GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
- 187,243
- 39,286
ECHL expanding to Bloomington, IL in 2024-25
- Thread starter GKJ
- Start date
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
I’m a Bloomington-Normal resident, so here’s the general breakdown.
Bloomington has a history of minor and junior hockey, having previously hosted a couple even lower tier minor league hockey teams and a USHL team over the past fifteen-ish years. However, as an admitted drawback, none of the teams lasted very long.
Bloomington is a pretty passionate college sports town. I know that most don’t care about FCS football, and from my avatar I’m clearly an FBS guy, but Illinois State is part of the Missouri Valley Conference, which is pretty easily the best supported FCS conference out there. ISU draws pretty darn well, so there is an appetite for sports here. The question to be asked is if there is support for a non-ISU team, which has yet to be proven. The baseball Normal Cornbelters have dropped several league levels to lower costs for a reason, but are otherwise the only other game in town that have survived more than a few years.
There is a viable arena here. Grossinger Motors Arena is fine - not great, but not close to bad, either. Seats about 7,000 for hockey, so plenty large to have big crowds to generate revenue. But it can also feel cavernous when it only has a thousand or so or less people, too.
Ownership is headed by the Indy Fuel owners, and that team draws very well. Granted, Indianapolis is also much, much larger than B-N. But at the very least they seem competent.
The area is home to State Farm, Country Financial, and Beer Nuts and a Rivian and (soon) Ferrero Foods plants, so hopefully more than a few corporate partners.
Name is set to be announced on Wednesday, with there being a seemingly viable rumor that Bloomington Bison will be the team name due to a nearby Peoria reporter noticing that an ECHL-tagged twitter account was created with that name a month before news of this broke. Possibly a coincidence, though. Note, the owners seem to like teams that don’t end with an S, with the Fuel and the IFL Fishers Freight (yuck) being teams in their portfolio already. Editorial note, if we are named the Bison, then we lucked out with how bad the Fuel and especially Freight names are.
No word yet on affiliation, but I’ve seen more than a few assume that St. Louis would be the parent. Maybe, maybe not.
Bloomington has a history of minor and junior hockey, having previously hosted a couple even lower tier minor league hockey teams and a USHL team over the past fifteen-ish years. However, as an admitted drawback, none of the teams lasted very long.
Bloomington is a pretty passionate college sports town. I know that most don’t care about FCS football, and from my avatar I’m clearly an FBS guy, but Illinois State is part of the Missouri Valley Conference, which is pretty easily the best supported FCS conference out there. ISU draws pretty darn well, so there is an appetite for sports here. The question to be asked is if there is support for a non-ISU team, which has yet to be proven. The baseball Normal Cornbelters have dropped several league levels to lower costs for a reason, but are otherwise the only other game in town that have survived more than a few years.
There is a viable arena here. Grossinger Motors Arena is fine - not great, but not close to bad, either. Seats about 7,000 for hockey, so plenty large to have big crowds to generate revenue. But it can also feel cavernous when it only has a thousand or so or less people, too.
Ownership is headed by the Indy Fuel owners, and that team draws very well. Granted, Indianapolis is also much, much larger than B-N. But at the very least they seem competent.
The area is home to State Farm, Country Financial, and Beer Nuts and a Rivian and (soon) Ferrero Foods plants, so hopefully more than a few corporate partners.
Name is set to be announced on Wednesday, with there being a seemingly viable rumor that Bloomington Bison will be the team name due to a nearby Peoria reporter noticing that an ECHL-tagged twitter account was created with that name a month before news of this broke. Possibly a coincidence, though. Note, the owners seem to like teams that don’t end with an S, with the Fuel and the IFL Fishers Freight (yuck) being teams in their portfolio already. Editorial note, if we are named the Bison, then we lucked out with how bad the Fuel and especially Freight names are.
No word yet on affiliation, but I’ve seen more than a few assume that St. Louis would be the parent. Maybe, maybe not.
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JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
STL Blues ownership have no time nor love to spare for ECHL affiliations. If their AHL affiliate feels the need, they leave it to them. And I can't see a business strategy beneficial to the Springfield Thunderbirds in hooking up with a Central IL team.
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JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
I've been to a handful of those "or less people" hockey games over the years. The new owners might oughta-wanna consider skewing the STH and single game seat sales to the player bench side of the bowl (which are serviced by the better concessions options), and set up cameras on the penalty bench side to emphasize the "crowd" for FloHockey streaming & local media exposure. That could also cut costs for arena staffing on game nights. As for the "cavernous" aspect of GMA, I'm sure they can figure out cranking up the music volume about 20dB will make the joint jump.
GindyDraws
I will not disable my Adblock, HF
I know you don't like the Freight name, Shogun, but it all makes sense if you lived in central Indiana, especially with the colors of the team logo. All tying into the Nickel Plate Line locomotive service.
I imagine that the Bison name is to invoke the Prairie Thunder of the CHL.
I imagine that the Bison name is to invoke the Prairie Thunder of the CHL.
BKIslandersFan
F*** off
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
In what is clearly the biggest hockey expansion-related news of the day, the team will indeed be called the Bloomington Bison.
That is a goofy logo and I like it.
That is a goofy logo and I like it.
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
Bison signed a 20-year lease, so that's hopefully a pretty significant guarantee for the city, though obviously early exit clauses undoubtedly exist.
I am not trying to start anything.....BUT..... the word I heard is that the Indy Fuel, which are moving to a new arena in Fishers IN, are going to make a strong effort to move up to the AHL. This is why the ownership has brought the Bloomington Bison ECHL to life.
So my conspiracy theory hat is on... are they making an effort to get to 33 teams, or force Chicago out?
WarriorofTime
Registered User
- Jul 3, 2010
- 28,947
- 17,106
We can only hope that helps grow hockey fandom in Central Illinois enough to reignite interest in a D1 NCAA Hockey team at the University of Illinois, to join the Big Ten Hockey Conference. It was close to coming to fruition but then all the momentum ended with COVID with no plans after that.
U of I alum here. That's exciting news for that area. Agreed, hope this kick-starts the Illini to D1 momentum.
GindyDraws
I will not disable my Adblock, HF
1. With the news today about the NHL and, uh, Salt Lake, maybe? But also Chicago hasn't exactly been making friends the past few seasons, especially with the independent fiasco. However, the Blackhawks are affiliated with Rockford, so they'd have to find a new team to affiliate with.
2. Ideally, the plan is to use Bloomington as a team to play against Indy about 10-12 times to get easy opponents for scheduling as the ECHL is more about travel mitigation, and since both teams are with the same group, it'll essentially be free money.
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
The thing about Central Illinois is that each community kind of feels like an island. I grew up in Champaign-Urbana, and I literally never visited Bloomington-Normal once other than passing through until I started to look at colleges and Illinois Wesleyan was one of my frontrunners before fading down the stretch to other schools. And that’s only an hour-ish drive.
Now that I live in Bloomington-Normal, my visits back to Champaign-Urbana have been limited, with the exception of attending Illini games. That’s well and good for a once a week sport like football, but for a sport where you can expect multiple games a week like hockey? I have to imagine that a larger comparison is basketball, and my hunch is that the lion’s share of regular attendants are Champaign County residents at Illini games on that front. And, by extension, I’d imagine that the vast majority of Bison attendants will likewise be McLean County residents.
For Illinois to make a varsity hockey program, they need to get off their ass and actually advance a project. Instead, they’re pretty clearly sitting and waiting and hoping a billionaire drops a fat wad of cash on their doorsteps while blaming Covid for not doing legwork otherwise.
Minor league hockey in B-N and collegiate hockey in C-U aren’t really connected, imho. One can succeed or fail without the other. B-N built an arena, and as a result they’ve had a few cracks at minor league and junior hockey. C-U hasn’t, so they have only club hockey, albeit a program that had a helluva golden age a bit ago.
Now that I live in Bloomington-Normal, my visits back to Champaign-Urbana have been limited, with the exception of attending Illini games. That’s well and good for a once a week sport like football, but for a sport where you can expect multiple games a week like hockey? I have to imagine that a larger comparison is basketball, and my hunch is that the lion’s share of regular attendants are Champaign County residents at Illini games on that front. And, by extension, I’d imagine that the vast majority of Bison attendants will likewise be McLean County residents.
For Illinois to make a varsity hockey program, they need to get off their ass and actually advance a project. Instead, they’re pretty clearly sitting and waiting and hoping a billionaire drops a fat wad of cash on their doorsteps while blaming Covid for not doing legwork otherwise.
Minor league hockey in B-N and collegiate hockey in C-U aren’t really connected, imho. One can succeed or fail without the other. B-N built an arena, and as a result they’ve had a few cracks at minor league and junior hockey. C-U hasn’t, so they have only club hockey, albeit a program that had a helluva golden age a bit ago.
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No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
No Fun Shogun
34-38-61-10-13-15
Some interesting tidbits about a mid-sized town’s municipal arena essentially being a financial sinkhole.
www.wglt.org
Seems like Bloomington’s best-case scenario for the arena is to merely stop hemorrhaging money. Sounds like the city is pretty desperate for the Bison to succeed in town. The most recent figure given was that it had an operating lose of $370k in the twelve months prior to Covid hitting, and likely worse since.
Also, the arena’s naming rights deal expired two years ago… and the city just kept the name the same as unpaid advertising? Bloomington will seek a new naming deal down the road when the Bison hopefully up the value of such a deal.
With hockey team in place, Bloomington looks to bring arena back to life
Now that the City of Bloomington has a new anchor tenant for Grossinger Motors Arena, the city is looking for a new name for the downtown venue.
www.wglt.org
Seems like Bloomington’s best-case scenario for the arena is to merely stop hemorrhaging money. Sounds like the city is pretty desperate for the Bison to succeed in town. The most recent figure given was that it had an operating lose of $370k in the twelve months prior to Covid hitting, and likely worse since.
Also, the arena’s naming rights deal expired two years ago… and the city just kept the name the same as unpaid advertising? Bloomington will seek a new naming deal down the road when the Bison hopefully up the value of such a deal.
