No Attendance Requirement

The way I heard it is that the USHL negotiated away any attendance requirement before the Tier 1 status took effect. They still dangle it out there to "scare" fans into thinking teams will leave if enough people don't show.

Chicago hasn't had 1800 fans at the Edge arena all season. They definitely don't have that many every game. They just lie. If there were an attendance requirement, Ohio would just lie.

That being said, both franchises are being held together by the owner's check-book. This has been the case in Chicago for YEARS. It will all depend on how long the Ohio owner wants to finance a Jr. team. Could be the end of this season, could be in 20 years. I know that attendance will not dictate the end of the Ohio franchise, the owner will. Same thing in Chicago. Same thing that happened in St. Louis.

USHL Attendance

In fact my understanding is that the 1800 seat rule only requires that a team play in a facility that has 1800 seats, not that they have attendance of 1800 fans.

I believe that originally Columbus planned to play a few games in the NHL arena with it's approx. 20,000 seats, then play rest of its games in a smaller attached rink with less than 1800 seats. That way, when the total seating was averaged between the NHL arena and the smaller rink the average would be greater than 1800. As it turned out the decision was made to have all the games in the NHL arena.

As for the longevity of the team, you are correct in stating that they will stay as long as someone is willing to pay the freight. However, as a couple players age out, the motivation to keep paying will likely disappear as will the team.

One would hope that the team will turn around, but any player would have to look at a team that has essentially turned over 60% of the players it drafted or tendered and wonder about the wisdom of playing there. It is a sellers market, but even so, Harkins is running players through like cattle at an auction. Just doesn't look or smell good.