OKC's new AHL team

[rbtoliver]

I have a couple of remarks about what i have been reading.....1. If this team is to have my support do not name this team the okc oil barons 2, do not have Ben Buckland as the announcer, i have watched a few AHL games on tv the San Antonio Rampage, the Texas stars, the Chicago Wolves all three seem to run great organizations, if we can do it as well as those teams Hockey fans in okc will have alot to look forward too, as for Doug Sauter being there coach i really have no opinion on that i really dont know his resume, i will say if he was a good coach why was he not coaching in the AHL.......

[smooth]

I have a couple of remarks about what i have been reading.....1. If this team is to have my support do not name this team the okc oil barons 2, do not have Ben Buckland as the announcer, i have watched a few AHL games on tv the San Antonio Rampage, the Texas stars, the Chicago Wolves all three seem to run great organizations, if we can do it as well as those teams Hockey fans in okc will have alot to look forward too, as for Doug Sauter being there coach i really have no opinion on that i really dont know his resume, i will say if he was a good coach why was he not coaching in the AHL.......

Good coach is an understatement. He is among the best in Hockey, regardless of level. Plus I bet they retain the staff from Springfield, as they are employed by the Oilers.

[rbtoliver]

Im glad you feel he is a good coach then i'd say give him a shot !!

[Millie]

What do you have against Ben?

[rbtoliver]

I ran a yahoo web page for the defunct OK wranglers AFL team and we had about 600 members all who absolutely hated his screaming over the sound system and it was just as bad when we 1st got the yarddawgz, little by little someone else took it over for the yarddawgz, i totally stopped going to Blazers games because of his annoying yelling. he fakes excitement , i been to dallas and other announcers have amazing arena voices Ben does not the thunder dont use him because they want 1st call people on the PA systems.
I could go on and on, im sure he is a good man but he was never meant to be a PA announcer he did it for very low pay im sure.

[nik4411]

why wouldnt you support them if they were called the oil barons?

[rbtoliver]

lol well lets just say there are alot better name's from a marketing standpoint than the Oil Barron's, i really think because of bob funk sr their name will be the
Oklahoma City Express.......

[nik4411]

ok. i was just curious. i have never been to a hockey game before, and have wanted to for a while now. so i will definitely have to make it to a game.

[mugofbeer]

I thought he might name them Da Funk!

[rbtoliver]

i stll like the old USFL Name and it fits our history the Oklahoma City Outlaws....

The Oklahoma Outlaws were never to have existed. Not in Oklahoma, anyway. In 1982 during the USFL's formative phases, Alan Harmon and Bill Daniels intended to place a franchise in San Diego. Prevented by that city from using Jack Murphy Stadium for home games, Harmon and Daniels moved their franchise to Los Angeles, where it became the Los Angeles Express.
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Fast forward a year, and an expansion applicant, in the form of Fresno, California-based banker and real estate investor William Tatham and his son, William Jr., applied to place a team in San Diego. The USFL, assured by the Tathams that the problems that befell Harmon and Daniels wouldn't occur again and wanting to get into that city, approved the application. The Tathams proceeded to hit the same brick wall as Harmon and Daniels had - the USFL would never come to San Diego.

After considering a number of sites including Honolulu of all places, the Tathams settled on placing their franchise in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa wasn't even among the cites mentioned in a Communications Research report commissioned by the USFL as cities under consideration for expansion teams. It wasn't even considered as a potential site. But Tatham had roots there, the franchise was his, and he wasn't in violation of any part of the USFL Constitution by placing it there, and so the Oklahoma Outlaws were born with son William Jr. minding the store as the team's General Manager.

Tulsa initally embraced the idea of having pro football in their city, a sign that the town was "major league." But Skelly Stadium, home of the University of Tulsa and now the Outlaws, was inadequate to the needs of the team. William Tatham Jr. made it known before the team had played a game, and fans weren't exactly endeared by it. Bad spring weather also played a role in the attendance picture. While the team's 15,937 paid attendance for the home opener, a 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Maulers, wasn't a good sign, the team nonetheless drew fairly well when the weather was temperate and dry.

The team on the field wasn't disappointing to Oklahoma football fans, who didn't expect much from an expansion team. But just two weeks into the season, William Tatham Jr. announced that the Outlaws would be in search of a new home for 1985. The initial plan was to move the team to Norman, Oklahoma, home of the University of Oklahoma. When that plan didn't materialize, young Tatham talked with Honolulu, San Diego, and a variety of other cities, but there were no takers. Tatham wasn't very popular among USFL owners, and he wasn't proving very adept at convincing cities that he and his father's USFL team would be a good fit in their city.

After a 1984 season that saw the team finish 6-12-0, the Outlaws had almost reached a deal to merge with the Oakland Invaders, but Invaders owner Tad Taube backed out of the deal, citing his inability to deal with young Tatham's demands. At that point Dr. Ted Diethrich, who in 1983 had owned the Chicago Blitz only to trade franchises with the Arizona Wranglers, approached the Tathams - would they be interested in coming to Phoenix?

The Tathams and Diethrich came to a deal, and through an acquisition (most refer to it as a merger but, in fact, the Outlaws bought the Wranglers) moved to Phoenix for 1985. But football fans in Phoenix, having seen not one but two versions of the Arizona Wranglers leave them, had even less interest in the Outlaws than the people of Tulsa had the year before. Despite moving into Sun Devil Stadium, which had twice the capacity of Tulsa's Skelly Stadium, attendance actually dropped, to just over 17,000 per game. The team on the field hadn't improved much from their 6-12-0 inaugural season either, finishing a disappointing 8-10-0 and out of the playoff hunt.

Despite the losses both on the field and from the wallet, the Tathams decided to stick things out, hoping that the NFL would ultimately absorb the USFL, in which case they - as owners of a franchise in a market that might be attractive to the league - would make out like, well, Outlaws. The team was slated as one of the eight planning to participate in the USFL's fall 1986 season when the verdict of USFL v. NFL was announced. The USFL had been dealt a death blow, and the Outlaws had been caught.
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[Laramie]

Doug Sauter is capable of doing a great job as an AHL coach!

I would definitely support the team hiring Sauter in any coaching capacity.

[rbtoliver]

Doug Sauter is capable of doing a great job as an AHL coach!

I would definitely support the team hiring Sauter in any coaching capacity.

I would really surprised if they did ,they want their guy in as coach...

[Popsy]

I believe there has already been an article in the Oklahoman saying that Sauter might end up being part of the organization, but not in coaching.

[HockeyFan4Life]

Sauter was a horrible coach, if he was SO great. Why didn't the Blazers get to the finals in the playoffs more often?

[Dave Cook]

Sauter was a 'horrible' coach?

Let's see.....544 wins...291 losses....83 overtime losses behind the OKC bench. One losing team in fourteen seasons in Oklahoma City.

I was never a particular fan of Sauter - never had any issues with him per say - but would never consider the guy a failure.

He's forgotten more about hockey than anyone on this board will ever know.

While he won't be coaching this team or any other team in the AHL, give the man his due.

(By the way, love the way you structure conditionals.)