Steamboat Springs, Colorado – After the WSHL Steamboat Springs Wranglers hockey team played at home on Sunday the players were told that would be the final game for the team. The expense of putting together a franchise and keep it operating was simply too much.

One of the operating members of the team told the hometown paper the Wranglers last season played in the Rocky Mountain League. When that league went down, the Wranglers joined the Western State Hockey League.

So instead of playing games locally the Steamboat team was all over the country like playing in Dallas and El Paso, things like that. There is also a record number of junior teams playing which made it more difficult to recruit top players.

The toughest part about all of this was telling the Steamboat players after they played so well against the WSHL Wichita Jr Thunder on Sunday. The Steamboat team drew about 200 to 400 fans per home game. The Wranglers went down with a record of 0-19-0.