On the RIght Path

Seems like the AAHL is on the right path, making a few changes may be needed to save this league and continue with a competitive on-ice product. This was an article posted on theaahl.com

In the wake of the resignation of Commissioner Bob Langdon and another league associate, the All American Hockey League announced a new corporate structure. Evansville IceMen General Manager, Chip Rossetti, has been voted into the position of acting League President. Joe Kolodziej, from Battle Creek has been named Vice President, Matt Wiedenhoeft was named Treasurer and Sue Anderson, from the Chi-Town Shooters, is the League Secretary.

“This new structure”, Rossetti said, “will allow everyone to share responsibilities. Everyone will be involved in every facet and will take more responsibility. We all work together real well and we think this is the best way for us to move forward.”

The new structure has immediately allowed for necessary changes to be made. The AAHL has implemented a new standard for screening potential ownership groups, as well as increase the requirements for ownership.

“We have a lot of issues that we need to take care of”, Rossetti continued. “There are a lot of things that need to be done that we thought were already done. Unfortunately, there were things going on that we didn’t know about that we are just now finding out about. We will have to take them one at a time, and get everything dealt with.”

The first line of business for the new corporate representatives was to name a new Director of Officials for the AAHL. Bob Pagani, of Chicago Illinois, will immediately assume the position. Pagani has been working this season as an official in the AAHL.

The AAHL announced late last week that the Chicago Blaze franchise has folded. “We did everything we could to try to save them”, Kolodzeij said. “Once we had all of the information about what was going on there, we realized that they were in pretty deep. Although we believe in the Chicago area market, and there was interest from three separate groups to take over, we could not reasonably assure those groups that the assumption of significant debt would be justifiable in the short term." The league had a dispersal draft last Wednesday for Blaze players.

The AAHL is announcing that the franchise rights to the Detroit HitMen have been taken from their current ownership. As part of the leagues future expansion plans, the players from the HitMen and non-drafted players from the Blaze have been allocated to a new team that was slated to play in the 2010-2011 season, but will begin play immediately. A separate press release will detail the new ownership group, as well as the team’s new name and home.

The AAHL is also working to remedy the situation with the league’s statistical program.

“We still have the same goals that we started with,” said Rossetti. “We are giving players a place to play and pursue their dreams. We want to give them a place to hone their skills and give them the opportunity to move up. Despite the problems we have had, we will keep moving forward with our mission.”