Please explain to us the real reason$ why we are not opening at home.

From: Steve

Comments: So, our Condors have clinched home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs but the first 2 games are on the road w/the final 3 at home. It sounds to me that the Condors have chosen to put themselves at a disadvantage by opening on the road. I’m guessing the Condors management has chosen to have their home games on Friday and Saturday (instead of mid week) because those weekend games would bring in more money. If this is not the case, then please explain to us Condors the real reason$ why, in a 5 game series, we are not opening at home. I can’t believe Marty Raymond wants to open on the road!

Reply: C’mon, Steve. Really?

Of course Marty Raymond doesn’t want to open on the road. Neither does Dean Stork of the Greenville Road Warriors, Nick Bootland of the Kalamazoo Wings, Matt Thomas of the Stockton Thunder or Stan Drulia of the Wheeling Nailers. They are all head coaches of higher-seeded teams that are choosing to start on the road. They must all be as full of greed as the “Condor$ Management” right???

OR MAYBE……… they would all much rather have a potential Game 5 at home than on the road.

Think this through $teve: Split the first two on the road and you can have three home games to come up with 2 more wins. Or you could start with Games 1 and 2 at home and run the risk of splitting those, then you have to win 2 of 3 ON THE ROAD and have a deciding-Game 5 matchup ON THE ROAD. And as much as having home ice advantage usually means hosting Game 1, doesn’t it also mean having that deciding game at home? You have to choose. Last season, the Condors earned that split in the first 2 games in Victoria, and came home to host the next three, and needed Game 5 at home, in front of the hometown fans, to advance – which they did.

Four of the six series feature the higher seed starting on the road so they can host a Game 5 if it comes to that. Only two feature a traditional 2-2-1 format: Las Vegas vs. Idaho and Reading vs. Cincinnati. They were both able to do that because of proximity. If the Condors would have been the higher seed against Stockton, who is obviously pretty close to us, we would have foregone those “lucrative” Friday-Saturday home games (there isn’t really that much of a difference in the playoffs) in favor of hosting Games 1 & 2 & 5 in a 2-2-1 series.

-The Mailbag Guy