Bison Problems Begin to Surface: Campbell and Lyle leave

Remember this post yesterday, and this one last week? It appears that all the rumblings about the Bison problems are true-BelfasatGiants have officially announced today that sniper Peter Campbell and starting goalie Stevie Lyle have left the Basingstoke Bison and signed for them, and all hell has broken loose on the forums around the EIHL.



Personally I feel a bit confused by this-both the destination of the two players and the fact that there are indeed problems at the Bison in the first place. Firstly, the pressing issue-the problems at the Bison: As I mentioned last week, Bison are traditionally a well-run club, and although not having the biggest crowds in the league are one of the best-supported-you can always guarantee that their rink will be pretty full when you travel down there, especially for the Saturday night games. As recently as two weeks ago, owner David Taylor released a statement via the official website in response to the original story in the South Wales Echo, in which he was quoted as saying:



"Nothing has changed full-stop, financially or team-wise. Our team remains the same, we are still 100 per cent behind our Coach Ryan Aldridge in bringing success to Basingstoke in the Elite League. It's a shame these sort of rumours are allowed to be bounded around."



This was then followed up by the Elite League meeting this month being told that Bison would be around until at least the end of the season in their current form, again, allegedly by Mr Taylor himself.



Do they sound like the words of an owner whose team is losing (allegedly) two thousand pounds a week? Not to me they don't...and many Bison fans were reassured by this. However, two weeks down the line this argument is blown out of the water by his team releasing two of its highest-paid players, who immediately sign for another EIHL team, which says to me that either the club owners have been aware of this and monitoring the situation closely, or that the players are unsettled and have actively been looking for new jobs, in which case there is nothing to say that we won't see more players leave the Bison in the near future. Either way, it doesn't look good for either Bison or, by extension, the other teams in the league-not so much because of the money problems themselves (those, we can at least hope, are isolated in Hampshire and easily solvable) but because the clubs actively sought to keep this quiet and keep taking money from a very loyal and long-standing fanbase who, as has been shown by their reaction, will do anything to help save the hockey team they love.



The problem with this situation is that it's followed the classic path taken by Ayr, Manchester and the London Racers when they folded-unfounded rumours which were then denied by the club and indeed the league right up to the point where players were suddenly leaving and an entire fan-base were going "oh, s...., we've got problems here". Why do owners seemingly not learn from other mistakes?



This couldn't have come at a worse time, with the Elite League making inroads into mainstream media with the Sky coverage, awareness of British hockey being helped no end by the NHL games which took place in late September in London, and a league which has reached its most competitive since being founded four years ago.

Like me, every British hockey fan is looking at the events in Basingstoke thinking "there but for the grace of God goes my team", and it's not a pleasant feeling for any of us...

Needless to say, the Breakaway's best wishes go out to the Bison, along with an offer to help publicise any fund-raising efforts...

Tomorrow comes Round the Rinks, where we'll assess what impact these changes will have on both the Bison and the Giants as far as the matches this weekend go, so check back then-especially as the Giants play Cardiff with both Lyle and Campbell slated to make their debuts tomorrow night...

Bison fans especially, I hope you'll keep keeping your eye on the puck...