World Hockey Association 2 history and statistics

The WHA2 was a minor professional hockey league that operated for the 2003-04 season, and was based in the Southeastern United States. It was purportedly founded as a development league for a planned higher league, the WHA (a new league designed in the spirit of the original World Hockey Association), but the WHA never got off the ground.

The league was founded in the spring of 2003 when David Waronker, owner of four ACHL teams, pulled his teams from that league due to his dissatisfaction with the league's leadership and its lack of paying medical claims. Waronker owned the Orlando Seals, the Jacksonville Barracudas, the Macon Trax (which he relocated to become the Lakeland Loggerheads), and the expansion Miami Manatees. A new team formed in Macon, retaining the name the Trax, and the (Pelham) Alabama Slammers were added to fill out the league's lineup. This action left the ACHL with just three surviving teams in Knoxville, Winston-Salem, and Fayetteville (Cape Fear). Despit... [Click for more]e working through the summer trying to secure additional teams, the ACHL was supplanted by the South East Hockey League in those cities.

The WHA2 opened its season in November with the aforementioned six teams. The league had moderate success at the gate, and even held an all-star game on January 28, pitting the Jacksonville Barracudas against a league-wide all-star team. The All-Stars won 7-6.

There was, however, some turmoil late in the season; in early March, the Miami Manatees abandoned their home rink and finished out the season on the road. The league revised its standings and ranked teams by winning percentage due to the imbalance in games played.

In April 2004, the WHA2 announced that its teams would leave the league to join the newly formed Eastern Hockey League. In doing so, it deliberately disassociated itself from the embryonic WHA. The EHL picked up franchises from the South East Hockey League, and was essentially a unification of the WHA2 and the SEHL. The EHL was eventually forced to change its name to remove confusion with the East Coast Hockey League; it renamed itself the Southern Hockey League, and then reorganized itself into the Southern Professional Hockey League.