Decline and Merger With ECHL
The league began to contract in 2001-02 after the Phoenix Mustangs folded before the season. Before the 2002-03 season, the WCHL's last as an independent league, the Tacoma Sabercats and Colorado Gold Kings folded. The WCHL played in a single division in 2002-03 as it had its first two seasons.
In 2003, the WCHL was absorbed by the East Coast Hockey League. In a change reflective of the nationwide presence of the ECHL, the East Coast Hockey League formally changed its name to simply ECHL on May 19, 2003, as a direct result of the merger. The six remaining WCHL teams (Anchorage, Bakersfield, Fresno, Idaho, Long Beach and San Diego), as well as a planned WCHL team in Las Vegas, Nevada, which became the Las Vegas Wranglers, joined the West and Pacific Divisions of the ECHL's National Conference. The Anchorage Aces renamed themselves the Alaska Aces before joining the ECHL.
Read more about this topic: West Coast Hockey League
Famous quotes containing the words decline and and/or decline:
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Heroic reverie mocked by clown and knave....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)