Light a sparkler to celebrate hopes for AHL

Paul Carpenter

July 4, 2008

Light a sparkler to celebrate hopes for AHL

The Lehigh Valley's Yankee Doodle Dandies have something to celebrate in addition to the commemoration of what happened down the Pike 232 years ago.

They might light a sparkler or two because of a couple of stories this week about the fireworks over hopes for a new (and long overdue) American Hockey League stadium.

It's bad form to rejoice over somebody else's misfortune, but Philadelphia may lose a place for its AHL franchise team, the Phantoms, to play. (The AHL is just a notch below the National Hockey League; the Phantoms are an affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.)

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The Phantoms play in the venerable Spectrum, a Philly fixture for four decades, almost as sacred as Independence Hall. The stadium, however, is expected to be blown up like a fireworks finale to make room for (egad) a shopping complex. That means the Phantoms will play elsewhere, and the Lehigh Valley is on everybody's lips.

Wednesday's front page said it could take years, but things are looking good for the Phantoms to play their home games in the Lehigh Valley -- in a new $80 million, 9,000-seat stadium.

Sites mentioned for the stadium included one next to Allentown's Coca-Cola Park, home of the minor league IronPigs baseball team. Others are near Lehigh Valley International Airport in Northampton County, and in Allentown off Union Boulevard or Martin Luther King Drive.

State Rep. Jennifer Mann, D-Lehigh, said the success of the IronPigs helps makes the Valley attractive for other minor league sports franchises.

Another page-one item, on Thursday, noted that while funding is a big issue, key local figures are enthusiastic. The Lehigh Valley is seen as the perfect place for a new AHL franchise by Northampton County Executive John Stoffa, his Lehigh County counterpart Don Cunningham, and Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

Despite a modern trend for sports stadiums to depend largely on governmental money and whims, I get a little nervous over the involvement of politicians.

As Wednesday's story noted, former Mayor William Heydt once proposed a hockey arena at Ninth and Hamilton in Allentown.

I criticized that proposal harshly, calling it a fraud, saying a downtown arena far from any major highway won't work, and blasting it for being keyed to a fourth-rate United Hockey League franchise. Unlike the AHL, I argued, the UHL is several notches below the NHL. I also said Heydt sabotaged another proposal at that time -- an earlier embryonic plan for an AHL franchise -- by ballyhooing his cockamamie UHL proposal.

Heydt's UHL stadium proposal never went anywhere, predictably, which is fortunate, because a spectacular flop by the UHL could have soured future plans for a real franchise.

It's a wonder that the Lehigh Valley still has no AHL team, when much smaller markets, such as Hershey and Wilkes-Barre, have had good crowds at AHL games for years.

That brings up one other sour note -- the talk about hopes for an AHL franchise being boosted by the success of the IronPigs thing.

I do not understand the appeal of baseball, a sport that devolved from the world's most inane game, cricket, which is native, of course, to England. As I indicated just last April, Bill White is one of my favorite journalists, but I find his fondness for something as boring as baseball very odd.

Ice hockey, on the other hand, is nonstop action and excitement, like a Zambelli (it sounds almost like Zamboni) fireworks display. It reflects America's tough and vibrant nature, and it is a true-blue American invention. (Well, almost. Canadians are right next door, and no one who attends lots of hockey games can deny that they have a better national anthem. Note: The AHL includes Canadian teams.)

In any case, I look forward to celebrating the day when IronPigs fans will be able to go across the street, perhaps, and watch a real sport. They'd better keep a defibrillator handy to kick-start the hearts of those stunned by seeing several members of a team all moving at the same time.

So let's light a sparkler.

paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176

Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.