SPHL to add Midwest team

With one team packing up and leaving Evansville, IN, it appears a local businessman is taking advantage of adding a team to the Southern Professional Hockey League ranks.

Apparently due to issues with the arena deal, the Evansville Icemen of the East Coast Hockey League has indicated its intention to relocate into the state of the Kentucky in the fall.

According to stories in the Evansville Courier & Press, local bussinessman Mike Hall,  a season ticket holder who discovered a love for the game, has decided to step up and purchase an SPHL franchise.

While the entire league is thrilled with the addition, the most happy has to be the Peoria Rivermen who now will have at least one other team from the same US region. Since moving from the AHL a few years earlier, the Rivermen, from southern Illinois have been the lone Midwest rep in a league that is made up otherwise of teams from the South and Southeast.

While the league has always had a foothold in the South, it has expanded a couple of times in recent seasons and with the addition of the Evansville franchise in time for the upcoming season along with the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs, it will be growing from nine to 11 teams overall. That’s a healthy growth for a team that just last season added the Macon Mayhem as well.