 The ACHL then convinced Brabham to take over the Nashville South Stars during the following season, which he relocated back to Salem in December 1983 as the Virginia Lancers, named after his chain of convenience stores.In 1984, he built the LancerLot Sports Complex in his hometown of Vinton, Virginia, to serve as home to the Lancers due to the cost of playing in the Salem Civic Center.In 1988, Brabham and Bill Coffey founded the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) as a minor professional ice hockey league with five teams, three of which were owned by Brabham — the Erie Panthers, Johnstown Chiefs, and the Virginia Lancers — as well as being a co-founder of a fourth team, the Knoxville Cherokees.