ECHL ECHL

WinCraft Sponsors Opening Day Decal Giveaway

Published on October 8, 2007 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced that the first 500 fans entering Cambria County War Memorial for the special "Opening Day" game between Johnstown and Wheeling on Oct. 18 will receive a decal with the ECHL's 20th Anniversary logo compliments of WinCraft (www.WinCraft.com).

Tickets are available at the Cambria County War Memorial box office and online at www.ticketmaster.com.

For fans that cannot make it to Johnstown for the historic night, the game can be seen live on B2 Networks, the "Official Broadband Broadcast Provider of the ECHL".

The game is a rematch of Game 7 from the first-ever ECHL Finals. Played on Apr. 12, 1989 in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Cambria County War Memorial, the Carolina Thunderbirds defeated the Johnstown Chiefs 7-4 to win the Riley Cup, which was presented to the ECHL champion from 1989-96. The membership relocated to Wheeling, W.Va. prior to the 1992-93 season, and after four seasons as the Thunderbirds became the Nailers in 1996-97.

The Stanley Cup is scheduled to be in Johnstown for the game, allowing fans to have their picture taken with the most famous trophy in sports.

WinCraft, Inc., began in 1961, has grown to become a recognized leader in retail-licensed and promotional products with over 300 licenses, serving colleges, corporations and retail professional sports, racing entertainment, outdoor and home-decorating industries. Companies interested in becoming retailers for WinCraft can telephone (800) 533-8006 or email (contact@wincraft.com).

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

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will have 25 teams playing in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08, including the Mississippi (Biloxi) Sea Wolves, who return after missing two seasons in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the expansion Elmira (New York) Jackals.

The Stockton Thunder and the City of Stockton will host the 16th Annual ECHL All-Star Game at Stockton Arena on Jan. 23, 2008 and the 11th Annual ECHL All-Star Skills Competition on Jan. 22, 2008.

For the fourth straight year and the 10th time in the last 11 years, the ECHL had more than four million fans attend its games in 2006-07 and averaged 4,101 fans per game.

The total attendance for the regular season and the Kelly Cup Playoffs is twice as many fans as the total attendance for the WNBA, Arena Football League and Major League Soccer and four times greater than total attendance for both the National Lacrosse League and af2.

There have been more than 66 million fans who have attended over 15,000 games since the ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in three states.

There have been 333 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06 and 26 in 2006-07.

There have been 188 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past six seasons and 69 former ECHL players were on the opening-day rosters of NHL teams.

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

The ECHL is represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League and for the past 17 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players.

In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

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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