USHL In Indianapolis

According to Indianapolis newspapers, the Danville Wings may be moving to Indy (it is my understanding that they would change their name to the Ice) to replace the CHL franchise that was just sold out of Indy. Anyone else hear anything about this rumor?

I have heard this also & have seen an article about it somewhere. I believe Gino Gasparini said that the teams would be meeting after the playoffs were over to discuss possible relocations of teams. Have also heard LaCrosse, WI could be a site for a team.

Thanks, Lancer!
I'm trying to get excited about this move to the USHL. After the Ice demoted themselves from the IHL to the CHL the quality of play was miserably poor. I'm hoping that having some young hungry kids out there will result in a better product on the ice.

Thanks, Lancer!
I'm trying to get excited about this move to the USHL. After the Ice demoted themselves from the IHL to the CHL the quality of play was miserably poor. I'm hoping that having some young hungry kids out there will result in a better product on the ice.


The Ice played pretty well last year but this year they were dreadful to watch. I am kind of excited about a move to the USHL as well.

I really think the USHL is a great league. I hope the fans will support a team there because the past teams that have relocated have not faired well in attendance such as Danville, St. Louis, Tulsa, Topeka, etc. I don't think fans realize what level of hockey is being played. I have been a season ticket holder for 17 years now for the River City Lancers and my dad has been going even longer than that. We have the UNO Mavericks (CCHA) in town also, but I really like the level of hockey in the USHL and wouldn't give it up for anything. The quality of play is so good, the checking, fighting, etc. are allowed and it makes for very good rivalries. I really hope you get a team in Indianapolis. Hopefully, you can make it to Omaha/Council Bluffs to watch a game. I hope it works out.

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3024036&l_id=&t_id=

Excellent!

Time to talk the wife into a new set of season tickets.

How many home games a year? 30?

Depends, should be around 30-31 home games. They usually have 8 games (4 H, 4 A)with rivals, 6 each (3 H & 3 A)with the division opponents and 4 each (2 H & 2 A) with the other division. Not sure about other expansion. Word from what I hear is that Danville's owner/GM wants to put another team in Champaign, IL and Texas still wants in the USHL. May be more than 30 home games depending on what happens in the off season.

Texas?
That's disturbing. Small leagues like this really tax their franchises with travel costs when they do something like that.

Last season the Texas Tornado wanted to come into the league and were very close to being approved. The article I saw stated that there could be 3 relocations. So, this move to Indianapolis. There is some speculation that St. Louis could move, but they just moved their last season, so I don't know if they would move them to Springfield or wherever. And the River City Lancers, there has been some talk of moving them back across the river to Omaha (which some are against). So there are definitely some possibilities of new teams next season or movement.

St. Louis is a suprise.

That is a GREAT hockey town...a great sports town.

I can't believe that a team couldn't succeed there.

That said, my brother in-law, who is involved in the sports industry in St. Louis, had no idea that St. Louis had a USHL franchise when I mentioned it to him this weekend. So they can use some marketing help.

The Indianapolis franchise is already getting beat up in the press. People are frustrated that we no longer have a pro team (although the CHL is at best semi-pro), and the new owners have not yet returned deposits for CHL playoff tix to season ticket holders. Ownership isn't officially transfered until 5/1, so the new guy is not in a real good position to move that money, but the local press doesn't seem to care about that point.

Former Ice owner, Horn Chen, is a real tool. His statement to the press expresses his incredulity at the fact that the deposits had not yet been distributed. (He's a friend of the Wirtz family, so what can you expect).

Anyway, a bumpy beginning, but I'm hopeful for the future.

I am hopeful also. I would like to see the franchise succeed, but Topeka had a CHL team that turned into a USHL team, and they didn't last but a year. I hope St. Louis can stick around another year. The team is actually located in Chesterfield at the Summit Center. I know last year the owners had their own kids on the team. I really hope it was just a matter of not marketing well, or just getting started, but they practically had to give away tickets to get people to come and still didn't get very good crowds. However, Danville's attendance was worse, and they've been around for 9 years, so who knows.

It's official! The Indiana Ice begin play in the USHL this Fall.

A quick review of the CSB rankings shows that Derek Patrosso is considered a pretty good prospect.

Who else should I be looking forward to seeing this Fall?

Honestly, Danville has a lot of their top prospects leaving for college after this year, so I'm not too sure who all will be back. We mainly saw Tobe in goal, so I'm not sure how good Reiter is. Keith Rodger should be good, he played with Lincoln & Danville last year, so he has some USHL experience (won a Clark Cup with Lincoln). But he seems to run his mouth. The two Panchenko guys were pretty good too. They should be sticking around if they don't get dropped or anything or get a late scholarship or something. Here is the list for Danville/Indy's college prospects (colleges they are going to). I don't really know if they are all for next year, that is what I'm assuming, but then again I know the Lancers have a couple that are for the year after next, so some of the ones committed may come back. If so, Patrosso and Foster were the main ones that stick out, but Marshall and some of the other guys were very good too.

The new name for the team will be the Indiana Ice instead of the Indianapolis Ice. The new logo was also shown in the paper. It looks like a variation of previous Ice logos, so nothing of note there.

http://ushl.com/pr/20032004/20040428ushl4.htm

Maybe they'll keep up the "tradition" of previous owners and change it every two years. I hope not, as logos go I think its pretty cool.