I really don’t like writing stuff like this. I’m mostly positive, but there are some serious issues going on in a couple of FPHL markets, especially in Danville.

You may have saw my post about what is actually going on Mississippi, our first full feature. Those issues have come more into light, as have the problems in Danville with the Dashers, which have been going on for almost the whole season.

There’s no secret that the Dashers are struggling on the ice. A 35-game losing streak currently, a North American pro hockey record. But off the ice? It’s even worse. Now attendance does read over 1,000 fans, but that number is inflated by the four 3,000+ crowds that they had in Topeka, where the Dashers were the home team. But the actual number is around 700-800 fans per game.

That in itself is not great, but it’s around the number when the Dashers came into the Fed back in 2011. But things are worse as they seem supposedly.

According to sources, the Dashers organization have missed pay multiple times, and they also were late on monthly league dues multiple times. According to Gary Ryan from the Fed League Flash on Bob Howard’s Power Play Post Show from Sunday night, the players have not been paid in the last four weeks, which is two pay cycles.

Again, this is not on the players and the staff that is working WITH the team IN Danville. The team has done a really good job of presenting themselves to the community. And the team’s booster club and sponsors have done so much for the boys and team as well through all of this.

Things came to a boiling point last weekend in Carolina. Actually before. As the team was getting set to leave for Winston-Salem, the bus broke down in Danville. Ownership and the league wanted the team to drive in cars out to North Carolina for the game. Over half of the team refused, and about 7-8 players went along with coach Steve Esau.

This prompted the team to sign about 8-10 emergency players, including former Thunderbirds Josh Koepplinger, Vinny D’Andrea and ex team GM and goalie Kelly Curl, who would skate out at forward. They also signed former Delaware Thunder stalwart Brendan O’Rielly and Blue Ridge Bobcats Practice goalie and Color Commentator Ryall Purdy.

The weekend went about as well as you could expect. Two blowout losses to the Thunderbirds.

After the weekend, the Dashers traded one of their top forwards in Bohdan Zinchenko to the Athens Rock Lobsters for Future Considerations. Defenseman Trey Fischer, who had the most points by a defenseman on the team would be released, and Defenseman Kim Miettinen, who ranked second behind his D Partner was traded to Baton Rouge. And there may be more moves on the horizon after this post is finished.

So… what next? The Dashers go to Binghamton this weekend, and fans in both Carolina and Binghamton have donated items to the Dashers squad via an Amazon Wishlist which has been awesome to see. And there is more to come.

But why is it this way? At the beginning of the season, Diane Short resigned from her position as GM. It’s pretty well documented that Barry Soskin and his group own this club. Why has there been issues here this year? We really don’t know, and probably won’t know.

It really sucks for the fans in Danville who were excited to start a new leaf so to speak with the Dashers 2.0, especially after everything that had transpired with the Vermillion County Bobcats.

In order for this league to grow, teams have to have things figured out, and be able to stabilize markets, both on and off the ice, and I say that because Mississippi is having troubles too.

Justin Schmit wrote a really solid piece about this, take a look.

He makes complete sense, and while that one instance he is talking about was not this season (and that market has kind of figured things out over the last year or so), there are still problems throughout the league in a couple of cities.

As Schmitty says, 3/4th of the teams have things figured out, and it’s easy to see that in cities like Binghamton, Athens, Columbus, Danbury and Carolina. I just was in Danbury for the first time in a couple years for a game, and I really was impressed by how everything there has improved from when I worked there five years ago and how the game experience felt really professional.

But there are some sore spots, and while improvement has been made in a market like Hudson Valley for the HC Venom, there are still things to be fixed there, but they have done a solid job since the ownership change.

If the FPHL wants to be successful, and really not looked as the joke that they have been seen as for most of the last 15 years, they need to make sure things are all taken care of in all 14 markets. The league should look for stability before running to get to 20 teams.

A perfect example of a league failing at this concept was the old Western Professional League. If you look back at the six seasons that league ran, they increased teams sometimes by two or three times the prior season. Where did that get them? With multiple teams folding mid-season in Abilene, Waco and Belton, and a merger with the CHL where a couple teams ended up folding, especially in Monroe and Lake Charles.

In that league, travel was also long as well, with the easternmost team coming out in Louisiana, to as west as Albuquerque.

The WPHL went too fast, too quick, and I’m afraid the FPHL could go the same way if they don’t figure out some of their current issues before expanding, and that can be a whole article about pros and cons on expansion, but the moral of the fact is, situations like Danville or Mississippi need to be smoothed out before anything else can happen with growth.

The FPHL has gotten some good press this year, with great turnouts in Athens and Monroe for their first seasons, appearances on national media. There are prospective owners interested in the product, no doubt, but the league will need to properly vett them out, or something like what happened in Hudson Valley with Pat Manning’s group could happen again.

But the idea of this article is to show what has happened in Danville, and Barry Soskin and his group, while they do a lot of good for the league with a few of the markets they have, especially with success in Carolina, Blue Ridge, Port Huron or Baton Rouge, need to to look at what they’re doing in Danville, Mississippi which has had its own issues, and even Watertown which has been a rollercoaster this year as well.

Again, this was tough for me to write, because of the fact that I’m usually so positive, but this whole Dashers situation has been really tough to watch, especially having people I know and respect in the middle of it as well with the team and staff.

The FPHL and Barry Soskin need to take a look in the mirror and do what’s right for the players, staff, and fans.

Again, I’d love any comments on this situation, either if it’s on Facebook or on here.