The Dayton-Peoria rivalry continues

Many posts were written about the brawl between the Dayton Dragons and the Peoria Chiefs since it happened last summer.

I'm almost positive that the reporter who wrote the following did not have that brawl in mind:

Let's see. Build a downtown arena and move the Dayton Bombers there, or support the Austin Pike site and likely bring in an American Hockey League team?

There are pluses and minuses to both plans, but the ideal combination clearly would be a downtown arena AND an AHL franchise. That's really what should be explored.

With the AHL, hockey fans would know they are seeing future National Hockey League players, because that's where many of them come from. Seems logical that it would add to the experience.

Not to compare the Dragons and Bombers, but one of the reasons baseball flourishes here is that fans know they are watching the major-leaguers of tomorrow. More than 20 ex-Dragons are in camp with the Reds.

What's important is that this city should not settle for less than the likes of Peoria, Ill., for example, which has an AHL team and a downtown arena. Or Battle Creek, Mich., which already is one-up on Dayton, having managed to figure out how to attach an arena to a hotel.

The part that caught my eye is now in bold. I'm not sure -- and maybe it's just me, but, Peoria has this and Battle Creek has that is not a persuasive argumentative technique.