The following article came from the January 9th, 1981 edition of the Tulsa World newspaper. It gives some of the reason why the Houston Apollos folded during the 1980/81 season.
By Tom Lobaugh
World Sports Writer
The Houston franchise of the Central Hockey League was suspended Thursday night after the Apollos failed to appear for their scheduled game in Birmingham.
CHL president Bud Poile, after conferring with the league's clubowners, announced the suspension. "We're citing the violation of the CHL constitution." Poile announced. "whereby the Apollos failed to present their team at the time and place they were scheduled to play."
Thursday morning Houston general manager Keith Sprunk had advised the league the Apollos would be unable to play their next four games on the schedule, because of financial difficulties. They were to have played in Birmingham Thursday and Friday nights, and at home against the same club Saturday and Sunday nights.
As soon as the Apollos failed to board the scheduled plane for Birmingham Thursday morning, the CHL put into operation its emergency plan, drawn up earlier in the week when it appeared the Houston franchise was on the brink of collapse.
The Wichita Wind was ordered to fly to Birmingham to play Thursday and Friday games. Wichita had been scheduled for a single game in Fort Worth Thursday night. The Dallas Black Hawks played in Fort Worth, instead.
Tulsa Ice Oilers general manager Al Rollins revealed the Oilers will add two road games to replace the three they were scheduled to play in Houston. Other CHL teams will provide the opposition for the two games the Apollos were scheduled to play in February.
The current road Oilers trip, which had included eight games, will be cut to seven. Two games scheduled for Houston have been dropped, but the Oilers will add a game in Dallas, Jan. 16. Tulsa will go to Wichita, Jan. 25, as a replacement for the scheduled March 24 trip to Houston.
On the home schedule, Birmingham will sub for the Apollos at the Assembly Center, Feb. 18 and Wichita will play here, instead of Houston, on Feb. 24. "The league will play in one division of eight teams, with six of them making the post-season playoffs." Rollins said. "The revised schedule will have each team playing just 79 games instead of 80. We'll have 40 at home and 39 on the road."
Unlike the two other which quit the CHL in mid-season, the 1977-78 Phoenix Roadrunners and the 1979-80 Cincinnati Stingers, the Apollos were not doing badly on the ice. They had a 12-13-8 record, were solidly in second place in the CHL South Division, and last week beat division leading Dallas in Dallas.
But the attendance has been poor, with many games failing to draw 1,000 fans. Officials had said the club needed to average better than 3,000 per game to break even financially.
Board chairman James T. Rash said Wednesday the local owners of the Apollos have lost "several thousand dollars this season."
The parent Los Angeles Kings said Thursday night they would reach a decision soon as to the disposition of the 18 players on the Apollos' roster.
COURTESY OF THE TULSA WORLD
I've read in other articles that the high rental costs of
the Sam Houston Coliseum also played a big part of the Apollos
folding, along with only averaging 2,300 fans in 13 home games.