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Investor Group To Purchase New AHL Team For Springfield

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Paul Tuthill
Published May 5, 2016 at 12:27 PM EDT
Håkan Dahlström Fotopedia

Fates can change quickly in sports and that is what has happened with the future of professional hockey in western Massachusetts.

Two weeks ago, officials in Springfield, were bemoaning the loss of the city’s American Hockey League franchise to Tucson, Arizona. Now, Mayor Domenic Sarno confirms a group of local investors has reached a tentative deal to purchase another AHL team, the Portland Pirates, and move that franchise to Springfield.

" The good news is it looks like we are going to have professional hockey this upcoming season," Sarno said Thursday.

Springfield has been home to an AHL hockey team for almost 80 years. The Springfield Falcons struggled at the ticket window and were last in the league in attendance this season.
New England News
Paul Tuthill
The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
See stories by Paul Tuthill