While the official word has not yet been posted on the Chops site or AHL home page, all signs indicate that the Chops AHL franchise will not take the ice this fall. On Friday they laid off the entire ticket sales staff and other front office personnel. Making things worse, I found this today:
"The Chops ownership was unable to meet financial obligations and the team's operations have been suspended."
I will definitely miss having the American Hockey League in Des Moines. It was nice to have the top level minor league here for a few years. It is a shame that such terrible owners managed to screw it up just as the team began to make inroads in the community. Hopefully this is a temporary situation and the Polk County Supervisors can manage to locate a new (local) owner to relaunch the team ASAP.
