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The second Cincinnati
Stingers club played in the Central Hockey League during
the 1979-80 season and was a direct product of the
demise of the Cincinnati Stingers who played in the
World Hockey Association. The WHA Stingers'
ownership, along with the Birmingham Bulls, opted to
take a buy-out of 1 million dollars instead of paying
the 6 million dollar entrance fee to play in the
National Hockey League. As a result, a minor
league Cincinnati Stingers club was created to try and
fill the void of the departed WHA club.
The CHL
Stingers went on to sign a multi-year lease with the
newly vacated Riverfront Coliseum, renting out the
facility for about $7,000 a game.
Hoping
to continue with old WHA rivalries, the CHL filled their
Eastern Division with teams that would play in former
WHA markets. The Cincinnati Stingers, Birmingham Bulls,
Houston Apollos and Indianapolis Checkers.
The Stingers then became a secondary affiliate with
the former WHA clubs in Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg and
Edmonton, who also shared in ownership of the club. The Hartford
Whalers were the chief administrators of the Stingers. These clubs would
funnel players to the Stingers over a six year period
and would absorb any debt incurred over that time.
The agreement also called for any former
WHA
Stingers' player that
did not make the roster of Quebec, Winnipeg,
Hartford and Edmonton, to be sent down to the new CHL
Stingers. This happened if they were not in the NHL's
group of first players to be called-up. This arrangement
is what brought several former WHA Stingers players back to Cincinnati. Each former WHA team also had
to send the CHL Stingers a minimum of four players which
made the Stingers responsible for filling out any
remaining roster spots.
The new Stingers' vice president was Ron
Ryan, who eventually made a name for himself with the
Philadelphia Flyers. Ryan brought in former NHL and WHA
hockey player Al Karlander to be the head coach and with
him former WHA Stingers' Bryon Shutt,
Dave Debol, Paul Stewart and Norm LaPointe followed. However,
despite the new Stingers
having several WHA Stingers players from the past team,
fans did not turn out. The crowds were sometimes so
small that they could be counted from the press box by
the end of the first period. It was becoming clear that
the club was not going to survive.
When Dave Debol,
Steve Alley and Tim Sheehy were sent to the Springfield Indians of the American
Hockey League, the writing was on the wall. Once these key
players were moved, the Stingers began to lose. With
attendance already bad, the losing sealed the deal.
The minor league Stingers only lasted
33 games before folding. Their last game was played on
December 18th against the Oklahoma City Stars in front
of a Cincinnati crowd of 949 fans. The game was a gut-wrenching loss by a score of
1-10. When the club announced the following day
that they were folding, CHL President Bud Polie went on
the record and said that he was "more embarrassed than disappointed" at the
team's demise.
All of
the Stingers' player's were then reassigned to other
minor league clubs.
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