A lack of media coverage is a significant factor in the latest franchise shift in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. When the Twin Cities Vulcans move to Kearney, Neb. in the 2000-01 season, it will mark the third departure of a major hockey team from the Twin Cities in the past decade.
If a hockey team announces it is moving and nobody is around to hear the news, does the team really move?
In the case of the Twin Cities Vulcans, the answer is clearly yes.
The Vulcans are merely the latest in a series of teams to abandon the metropolitan area that is supposed to be so synonymous with hockey that Disney chose it as the setting of the popular Mighty Ducks movies. When new owner Ted Baer packs up the equipment bags and heads south to Kearney, Neb., it will conclude a tumultuous decade in Minneapolis/St. Paul hockey.
After several seasons at or near the bottom of the National Hockey League's attendance chart, the Minnesota North Stars left the North Star State for the Lone Star State in 1993, moving to Dallas. While Minnesota hockey fans vilified owner Norm Green, the turnstiles were not exactly overactive at the Met Center, as the North Stars struggled to compete with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Following the North Stars' departure, the International Hockey League's Minnesota Moose played in St. Paul for two seasons, but low attendance forced the team north to Winnipeg for the 1996-97 season.
The latest casualty in the Twin Cities hockey market is the USHL. With the NHL's Minnesota Wild slated to start play in downtown St. Paul next fall, the attendance prospects for the Vulcans went from bleak to... well, non-existent. The Vulcans have always struggled at the box office, averaging less than 500 fans most seasons.
The Vulcans' struggles at the gate have never made much sense from the outside. Once the North Stars and Moose left town, the only other higher level of hockey in the Twin Cities was the Gophers, but Gopher hockey tickets are virtually impossible to secure. Not to mention costly, as the University of Minnesota charges $22.50 for all seats in the 9,700-seat Mariucci Arena. With some of the higher seats being comparable to second level seats in larger arenas, the few seats available to the general public are often more costly than equivalent NHL seats.
Vulcans' tickets, on the other hand, are an affordable $6. Not only would the price seem to appeal to a large market, but the Vulcans, for the past two seasons, have been the only team in the Twin Cities to sell beer at their games. The combination of cheap ticket prices and beer sales would only seem to enhance the Vulcans' status in the 25-44 demographic that has been so successful for many USHL teams.
So why are the Vulcans, who have never been profitable, headed south?
Simple. The Twin Cities media has done an excellent job of ignoring the existence of the Vulcans and the USHL. When the announcement came that the Vulcans were leaving town following the season, one local daily paper buried the story deep in the sports section, while the other gave it just a passing mention in a briefs column.
The Vulcans may have been thrilled with actually receiving coverage, as it was the first time in memory that the Vulcans received anything more than a score or schedule listing in the local papers. The reaction of most Twin Cities residents was not sympathy or surprise that the Vulcans were leaving. Rather, the reaction was generally "The Vulcans are still in town?" Perhaps the Twin Cities media should be included in this category, as they haven't noticed for years that there is a USHL team in town.
While it is true that the Twin Cities is larger than most USHL markets, if it was the hockey town it bills itself to be, the media would make room for the second-highest level of hockey in town. Cities such as Toronto and Calgary face competition from NHL teams, yet junior hockey still receives far more press than in the Twin Cities.
The media problem extends far beyond the Vulcans. Although Minnesota is home to five Division I NCAA teams and both Twin Cities papers distribute statewide, the only team that receives game coverage is the Minneapolis-based Gophers. This would be a similar situation to the Des Moines Register ignoring the existence of the Iowa Hawkeyes because the Hawkeyes do not play in the immediate Des Moines metropolitan area. For that matter, Iowa State would likely be too far from Des Moines in the minds of the Twin Cities papers.
In reality, the media's idea of the world ending at the edge of their city extends far beyond sports. The Pioneer Press chose not to publish the election results from Minneapolis or the majority of the western suburbs, merely because the paper's offices are located in St. Paul. In contrast, most major daily papers across the country publish election results from around the state, as what happens in the rest of the state is clearly relevant to readers in the city where the newspaper is published.
The Twin Cities media does not get it, however. And because they do not get it, Twin Cities sports fans will not get the USHL next season.
