AHL looks for franchise buyer

The American Hockey League will vote Tuesday on whether it will approve the sale of the old Utah Grizzlies' franchise, which was voluntarily suspended last year by owner Dave Elmore, to Cleveland Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert.

The sale will have no effect on the current Utah Grizzlies' ECHL team, Elmore told the Deseret Morning News. He has been trying to sell the dormant AHL franchise since last spring, when he chose to move to the AA-level league to save money and get better name recognition with western opponents like Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

"It should go through next week," Elmore said by telephone Thursday, adding he expects everything to be done by next Friday.

The AHL Cleveland Barons will move to Worcester, Mass., following this season, but even if the transfer of ownership from Elmore to Gilbert is approved, the new acquisition would not begin play in Cleveland until 2007-08.

When the Deseret Morning News first contacted Elmore about the rumored sale several weeks ago, he said he couldn't comment because the Barons' possible move had not been made official and application to the AHL for the sale of the Grizzlies' franchise had not been filed by Cleveland.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer on Thursday quoted AHL commissioner Dave Andrews as saying, "We have a request for Utah Grizzlies ownership to transfer the franchise to Cleveland. We're in the due diligence phase right now."

"The (pending) sale has no effect at all on the current team," Elmore said. "It (the AHL franchise) was an excess franchise we have and needed to transfer to someone who would use it." There is a fee assessed each year by the league to owners of suspended franchises.

The sale also does not close the door to a return to the AAA level in Utah, though Elmore is quite pleased with his current ECHL affiliation. Another franchise could be purchased, and some NHL teams own AHL franchises and could make a deal to move one.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com