So the IHL has announced that it will trim its schedule next season from 76 games down to 70. The regular season would run from October 15th through March 27th, with the playoffs starting and ending in April. (That's a regular season of 24 weeks, so teams would essentially average 3 games per week.) The reduced schedule is actually more in line with other Double-A leagues, as the ECHL plays a 72-game schedule and the CHL only plays 64.

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette story about the schedule change mentions that the IHL salary cap this season is $13,000 per week, so the speculation is that the change is being driven by owners who hope to trim 2-3 weeks off of the schedule and save some cash on payroll. It would also trim the travel budget a bit (with 3 fewer road games), and make the lengthy regular season schedule slightly less monotonous for fans - since they see the same handful of teams over and over again all year.


Meanwhile, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel ran an April 9th story about the cloudy future of the IHL. The story mentions that the IHL expects a final answer from the IceMen (about possibly moving up next season) "within the next two weeks." So given the date of publishing, that means we should know by the end of next week. I'm guessing it won't happen. I just don't see Swonder giving up the skate park to add extra seating, which would have to happen for us to move up a year early.

The story also re-hashes the problems facing the IHL these days. Fort Wayne and Port Huron are in pretty good shape. Bloomington isn't doing badly, but their arena lease requires the league to have a certain number of teams, and that number may not be attainable next season. As documented here and elsewhere, Muskegon is leaving for the USHL. Flint needs new owners, and a junior league is looking at placing a team there to replace the Generals if they fold. Dayton is coming back, but they went through 2 ownership groups this season and their attendance was downright poor. (They averaged 1276 per game in a 5500-seat arena.) And the proposed expansion team in Chicago isn't going to happen, at least not next season.

Elsewhere, more is coming out about the problems in Flint this season. From the Flint Journal:
"Players have had to purchase their own equipment — goaltender Rob Nolan played the first period of one game with a broken stick before a replacement was located — the players are still owed their travel money from back in October, several players are owed months of back mortgage payments and those in apartments have received eviction notices at least twice because the team didn’t pay the rent."

Spurred by the instability of the IHL, the Journal-Gazette examined the Komets' options going forward. The AHL is a longshot, since it's so expensive. The ECHL could happen, but Fort Wayne would prefer to be in a league that's not so spread out geographically. The CHL isn't a real viable option either because the league is largely based in and around Texas, but there's apparently some talk (don't know how serious) that the IHL teams could jointly move to the CHL as a North Division. That actually might not be a half-bad idea, but I wouldn't put any bets on it happening. Whatever happens, it sure sounds like the Komets don't currently know what they're going to do. (The Journal-Gazette says they're still evaluating their options and have only promised that they'll "play somewhere.") Whatever they do will likely create a domino effect throughout the low-minors.