Cleveland/Jacksonville Barons Statistics and History

The Cleveland/Jacksonville Barons were a Minor Professional hockey team that played in the American Hockey League. At the start of the the 1972-73 season, the owner of the Cleveland Barons, Nick Mileti, obtained a hockey franchise in the World Hockey Association which he named the Cleveland Crusaders. Mileti also decided to keep his AHL franchise, the Barons.

Cleveland could not support two hockey teams, and the fans chose to back the higher-level WHA team, which also received the more attractive schedule dates at the Cleveland Arena. The Barons' attendance plunged, with many games drawing well under 1,000 fans (down from an average of over 5,000 the year before).

Mileti wanted to fold the team, however he could not do this easily because he had a development agreement with the Minnesota North Stars. His solution was to move the team. His initial proposal was to move the Barons to Lewiston, Maine, however since the AHL was a developmental league for the NHL,with which Mileti and the WHA had an antagonistic relationship, the NHL persuaded the AHL governors to turn down this move. Mileti then proposed moving the team to Jacksonville Florida and would cover the travel costs of teams traveling to Florida. This proposal was ultimately accepted by the league.

The Barons' final game in Cleveland was supposed to January 7, 1973, and just 412 fans bothered to see it. However, the Barons tenure in Cleveland was not quite dead. Because of scheduling problems in Jacksonville, the newly-named Jacksonville Barons needed to play three of their remaining 19 home games in Cleveland!

Jacksonville provided the team with a warm welcome, with 9,189 fans showing up to their first game on January 19, a 6-1 loss to Hershey. The team was back in Cleveland in front of a crowd of about 500 on January 23, a 6-4 win against Springfield - a game that was a 5pm opening act for the WHA's Crusaders game which drew over 5,000. The Barons then went back to Jacksonville on January 29 to play in front of 4,204 fans.

The final Barons game in Cleveland was played on February 4, 1973, a 5-1 loss to Richmond in front of 435 fans.

During the summer, the Barons explored relocating to Syracuse, but the plan never materialized, so the team elected to remain in Jacksonville for the upcoming 1973-74 season.