Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ontario Hockey League footprint heading towards WNY


The ongoing saga of the OHL Mississauga Ice Dogs has now been resolved.

The Toronto St. Michaels Majors are moving into the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, the Ice Dogs were sold and told to vacate, and the buzz had them going into a new arena in Niagara Falls, Ontario, until their city council gave the team a big middle finger.

So the team has been scrambling for a new home, and today the announcement came that they have found one... St. Catharines Ontario, where they will be known as the Niagara Ice Dogs and will play at the 2800 seat Jack Gatecliff Arena. The city will spend $250,000 for upgrades to the facility. There are no current plans for a new arena, although several OHL franchises have rolled out gleaming new venues in recent years, including such cities as London and Oshawa, with Kingston and Windsor set to open new arenas soon.

More from the St. Catharines Standard.

We have visited a number of OHL cities on the USRT, and have loved the rinks, the atmosphere, the Canadian brews and the quality of play. A quick hop to St. Catharines this fall is a complete no brainer!

Big props to Kevin Jordan at OHL Arena Guide for giving us the heads up on this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheers for the link boys... see you on the road at some point this year I hope!

Anonymous said...

Should have indicated that was from Kevin. Oops.