The Central Hockey League's Bob Hoffman responds

Complaints about the Playoff schedule are addressed

After receiving several complaints from Texas Brahmas fans about the schedule for the President's Cup series, the CHL's Director of Communications, Bob Hoffman sent the following in an e-mail.

Fans,

Recently, you expressed your displeasure with the CHL Playoff schedule between the Texas Brahmas and the Colorado Eagles. I wanted to take the time to address your concerns and explain the process that led ultimately to the schedule selected. Many factors were taken into account and many doors were opened to try and find a better solution for the Brahmas but in the end securing a weekend date for them for the finals was not possible.

Contributing Factors:

-As it has been in all past seasons, the higher seeded team (Colorado) gets to present their preference of home dates which are weighed more heavily than the preference of the lower seeded team (Texas). Colorado, selected Wednesday, April 29th and Friday, May 1st which was far from unreasonable due to the conclusion of the Conference Finals series. This eliminated any chance to play on Saturday, May 2nd in Texas due to potential travel issues.

-The Brahmas and their fans have enjoyed four Saturday home playoff games, one Friday home playoff date and one Sunday. In review of the past 10 years of the President's Cup Playoffs, no team has had such a favorable weekend schedule through the first four weeks of the playoffs.

-The Eagles and their fans had played just one weekend home date (Fri/Sat) through the first four weeks of the playoffs.

-The finals series (no matter who the Colorado opponent was) had to end by May 10th because the ice is being removed from the Budweiser Event Center (BEC). Add into the equation that the BEC is not available on Saturday, May 9th, the only two days available for games 6 and 7 were Friday, May 8th and Sunday, May 10th.

-This left the Brahmas with the dates of Sunday, May 3rd through Wednesday, May 6th to play three games.

We do not play favorites in any aspect of our business practices as many of you have indicated. That simply would not be good business as our concerns are with the fans and teams in each of our markets. When dates cannot be worked out between the preferences of the two teams, the league has to go by what is written in the by-laws in conjunction with the building availability. If the exact same situation as detailed above had occurred in reverse, the Brahmas would have been given the other dates and it would be the Eagles fans we would be sending this response to.

We do appreciate the Brahmas 10+ years in the league and the loyal fans that have supported them and the league throughout that time but seniority does not play a role in what team is seeded where and what a building has available. Being the best team through a 64-game schedule has to mean something and has to afford some privilege.

After this process, we are confident that everything was done to provide the best possible dates for the series, and understand that it will not be popular with everyone when we don't have complete building availability in each market.

Good luck to both the Brahmas and Eagles as them embark on what should be a very memorable President's Cup Finals series!

Bob Hoffman
Director of Communications
Central Hockey League