Bloomington Bison joining ECHL in 2024-25

[JMCx4]

How many corporate-sponsored STH tix are in that early count, you reckon?

 

[Northerner]

Should have named them the "Bloomington Farmers"... since State Farm is headquartered there

I love this. I love Bloomington. I am an instant fan and need to get a jersey as soon as possible.

 

[battra]

I've already convinced the wife that we're going to some games.

 

[JMCx4]

I've already convinced the wife that we're going to some games.

Has she ever been to Bloomington-Normal? Beware the culture shock.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Hey now, Bloomington-Normal is a fantastic place for the folks that want a tamed down version the fast-paced lifestyle of Champaign-Urbana.

 

[jaysoneil]

Hopefully they can draw some attendance from Peoria and Champaign - not sure there's going to be enough interest from Blo-No alone, but maybe they know something we don't.

If they can broadcast games in local bars, that'd be a good boost. Build a hockey culture similar to the IHL/ECHL Rivermen days before completely losing the fanbase when the AHL came to town. I'd imagine the nightlife is healthy, but mostly due to ISU - question being, do the kids care to drop $20+ for a hockey game. Time will tell.

 

[sabremike]

If they don't eventually end up the Sabres affiliate I will consider it a crime against God, man and nature.

 

[JMCx4]

If they don't eventually end up the Sabres affiliate I will consider it a crime against God, man and nature.

You put way too much faith & personal investment in all of this. The Sabres could have exclusive agreements with every ECHL & AHL team (with sides of SPHL & FPHL), and they'd STILL be the Sabres.

Carry on.

 

[JMCx4]

Hopefully they can draw some attendance from Peoria and Champaign - not sure there's going to be enough interest from Blo-No alone, but maybe they know something we don't.

If they can broadcast games in local bars, that'd be a good boost. Build a hockey culture similar to the IHL/ECHL Rivermen days before completely losing the fanbase when the AHL came to town. I'd imagine the nightlife is healthy, but mostly due to ISU - question being, do the kids care to drop $20+ for a hockey game. Time will tell.

While all roads may lead to B-N In Central Illinois, I think it unlikely they will be well traveled for Bison games. And I don't know what restrictions FloHockeyTV might put on game streams around town, or how you get bar owners to subscribe & display them on the nights when the Bison are on the road (building a "buzz" for their next home games). But I do believe capturing the attention of the ISU student body (plus faculty & staff) will be essential to putting butts in seats @ GMA, which is where the key income streams will bubble up from.

 

[battra]

Has she ever been to Bloomington-Normal? Beware the culture shock.

I do not believe so.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

If they don't eventually end up the Sabres affiliate I will consider it a crime against God, man and nature.

That would be good in my book, but truth be told I'm fine as long as it's not St Louis, but even then that'd only be an eye roll unless they stamped the bluenote on their shoulders or something.

And hey, maybe Columbus, as they don't have an ECHL affiliate. Would have to do better than the previous team I rooted for, the likewise Jacket-affiliated Chicago Express, right?

... right?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Hopefully they can draw some attendance from Peoria and Champaign - not sure there's going to be enough interest from Blo-No alone, but maybe they know something we don't.

If they can broadcast games in local bars, that'd be a good boost. Build a hockey culture similar to the IHL/ECHL Rivermen days before completely losing the fanbase when the AHL came to town. I'd imagine the nightlife is healthy, but mostly due to ISU - question being, do the kids care to drop $20+ for a hockey game. Time will tell.

eh, I sort of doubt it. The vast majority of the butts in the seat would assuredly be McLean County residents.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of Peoria animosity. That town still isn't over the Blues backstabbing them and essentially forcing them down from the AHL to the SPHL. Bloomington waltzing in and scoring an ECHL team, a league that the Riverman won a title in once too, mind you, has to sting a lot.

B-N is absolutely the little brother to Peoria and C-U.

At the risk of angering a diehard Icehogs friend on this site, my ideal would be for the Hawks to get the Rivermen as their AHL affiliates, the Bison to be their ECHL affiliates, and for the U of I to get off their asses and make a varsity hockey team already.

 

[sabremike]

You put way too much faith & personal investment in all of this. The Sabres could have exclusive agreements with every ECHL & AHL team (with sides of SPHL & FPHL), and they'd STILL be the Sabres.

Carry on.

Think you missed the joke:

 

[battra]

eh, I sort of doubt it. The vast majority of the butts in the seat would assuredly be McLean County residents.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of Peoria animosity. That town still isn't over the Blues backstabbing them and essentially forcing them down from the AHL to the SPHL. Bloomington waltzing in and scoring an ECHL team, a league that the Riverman won a title in once too, mind you, has to sting a lot.

B-N is absolutely the little brother to Peoria and C-U.

At the risk of angering a diehard Icehogs friend on this site, my ideal would be for the Hawks to get the Rivermen as their AHL affiliates, the Bison to be their ECHL affiliates, and for the U of I to get off their asses and make a varsity hockey team already.

I'd be shocked if we ever see a town like Peoria getting an AHL team again.

It's mostly major markets now, with notable exceptions in heritage markets, aka Hershey, Rochester, etc.

Hell, seems like half the league has their AHL affiliate now within 100 miles of the big club.

 

[CANADIENSFAN90]

This is good they got hockey I hope it works

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Additional arena and revenue sharing agreement information, along with a factoid that was odd to me. The arena naming rights deal lapsed two years ago, and they kept the name? I can get that they didn’t find the right sponsor and didn’t want to get a dirt cheap low bid in instead, but they kept the dead sponsorship name up for two years?

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

Hope they get a new naming rights deal in place and the barn is named something else soon, with the city clearly hoping that the Bison as a tenant ups the value of such a naming rights deal.

 

[JMCx4]

Focus on this part of the developing story ...

"I would love for that building to be profitable, but the reality of the situation is that doesn’t often happen, but we’re making a go of it. It would be a goal of us to at least break even,” (Bloomington Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus) said.

The hockey team has agreed to help the city recoup some of its costs if revenue falls short of attendance and sales targets.

Tyus said he doesn’t anticipate that being a problem, based on the average ECHL attendance of 4,500 per game. Hallett’s agreement with the city requires a minimum 2,200 in average attendance and $20,000 in food and beverage sales per game.

So the city manager of a city who didn't have the funds to even remove the old name from the facade of the municipal arena is establishing his expectations of future success on a League average attendance figure. In a town widely recognized as having fallen short of supporting revenue-generating ice hockey over 13 consecutive seasons of play, and which since then hasn't seen hockey beyond the local university club team (plus two FPHL exhibitions) in 5 years. With a further stretch goal: "I think having events weekly (in the arena) is not something that is out of the realm of possibility." Bold.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Yeah, that’s the thing. I’m hopeful that the ECHL in Bloomington can work, and I frankly think that it could work, but it’s certainly not a guarantee. The city seems to be operating under a very optimistic hope, though I wouldn’t say it was best-case-scenario dreaming.

Either way, I’m pretty happy that I pay Normal taxes and not Bloomington taxes right now at least in this regard. Hypothetically-speaking, a successful Bison team, an arena that gets more ancillary events, and one that gets a better naming rights deal and the end result is maybe breaking even annually for the city? Woof.

Granted, not the Bison’s problem. If anything, they’re entering a situation where the city might view them as a too big to fail tenant and give them sweetheart deals down the road.

 

[GindyDraws]

Yeah, that’s the thing. I’m hopeful that the ECHL in Bloomington can work, and I frankly think that it could work, but it’s certainly not a guarantee. The city seems to be operating under a very optimistic hope, though I wouldn’t say it was best-case-scenario dreaming.

Either way, I’m pretty happy that I pay Normal taxes and not Bloomington taxes right now at least in this regard. Hypothetically-speaking, a successful Bison team, an arena that gets more ancillary events, and one that gets a better naming rights deal and the end result is maybe breaking even annually for the city? Woof.

Granted, not the Bison’s problem. If anything, they’re entering a situation where the city might view them as a too big to fail tenant and give them sweetheart deals down the road.

They think this time it'll work, but it is going to require the Bison to, you know, be successful.

At least they're in a favorable location for opponents; obviously, I expect the Fuel to play them a ton due to them being the same owner, but they also would have access to Iowa for at least 10 games a year if they so felt like it. So, opposing fans may travel if they so choose. But, again, it's all about immediate interest; will fans show up after so many failed endeavors?

 

[JMCx4]

They think this time it'll work, but it is going to require the Bison to, you know, be successful.

At least they're in a favorable location for opponents; obviously, I expect the Fuel to play them a ton due to them being the same owner, but they also would have access to Iowa for at least 10 games a year if they so felt like it. So, opposing fans may travel if they so choose. But, again, it's all about immediate interest; will fans show up after so many failed endeavors?

Indy, Iowa, Cincinnati, Ft. Wayne, K'zoo and Toledo will all have less than 5-hour drives to B-N. So the Bison location can help stitch together most of the Central Division towns for team travel over reasonable distances. I don't think ECHL fan travel is the "thing" it was 10 and more years ago, so that's just a nice-to-have option without any bearing on League or team decisions. As you say, the big question mark will be in the Wins column as Year #1 progresses.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I haven't really paid much attention to the ECHL since the Express's one year in Hoffman Estates, but I can't recall contingents of other fanbases visiting. And believe me, a lot of the nights the Sears Centre's crowd was so sparse that I would've noticed. And suburban Chicagoland was at least destination adjacent.

But I have to assume that Iowa will like having a bridge connecting them and the rest of the division for their travel schedule, and the Hallett's will surely like the easy drive for their two teams up and down I-74.

 

[GindyDraws]

It all depends on travel. Like, we get our fair share of Komets, Walleye, and Cyclones fans due to location (and those teams usually winning) but I doubt fans from Utah or Worcester would make that same commitment to drive to Indianapolis.

 

[JMCx4]

It all depends on travel. Like, we get our fair share of Komets, Walleye, and Cyclones fans due to location (and those teams usually winning) but I doubt fans from Utah or Worcester would make that same commitment to drive to Indianapolis.

That's one reason the League uses division-favored schedules. Mrs. JMC & I travel around the country for hockey, and I often wear the visiting team's jersey to counter the hometown-heavy apparel. For any level of U.S. minor pro hockey, we see more NHL jerseys in the crowd from multiple teams than we do from opposing team towns. Younger crowds don't seem to be road trippers; they'd rather stay home where the wi-fi bandwidth is more available with better quality than arena service.

 

[JMCx4]

Speaking of driving distances, has there been anything published a/b Bloomington replacing Wheeling in the Central Division next season? The Nailers stand to be more marginalized in scheduling schemes with another Midwest team being added.

 

[JMCx4]

I haven't really paid much attention to the ECHL since the Express's one year in Hoffman Estates, but I can't recall contingents of other fanbases visiting. And believe me, a lot of the nights the Sears Centre's crowd was so sparse that I would've noticed. And suburban Chicagoland was at least destination adjacent. ...

The Sears Centre & its CHI Express tenant were lucky they drew enough regular Chicago area attendance to warrant any open concession stands & more than one restroom each for women and men on game nights. And I doubt any fans of the visiting teams could have mustered the drive time & gas/toll money to couple a weekend pair with visits to "destination adjacent" suburban attractions. It was like a Wizard of Oz journey just to make it to the arena & back from an inner ring northwest 'burb for the one game my wife & I attended in January 2012, and we lacked the Yellow Brick Road as a detour option.