If the AHL ever decides to make a West Coast push you have to wonder what happens to Worcester and Manchester. I think AEG is happy in Manchester but you have to think hockey ops would like the main farm team closer. Same applies to San Jose.
The time will come when you see more cities flip between the AHL and ECHL.
Ontario, CA certainly could support the AHL - Ft Wayne should have been in the AHL decades ago.
There are a few older AHL markets who might be better off in the ECHL. (Binghamton,Worcester, Albany, Portland?)
Peoria is not a bad market and when the dust settles they will have a team.
When Lowell had an AHL team they did fine on weekends but had problems midweek and with an arena that could only max out at 6,000 they had no way of padding the average. There were many weekend games they could have sold 10K or more but didn't have the seats.
When the Devils took over the franchise marketing went down the dumper and when UMass Lowell bought the arena from the city the school told the Devils to leave.
Providence does well because of the Bruins affiliation.
I am simply suggesting that say a Worcester in the ECHL as a Bruins team would see a bump.