More articles covering the Phantoms' possible relocation

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Report: A.C. ruled out as home for Phantoms

The relevant info -- it's actually the whole article in this case, unlike some of the other articles from which I've quoted excerpts:

Maybe hockey won't be back after all.

Local ice hockey fans, who had their fingers crossed hoping the Philadelphia Phantoms would play at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, might have to wait longer to get hockey in their backyard.

According to report on Phillyburbs.com, Philadelphia Flyers president Peter Luuko said that the organization has ruled out Atlantic City and other New Jersey locales as a temporary home for its top minor-league team on Tuesday night.

However, Jeffrey Vasser, executive director of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, said he hasn't heard about of any decisions and is supposed to speak with the organization again after the holidays.

The report goes on to say Philadelphia is considering selling the Phantoms and allowing the team to relocate to another city while the Flyers would maintain control of the players, which Vasser has known to be an option.

The Wachovia Spectrum in Philadelphia, where the Phantoms have played for 12 years, is scheduled to be demolished after this season. Atlantic City had preliminary talks with the Flyers dating back to last summer.

Atlantic City, along with Trenton and Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, were considered temporary sites while a possible new arena is built in Allentown, Pa., or the Cherry Hill area. Now the Phantoms could go as far Massachusetts, according to the report.

Boardwalk Hall last hosted hockey at the arena in 2004 when the Boardwalk Bullies of the minor-league East Coast Hockey League played there. The Bullies moved to Stockton, Calif.

Here's an actual blurb from The Philadelphia Inquirer, but it's relegated to half-an-afterthought near the end of this game recap. Here are the relevant two sentences:

Phantoms in limbo
Peter Luukko, president of Comcast-Spectacor, said there are "several options" concerning the Phantoms, the Flyers' AHL affiliate that will be homeless when the Wachovia Spectrum closes after this season.

"We could move the team, we could sell them, we could find another affiliate - we're still working it all out and probably won't have it all figured out until after the New Year," Luukko said last night.

The Organ-Eye-Zation really found a way to impinge itself on the Phantoms Faithful's attempts to enjoy our holiday. Now the miserable rotten idea that a bunch of businesspeople, who negotiate for a living, might not even be motivated enough to come to an agreement about where a team will play for the next few years -- even when the FLYERS adamantly want the farm team as close by as possible and sharing the Skate Zone practice facility -- is a disgrace. It's a shame that it's the parent company of the Flyers, and not the Flyers themselves, in charge of making the decision. We'd have an answer already, and it would be a lot more pleasing to local hockey fans than the results of the seeming INDIFFERENCE of the Comcast-Spectacor powers-that-be. Said businesspeople ought to be the ones having a holiday full of frustration, not the fans. The Powers-that-be should be ashamed of themselves for putting a loyal fan base through the wringer.

And that's as much as I'm willing to expound on the topic at the moment. I don't want to get overly worked up, or I'll NEVER get to sleep.