30 Teams Will Take To Ice In ECHL For 2004-05
April 7, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release
PRINCETON, N.J. â The ECHL announced on Wednesday that the Board of
Governors has approved voluntary suspension requests from Cincinnati and
Columbus for the 2004-05 playing season. The Board of Governors also
approved a Transfer of Home Territory request from DVA Sports to relocate
from Columbus to Bradenton/Sarasota, Florida. The team is scheduled to
begin play in 2005-06 in a $46 million, 7,400-seat multi-use arena,
scheduled to open in September of 2005 in Manatee County.
The ECHL will play with 30 teams in 2004-05, including the
remaining 29 teams that played in 2003-04 as well as the Victoria Salmon
Kings, who will play in Victoria, British Columbia. The first ECHL team
outside of the United States, Victoria will play at the Victoria Arena, a
$30 million state-of-the-art multipurpose facility with a seating capacity
of 7,000, scheduled to open in the fall of 2004.
The Board of Governors has approved a 72-game schedule for 2004-05
with the season beginning October 22 and concluding April 9. The ECHL is
developing the 2004-05 playing schedule to be released in early May.
Began in 1988 with five teams in three states, the ECHL is the
largest league in professional hockey and will have 30 teams in 17 states
and one Canadian province playing 1,080 games in 2004-05. There have been
253 ECHL players that have advanced to the NHL, including a record 36
players in 2003-04 that appeared in the NHL after playing in the ECHL. The
ECHL has affiliations with 21 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2003-04 and
there has been an ECHL player on each of the 30 NHL teams in 2003-04. There
are nine ECHL coaches in the NHL, including Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach
Peter Laviolette and Florida Panthers Head Coach John Torchetti, and there
are 13 referees and three linesmen with ECHL experience on the 2003-04 NHL
officiating staff. There are former ECHL coaches behind the bench on 14 of
the 28 AHL teams, and the ECHL has affiliation agreements with 21 of the 28
teams in the AHL in 2003-04.
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