The Anthracite Triangle

There are reports this morning that the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League will be sold by Comcast-Spectacor to The Brooks Group, based in Pittsburgh. Since The Spectrum is being demolished as part of a redevelopment project in Philadelphia, the team needs a new home, too. There is a good possibility that the Phantoms' will remain in Pennsylvania, perhaps moving 60 miles up the Pennsylvania Turnpike into Allentown. Although, if they should relocate to Allentown, we hope the new hockey team can come up with a spiffier name than the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Maybe the Allentown Ice Hogs.

But what this means for hockey fans in eastern Pennsylvania is that if proximity makes for rivalries, these intra-state versions will just get that much hotter.