A Gull Roar

Just a quick follow-up to my WHL post.

San Diego and Phoenix were successful in the WHL.
San Diego very.
The two moved to the WHA together.
Phoenix was an expansion team, San Diego got the New York franchise
Three years later they left together.
Folded their tents.

Here's the year by year breakdown of their attendance

	WHL
66.67	San Diego Gulls	8,106	X
67.68	San Diego Gulls	8,663	Phoenix Roadrunners	4,739
68.69	San Diego Gulls	8,250	Phoenix Roadrunners	4,288
69.70	San Diego Gulls	8,416	Phoenix Roadrunners	5,345
70.73	San Diego Gulls	7,041	Phoenix Roadrunners	4,978
71.72	San Diego Gulls	7,439	Phoenix Roadrunners	5,952
72.73	San Diego Gulls	5,594	Phoenix Roadrunners	5,464
71.73	San Diego Gulls	7,134	Phoenix Roadrunners	6,305
	WHA
74.75	San Diego Mariners	6,080	Phoenix Roadrunners	7,443
75.76	San Diego Mariners	6,237	Phoenix Roadrunners	6,484
76.77	San Diego Mariners	6,013	Phoenix Roadrunners	6,985

:
So, San Diego's attendance dropped steadily while the Roadrunners' rose by a third.
If you graphed these numbers, your trnd lines would make a big ol' X.
By this time in WHA history, New England had moved to Hartford and joined Quebec and Winnipeg in the 10,000 seat club.
The three would've been averaging about 90% capacity in this period.
6 to 7 thousand wasn't enough and both ex-WHL sides shut it down after three years

I got the WHA numbers here.

* * * * * *
The WHL figures came from Jon Stott's  book Ice Warriors.
Its a year-by-year survey  of the comings and goings of the WHL and its predecessor the Pacific Coast League.
Cities came and went.
Players came and went.
NHL affiliations came and went.
Major League dreams too.
Stott chronicles them all.

He throws in some bio pieces on the better known players.
And a stats and fact-filled appendix too

Its not a story filled effort - nothing about the time Andy Hebenton hit Gilles Villemure across the head with a salmon.
Of course he didn't
But if he had, you wouldn't hear about it in this book.