Albany Choppers

One of the worst business decisions ever made by a minor league team has to be the Albany Choppers. They were originally known as the Fort Wayne Komets, an iconic team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1952 to 1999.   But in 1999, franchise owner David Welker made the decision to relocate the organization to Albany, the state capital of New York, where they became known as the Albany Choppers. The name and colour design came about as a result of Price Chopper becoming a partial owner. Alain Lemieux, Mario Lemieux's brother, joined the group along the way. The transition to Albany wasn't smooth. They had to pay the travel expenses for some of the teams coming to play them as part of the deal to let them move east. They also had opposition from nearby AHL and collegiate teams, and they played before sparse crowds in a 15,000-seat arena. After just 55 games in Albany, the Choppers would crumble under the weight of all of this financial hardship. Back in Indiana, the Komets who were re-born after the 1999 departure of the original franchise, are still successful to this day.