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The AHF looks to be intended to being done in addition to an organization's "traditional" league. Honestly, looks like a way to ensure that the rinks sell every single ice slot. The closest thing I can think of is the EJEPL (https://www.ejepl.net), which operates up and down the coast and is a way for teams to play a "split season" schedule and not have to be scrambling to fill game slots. Ashburn, Montgomery, Tomorrow's Ice, and Team Philadelphia have all played in EJEPL in the past. The AHF has over 250 teams in the league providing high quality competition at every age group and level. AHF’s initial goal is to act as a supplemental Tier II league to rink owners who operate clubs in the DVHL, NJYHL and CBHL. The AHF provides high-quality, non-league games and showcases in the Mid-Atlantic uniquely catering to its member owned clubs. The key word there is "initial", if they buy enough rinks and attract enough teams/organizations I could see it replacing some of those leagues down the road, but not in the near future. It will be interesting to see how long it takes before Allegheny and South Pointe stop attending local tournaments and traveling to these other member rinks to complete in "showcases" as opposed to tournaments.

If they would have just outfitted the new UPMC center on campus for hockey when they were building it, they could have had their cake and ate it too. More fans, more money, better facility attracts better prospects, which could equal more winning, more exposure, more donor money etc... NOT TO MENTION they still could have went and sold the island sports center to whomever and made enough money to build the dumb "diversity center" that they wanted too. But again, when these plans for the new UPMC center were being purposed they didn't even once consider their hockey teams involvement. The bottom line is Howard DOES NOT CARE ABOUT HOCKEY and will be happy that its one less thing he has to worry about. It seriously pisses me off how poorly this whole situation was handled. They could have had it all. That place would have been rocking on a Friday night with hockey fans. Might even put some of the others smaller D1 programs to shame.

I agree with @forbin. It's hard to imagine that they did what they did without a plan for selling the rink - why cancel the D1 programs if you plan to keep owning the ice? (The reverse - selling the facility but not cancelling the programs - would be MUCH more understandable, and it'll be much cheaper to rent ice for the club teams than it is to maintain the entire facility.) I don't have insider information here, but it would not surprise me to learn that they had a plan to cancel the D1 programs and sell the rink, possibly/probably including already knowing who would actually be buying the rink, at the time they were planning the basketball arena. I know this is pure unsupported conspiracy theory, but it just has the feel of a long term plan to stay relevant in D1 sports while transitioning to a less expensive sport.