pro Beach Hockey. Bring it back!

Pro Beach hockey was the best part about summer when I was in middle school haha. At the beginning of every summer I printed out the whole PBH schedule and had it posted on my bedroom wall so I made sure not to miss a game, even though there were all on at like 1 AM. The league kind of made a joke out of roller hockey but I still found it awesome and I was so mad when ESPN pulled the plug on it. One of my teammates said his academic advisor at I think County College of Morris is Rob Harmer from the Dawg Pac.

Edited by devilsfan26
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live just south of Williamsport in Lewisburg and I will be attending these games. I agree that there is a lot of interest in hockey in this area. Believe it or not Nascar isn't as big in this area as you may think. Yes there are probably more fans than most areas, but really in this area there aren't that many. Snyder County has all the Nascar fans. Really I think this area is all about the NFL, NHL, and NCAA basketball/football. Mostly you see people with Steelers/Eagles/Penn State/Flyers stuff in their yards. A ton of Phillies fans too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I live just south of Williamsport in Lewisburg and I will definitely attend these games. I also think that there is a lot of hockey interest in the area. Not everybody around here is into Nascar, actually I know very few people into that to be honest. They all live in Snyder County I think. In this area it is all about the NFL, NHL, and NCAA basketball/football IMO.

lol I would think baseball is big there because of the big little league complex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lol I would think baseball is big there because of the big little league complex.

Haha. Yeah I was going to say baseball, but it mainly just the Phillies. We have a minor league team the Crosscutters, but they struggle to fill the seats there. I was there on opening day this year and there was lots of room to sit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haha. Yeah I was going to say baseball, but it mainly just the Phillies. We have a minor league team the Crosscutters, but they struggle to fill the seats there. I was there on opening day this year and there was lots of room to sit.

Baseball is big around here, especially the youth leagues. That is my main worry around here in this area. It's tough for the Crosscutters to fill their seats some games, but they have seriously sucked lately, the hockey team coming here has won championships. I think if a team is winning, it's hard for the area not to support them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.