Albany Choppers [SEP] inception
Albany Choppers
The Albany Choppers was an independent professional ice hockey team in Albany, New York competing in the International Hockey League during the 1990–1991 season. 
Creation.
The Fort Wayne Komets had been mainstays of the IHL for four decades. Before the 1990-91 season, its owner, gravel magnate David Welker, opted to move his franchise to Albany. The city had recently built Knickerbocker Arena, which was built to National Hockey League standards of the time. They represented the IHL's first effort in years to
District as part of its home territory, and initially refused to allow an AHL expansion team to play in Albany.
Those plans changed when the International Hockey League expanded eastward out of its Great Lakes stronghold to move the Fort Wayne Komets to Knickerbocker Arena as the Albany Choppers. By this time, the IHL had firmly established itself as the AHL's equal, and the AHL was unnerved by this encroachment into its Northeastern heartland. It sought to sabotage the Choppers by locating another team in the Albany area. It hastily granted