Save The Pensacola Ice Pilots!
The petition to save them starts here!
My dear friend and sister (we are not related) Angelbaby00 told me that her beloved Pilots will not be back for another season.
Now as we all know,Florida isnt the state for hockey,but for NHL wise it is,why not?
They still have 2 teams in the running!
Anyways,The Pensacola ice pilots new owner doesnt want this team no more!
what a freak!
Thanks Heather for letting me know this and for telling to me to write this!
Thanks sis!
As a fan of the ECHL and keeping track of the many different leagues running around me I find that the ECHL is very entertaining and has great hockey.
Lots of good people in these semi-pro leagues.

By the press release by the Pensacola ice pilots had this to say on their website: In a statement released by the ECHL on June 23, 2008, the membership of the Pensacola Ice Pilots has been terminated.
This week the Ice Pilots will mail full refunds to all fans on their season ticket deposits and parking. In a statement released by Ice Pilots President Greg Schuh, “I am certainly disappointed in the decision handed down by the league this morning. If we have any further news or updates on the situation of hockey in Pensacola, we will notify our fans.”


My dear friend Heather has grown up with this team,and as yo u know,when you grow up with a team,its doesnt come to mind that your team wont be there!
Heather misses her team,and do I!
She got me to be a pilot fan,and now that I was hoping to get in full swing with this team,their new owner calls it quits.
After 12 years? 12 years they have been around.





If there is anyone willing to field a new professional hockey team in Pensacola, Mario Forgione is all ears.
Forgione — who heads up Henley Sports, Inc., which owned the Ice Pilots — purchased the team in August 2005.
Since the team was terminated late last month as an member of the minor-league ECHL, Forgione claims that his losses as owner now total $4 million. He said the Ice Pilots lost $750,000 in the 2007-08 season alone.
The Ice Pilots’ franchise was terminated on June 23, which means Forgione doesn’t actually have a tangible team to sell.
Even without the team, Forgione remains a vital part of the future of hockey in Pensacola.
Forgione holds a valid lease with Escambia County and owns many of the hockey-related assets at the Pensacola Civic Center that would be vital to a new team coming to Pensacola.
“One thing is black and white for us,” Forgione said. “We’re prepared to work with the county, the ECHL or anyone else to facilitate hockey here. We don’t have a problem with that. We’re not holding back this process at all. The problem is that no one is out there putting themselves on the line. There aren’t a lot of guys stepping up to the plate.”
The News Journal reported Monday that former Ice Pilots’ owner Tim Kerr had expressed interest in bringing a team back to Pensacola.
“No one has contacted with any interest about taking over the franchise,” Forgione said. “If Tim Kerr or anyone else wants to buy the team, all he has to do is pick up the phone, we would be more than happy to work with him to facilitate that.”
Out of the ECHL
Before the 2007-08 season, Forgione asked the ECHL for one year of dormancy, which would have allowed the Ice Pilots to sit out this season, which begins Oct. 17. The team then could have returned for the 2008-09 season.
That request was denied by the league’s board.
Forgione then asked to relocate the team. That request was also denied.
“He did not have a signed lease, a business plan, a staff operating in the new market. And, as a result, (the relocation) was turned down,” ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna said. “Certainly we can’t approve a move to a market where we’re not sure there is a lease in place. That has to be in place before.”
The Ice Pilots have lost money in seven of their 12 seasons in Pensacola, all while in the ECHL. In on-ice performance, the Ice Pilots suffered their worst seasons in team history in Forgione’s two years as owner. The team has won 39 games and lost 90 games, with another 15 losses in overtime or shootouts, in the past two seasons.
Escambia County, Forgione and SMG, the group that manages the Civic Center, in December renewed a lease that would have kept the Ice Pilots playing through 2011.
Forgione claims he has been in talks with the county about buying out of the lease. That would cost Forgione $50,000, according to Escambia County Management and Budget Services.
McLaughlin also said that if Forgione does not have a team on the ice when the ECHL season begins this fall, Henley Sports Inc. will be in violation of the lease terms. The “game dates” are reserved on the Civic Center’s schedule. And until the county is made aware of Forgione’s intentions, the county is unable to schedule events on those dates.
The county already has asked Henley Sports Inc. for the Oct. 17 date — the ECHL’s opening night — for an unnamed event. Forgione’s group granted the request.
Change in ownership?
Forgione thinks there is little interest from potential owners looking to start a franchise in Pensacola because of the sluggish economy and the large sum of money needed to jump-start a new team.
For starters, it costs $1.5 million to purchase an ECHL expansion franchise, and $750,000 to move a current ECHL franchise to a new location.
The only inquiry Forgione has received regarding the lease or his tangible assets has come from a group looking into an arena-league football franchise, a sport Pensacola — and the Civic Center — has already seen come and gone this decade. The Pensacola Barracudas indoor football team played in the minor-league af2 from 2000-02.
Forgione did not confirm or deny the possibility of acquiring his own Pensacola-based hockey team in a smaller league and having the team playing in the 2009-10 season.
He was clear, however, that neither he nor Henley Sports, Inc., would not be involved with any Pensacola hockey team for the 2008-09 season.
“We don’t have any options at this point until this season is over,” Forgione said. “I’m going to see what happens after this season. If someone else wants to come in here with a team this year, I’m OK with that. Someone can play in Pensacola if they want to.”
Is Pensacola viable?
Forgione believes Pensacola is too small a market for the ECHL, a league that has grown tremendously since the Ice Pilots entered in the 1996-97 season.
So,with pensacola out the list in the ECHl,it alters everyone and their teams.
The teams are now un-even
How is that some dude buys the team to only figure out that he doesnt want them?
excuse me?
Alot of good player come from the ECHL,AHL,QJMHL and others.
To see that this team is being dumped like last year’s shoes is a big DONT in hockey.
Show your support!

Its wrong people!
just wrong!
Please contribute and save this team!
You! Yes,you! You Can do it!
Save The Ice Pilots
Write to the man of Pensacola!


Tim Kerr TimKerr1212@yahoo.com

This is really his e-mail!
Please tell him to buy back the Pensacola Ice Pilots!
If we can get enough people to save this wonderful Florida team!
Me and Heather and all of Pensacola will sleep easy!
However,if the new owner doesnt step down,or give the lease,Heather will put the new guy into exile! with no food or water!

Save the Pensacola Ice Pilots!


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PETITION
TRUEBLUE99 HAD THIS IDEA!
SO LETS PUT HIS IDEA TO GOOD USE!
ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST!


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