With Christmas only four days away, our thoughts turn to the arrival of 2005 and what news the New Year may bring. 2004 has been a year of mixed fortunes for Manchester Phoenix, with the sweet nectar of the Play-Offs being tempered with the bitter taste of mothballing. Phoenix is on hold whilst a new, more economically viable home is found, and as yet there's no concrete news on that. The Phoenix HQ is dropping heavy hints that we should expect to hear something more solid in the early New Year, but the hearts and minds of the loyal Phoenix fans are needing the security of knowing that all is well and that Phoenix will be back next season, and not just may be back.
Hopefully this security will come with the announcement hinted at. Hopefully the announcement will be one on which we can all build our hopes again. The team has been coming under fire from the sceptics for not releasing any news, which is always a pain to be up against, but the flipside of that coin is that when there's no news to release, you tend to be a bit more quiet than you'd like. Would our fans like to hear repeated news releases of "things are going on behind the scenes" time after time? There's only so many times we can go to that well and draw water before we start churning up the sludge.
This is where the frustration creeps in. The fans want to hear something concrete, and we can't give it until it's a sealed deal. It would be commercial suicide to announce anything before the ink has dried on the contracts, so Phoenix are having to keep shtum. So the fans get edgy, hoping for the best and yet fearing the worst. That's perfectly understandable.
I too have my fears. There's a part of me that still harbours doubts that I'll ever see a Phoenix team on the ice. But there's a larger part of me that knows we'll be back, in our own barn, playing on our own terms. It's a matter of biding our time and letting those with the contracts and the ink to get together and thrash out the deal.
Merry Christmas everyone, and here's to an exciting New Year!
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