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ECHL, Royals Unveil 2009 All-Star Game Logo

June 17, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The Reading Royals and the ECHL on Tuesday unveiled the logo for the 2009 ECHL All-Star Game hosted by the Royals and the City of Reading at the Sovereign Center on Jan. 21, 2009.

The logo has a purple keystone outlined in silver and white on top of a black keystone outlined in silver with "All-Star" in white letters trimmed in black across the center. The nickname for the state of Pennsylvania is "The Keystone State". "ECHL" is written in white letters above "All-Star" and "Reading" is written in white letters below. The bottom of the logo has a red ribbon trimmed in black and silver with "2009" in white.

It will be the 17th edition of the annual midseason game that showcases the top prospects in the Premier 'AA' Hockey League. The 12th edition of the All-Star Skills Competition will be held on Jan. 20, 2009 at the Sovereign Center.

In conjunction with the All-Star Game festivities, the Royals, the City of Reading and the Sovereign Center will be hosting 'Hockey Week In Reading' which will be a series of special events, including a special game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The All-Star festivities will also include the official induction ceremony for the second class, which will be announced later this year, into the ECHL Hall of Fame.

For the sixth year in a row the ECHL All-Star Game logo was designed by Joe Bosack, who is the president and founder of The Joe Bosack Graphic Design Company. Bosack also designed the ECHL logo, the Kelly Cup Playoffs logo, the ECHL 15th Anniversary logo, the ECHL 20th Anniversary logo and the ECHL Hall of Fame logo.

The Joe Bosack Design Company is a full-service design studio that specializes in branded identity. In addition to its work with the ECHL, Bosack has created identities, both directly and indirectly, for The National Basketball Association, The National Hockey League, The National Football League, Major League Baseball, Nike Team Sports, The Arena Football League, WNBA, Coca-Cola, Fila U.S.A., and Universal Studios in addition to dozens of individual teams and universities.

Attended by representatives from both the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the game has produced 42 players who have gone on to play in the NHL including 26 since 2002 when the format was changed to feature younger prospects.

The past six ECHL All-Star Games have brought at least $1 million to the local economy with invited guests, players, coaches and fans occupying hundreds of hotel rooms and spending three days in the host city.

The game has been available live to more than 80 million homes on the NHL Network each of the last six years as well as being rebroadcast on multiple regional sports networks. The audio broadcast has been carried each of the last three years on XM Satellite Radio as well as being available in all ECHL markets.

The Stanley Cup and the Patrick J. Kelly Cup will both be on display throughout the event, marking the ninth time in the last 10 years that the NHL championship trophy and the ECHL championship trophy have been displayed together at the All-Star Game.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier 'AA' Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will play with 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Mississippi and current Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who is the 2007-08 winner of the NHL Coach of the Year award, and former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The ECHL is represented for the eighth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2008 with Detroit Red Wings forward Aaron Downey.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 19 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In the last six seasons the ECHL has had more call ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,300 call ups involving more than 1,200 players. In each of the last three seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL in the same season.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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