Attention Jacksonville and Orlando-area hockey fans, it is probably a good thing that you didn't form an emotional attachment to the new World Hockey Association team that called those Florida cities home for nine days between June 10-19.

The Orlando WHA franchises life span was far, far shorter the International Hockey League's Orlando Solar Bears or the Atlantic Coast Hockey League/WHA2/Eastern Hockey League/Southern Hockey League Orlando Seals. The Seals and the Jacksonville Barracudas will instead soldier on in some low level league this winter, whether it is the shaky Southern Hockey League or the just as unstable Southeast Hockey League.

Orlando and Jacksonville may have gotten lucky though. The new WHA, which is down to six teams in Dallas, Detroit, Halifax, Hamilton, Quebec and Toronto, has failure written all over it.

Will Cincinnati be part of the league? Birmingham? Minneapolis? Montreal? Phoenix? And (holy) Toledo?

Will there be a European Division or a Junior development league? Will 17-year-olds like Sidney Crosby be lured by an offer like 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky was by Nelson Skalbania and the Indianapolis Racers WHA franchise in 1978? Will free agent Brett Hull join the new league like his father Bobby did in 1972 when he signed a million deal with the Winnipeg Jets?

The original WHA, a financial disaster in the 1970s, actually did the world of hockey a lot of good. The league signed Europeans who proved they could play at a high caliber, opened up international competition, and introduced a higher level of hockey to the south. Gordie Howe, remember, played in Houston.

In the end, only Edmonton, Quebec, Winnipeg and Hartford had the economic strength to join the NHL.

The new World Hockey Association is supposed to be an alternative "major" league with "fan friendly ticket prices" complete with former NHL players. National Hockey League players who might be locked out on September 16 would be welcomed by a league that could spent up to $5 million on a "franchise" player and have a $15 million salary cap.

Just where WHA owners are going to get that kind of capital is a question mark, unless they have deep pockets.

The new WHA will fail because there are three basics that are needed for a successful major league franchise; government, cable TV and corporate support.

It all starts with government support from a city council and mayor or a state legislature and governor approving funding for an arena or a stadium. Starleaf Sports Entertainment's planned Orlando WHA team would have moved into an arena that the primary tenant, Rich DeVos’ Magic, thinks is not generating enough revenue and needs to be replaced. The Magic is a proven and stable entity, the WHA has already shown it is not.

If Starleaf's leases in Orlando and Jacksonville were anything like the Dallas WHA team's deal with the to use the old Reunion Arena, both Florida WHA teams would have had to sell an awful lot of high end tickets to make ends meet. The Dallas franchise is getting virtually no money from traditional revenue streams as concessions and parking. Dallas is also requiring the team to pay one-month rent in advance. It was not uncommon for teams like the New York Golden Blades, Denver Spurs, and Minnesota Fighting Saints in the original WHA, which existed between 1972 and 1979, to just suspend operations in midseason after failing to pay bills.

The Orlando and Jacksonville WHA teams would have failed miserably on the TV front. The National Hockey League just reached a new over-the-air TV network deal with NBC whereby both the league and the network split advertising dollars after production costs. NBC isn't investing big dollars into sports anymore with a few exceptions like Notre Dame football. NBC has similar revenue sharing deals with minor sports such as the Arena Football League and the Professional Bull Riders.

(NBCSports.com is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture)

The Jacksonville and Orlando WHA teams would have had major trouble landing a local cable deal. The Sunshine Network is the cable TV rights partners of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning and might not want a rival league's games shown in their area.

Would ESPN, which reduced it rights fees for NHL games, want to put a rival product on its channels? Perhaps not. The WHA best hope for TV exposure would be buying cable time and producing its own show and that's very costly. The new WHA could webcast some of its games also.

The new WHA teams would have also needed corporate support. Would either the Jacksonville or Orlando corporate community have bought luxury boxes and club seats and would the average Orlando fan have spent discretionary income for entertainment that will feature some over-the-hill former NHL players along side some young guys who have no NHL futures?

The new Dallas WHA franchise has scaled its tickets from $65 at rink side to $10 for the cheapest seats. The average ticket will cost $35. That's a lot of money for an unproven product.

The WHA was done in Jacksonville and Orlando after just nine days. In addition to getting no government, TV and corporate support, newspapers, sportstalk radio and cable TV would ignore the league. There are just too many negatives and no positives.

Its just a matter of time before Dallas, Detroit, Halifax, Hamilton, Quebec and Toronto join Jacksonville and Orlando as WHA members who never played a game.

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