The Quad-Cities isn't returning to the United Hockey League, Michael Franke said.

A Quad-Cities expansion entry in the 3-year-old International Hockey League will be introduced at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the i wireless Center, Franke confirmed.

"First of all, it doesn't have anything to do with the old UHL," the chairman of the IHL board of governors said of a reconstituted pro hockey loop formed two summers back from the remnants of the UHL that the old Quad-City Mallards left behind.

The IHL does consist of former UHL outposts in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Bloomington, Ill., as well as Muskegon, Flint and Port Huron in Michigan.

Another start-up franchise in Dayton, Ohio, which also once hosted the UHL, will be joining the league as an expansion team this fall.

Both new members of the seven-team, Double-A league will participate in an expansion draft on Friday, Franke said. That same day, all teams will participate in a dispersal draft of the players on the roster of the Kalamazoo Wings.

That longtime UHL franchise left the IHL last month and recently joined the Double-A ECHL, citing concerns about the IHL's stability.

Franke insisted Kalamazoo's exit was engineered by disgruntled team president and ousted IHL commissioner Paul Pickard.

He also insisted message board concerns are off base about the stability of ownership in Flint, which reportedly is accepting ticket orders but not yet taking money.

"All I know is that all the teams in the IHL are members in good standing," he said. "The Flint Generals are in good standing and are preparing for the 2009-2010 season."

Franke said the process for making a 76-game schedule for all seven teams will begin on Wednesday.

President and founder of the family-owned Fort Wayne Komets, Franke said geography was a key tenant two years ago when the league adopted the monicker of a former Midwest-based Triple A league that operated from 1946 through 1990.

Throughout its existence, he noted, the old IHL averaged 6.9 teams per season.

The new IHL is scheduled to add a franchise in Evansville, Ind., in 2010-11, and further expansion could follow. But Franke said, "You will see us stay within our geographic footprint."

That geography is mostly about economics. Franke said the Komets had only six overnight road trips last year, at a considerable savings on hotel bills.

He said proximity also allows teams to schedule more weekend home games. Last year, each team averaged 25 weekend or holiday dates among 38 home contests.

When the season starts on Oct. 16, he said Quad-Cities hockey fans will see a more physical brand of hockey as well as a more skilled level of play than they remember from the Mallards' 12 seasons in the UHL, from 1995 through 2007.

Each team is required to sign eight veterans and a hard, $13,000 per week cap forces teams to spend money instead of banking it.

"The quality of play is definitely better," he said, comparing the IHL game to that of the disavowed UHL.

The IHL also eliminated instigator penalties excepting in a game's last 5 minutes, resulting in a more physical style of play and fewer referee whistles, Franke said.

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