John Haeussler writes:
 
>Tim Harrison writes:
>>For those of you who are interested, ESPN will be broadcasting
>>the World Roller(blade) Hockey Championships on Monday evening,
>>June 21.
>>
>>I'm sure there are many college ice hockey players who
>>say in shape over the off-season by inline skating.  Does anyone
>>know of any players who actively participate in Roller hockey?
>
>I was under the impression that ESPN was covering games (early
>season) from the new roller hockey league.  (I.e., I didn't think
>it was a championship game.)  Former NHL tough-guy Dave "Tiger"
>Williams owns one of the teams...the Vancouver Voodoo, I believe.
>(Yes, this is non-fiction! :-)
 
There are actually two professional roller hockey leagues running
this year.  The World Roller Hockey League (WRHL) runs out of Disney
World in Orlando.  They built a made for TV rink right in Disney World
just for this league, which was actually a two week tournament.  ESPN
was to televise the league play.  My roomate plays on a San Diego team
which was one of the eight nation-wide invited to play.  They flew
out, tried it out and came back without playing.  Theie reasons for
bailing were: (1) rink surface was too  slippery and dangerous, (2) the
Franklin puck (Franklin was the official equipment sponsor) sucked and
didn't slide at all - it just rolled on end and bounced alot, (3) after
the first period of play, ESPN stopped and complained that there was not
enough scoring.  The league decided (to make ESPN happy) to increase
the size of the goal to 4x7 feet.  What a joke! (the league was later
discussing increasing the goal size to 6x9 feet).  That was the last
straw, since many players on my roomates team had interest in playing
in the other pro roller hockey league.  Ron Duguay played in this WRHL
and his team (the Express) won the championship (each player received
$7500).  The WRHL was no check.
 
The Roller Hockey International (RHI) is the league John is refering to.
This is a full check league and their season runs though the summer.
The Vancouver Voodoo's goalie is Canucks backup Troy Gamble.  The San
Diego Baracuda's will play out of the Sports Arena and will feature SD
Gull's Daniel Shank and Robbie Nichols.  Ticket prices are almost as
expense as the IHL Gull prices. ($12 and $9 in the lower section and $6
uptop).  I can't imagine paying $12 to see a bunch of wankers playing
roller hockey.
 
Isaac ([log in to unmask])