A Minor League Disappearing Act

At From the Rink over the weekend, James Mirtle took a detailed look at how the Atlanta Thrashers have seen their fanbase trickle into the ether. James does a great job outlining exactly how it's all gone wrong in Atlanta, but you can simply sum things up in one line: when it comes to attendance in major league sports, winning solves a lot of other problems.

Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case thus far this season in the minor leagues. Earlier this month, the Augusta Lynx, an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, ceased operations just 17 games into the 2008-09 ECHL season when the owners couldn't find additional investors to keep the team afloat.

Then, just yesterday, the Fresno Falcons, an affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, disbanded when their owners couldn't find a buyer to keep the team operating. Especially troubling is the fact that the team was actually leading the league's Pacific Division, yet still couldn't put enough fans in the seats to keep the operation afloat.

Now, am I about to predict disaster ahead for the NHL based on the failure of two minor league franchises? No, I'm not. It isn't unheard of for minor league teams to fold, in fact it happens all the time, even though losing two franchises midseason probably wasn't part of the ECHL business plan. And it wouldn't be a shock if one or both of these cities saw these franchises resurrected in one form or another in the future.

Still, it's hard not to feel a chill run up your spine when you see a team, any team, just disappear in the middle of a season. And as the aftershocks of the global credit crunch spread through every nook and cranny of the North American economy, one wonders just how many more fans NHL teams like Atlanta, Nashville, Columbus and the New York Islanders can really afford to lose.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.