London Knights (Ice Hockey Superleague)
| London Knights | |
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| Greatest successes | |
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| Club information | |
| history |
London Knights 1998-2003 |
| Location | London , England |
| Club colors | gold, red and blue |
| league | Ice Hockey Superleague |
| Venue | London arena |
| capacity | 12,500 seats |
The London Knights were a professional British ice hockey team from London that played in the Ice Hockey Superleague from 1998 to 2003 . Their home stadium was the 12,500 seat London Arena .
history
The founder and owner of the London Knights was the Anschutz Entertainment Group around the US billionaire Philip F. Anschutz , which operates a number of sports franchises such as the Hamburg Freezers , Eisbären Berlin , Los Angeles Galaxy and arenas such as the O2 Arena in London or operates or operates the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg. The team was founded to take part in the British ice hockey boom of the 90s, triggered by teams like Manchester Storm and Sheffield Steelers , which in the 90s had an average of 8,000 spectators and up to 17,000 in individual games. In addition, the Knights should also help make the deficit London Arena profitable.
After the founding of the Knights in 1998 they succeeded in their second season, the 1999/2000 season, with head coach Chris McSorley to win the British Ice Hockey Championship . In the following season they were the first team from Great Britain that could reach a final of the IIHF Continental Cup . After a narrow defeat against the eventual winner, the ZSC Lions , as well as two wins against the HC Slovan Bratislava and the Munich Barons , the team finished second in the final round.
Despite their success on the ice, their audience numbers have always been relatively modest and never averaged much more than 3000.
After the Ice Hockey Superleague was replaced in 2003 by the newly founded Elite Ice Hockey League and the London Arena was sold at the same time, the London Knights stopped playing until further notice. There were plans to let the Knights play in a transitional venue for two seasons and then from 2005 in the O2 Arena, but these could not be realized.
After the founding of the Elite League, the London Racers were introduced as the successor , but they were also only able to stay in the new league for two years. Since then there has not been a first-class ice hockey team in London.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Geering: Hockeyarenas.net. Retrieved January 19, 2018 .
- ↑ Simon Crosse: Ice Hockey: Knights' future in doubt . March 27, 2003, ISSN 0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed January 12, 2018]).