The NHL's Mistake by the Lake: a History of the Cleveland Barons

The Cleveland Barons should never have existed. Born when the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals—another team that should never have existed—were transplanted to Cleveland in 1976 and greeted with apathy by the dwindling number of hockey fans in northeastern Ohio, the Barons were an embarrassment to the city and to the NHL. The only thing the team had going for them was the state-of-the-art arena they played in, which was all but empty for nearly every game they played. This book chronicles the Barons' two regrettable seasons—a case study in what happens when an ill-conceived professional sports team created in an expansion splurge is moved, in an effort to save it, to a city that doesn't really want it.