Proposed New Venue - Liverpool

[Phil Mitchell]

It would seem as if Liverpool have proposed development plans for an Olympic size ice rink

Would it be great to have a team in the EIHL from the North West...though it may be a few years away yet.

www.constructionenquirer.com/2014/05/16/liverpool-launches-1-5bn-regeneration-plans/

[Deleted]

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

[harlan]

May 18, 2014 9:32:09 GMT @pidge said:

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but if you aren't you just need to look at what Braehead have done in an even bigger football mad city.
Both Celtic and Rangers get more attending their games than
Everton and Liverpool

[grumpy]

Agree absolutely with Harlan. In Liverpool, as with Glasgow, football is very tribal - and still to some extent sectarian. A family orientated sport such as ice hockey, with none of that baggage, will thrive.

[tootootrain]

Ahh, I remember when they proposed a boondoggle like this in Croydon.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruskin_Square

I'm sure some buildings will be thrown up on the site but I won't hold my breath on the rink making the final cut.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2014 11:51:26 GMT harlan said:

May 18, 2014 9:32:09 GMT @pidge said:

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but if you aren't you just need to look at what Braehead have done in an even bigger football mad city.
Both Celtic and Rangers get more attending their games than
Everton and Liverpool

in Scotland theres more of passion for hockey thsn liverpool even though the latter did have a hockey team over 30 years ago

[pantherdman]

I'm still waiting for project yes in Sheffield to get started.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2014 11:51:26 GMT harlan said:

May 18, 2014 9:32:09 GMT @pidge said:

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but if you aren't you just need to look at what Braehead have done in an even bigger football mad city.
Both Celtic and Rangers get more attending their games than
Everton and Liverpool

in Scotland theres more of passion for hockey thsn liverpool even though the latter did have a hockey team over 30 years ago

[Dan]

May 18, 2014 9:32:09 GMT @pidge said:

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

Daft comment. Nottingham Glasgow and Sheffield all have two clubs but their hockey teams have done alright.

[Deleted]

Doesn't really matter anyway as there won't be a team come out of Liverpool anytime soon!

[5+game]

May 19, 2014 5:38:57 GMT Dan said:

May 18, 2014 9:32:09 GMT @pidge said:

In a football dominated city, this would never get off the ground, i wouldn t get your hopes up

Daft comment. Nottingham Glasgow and Sheffield all have two clubs but their hockey teams have done alright.

But your missing one thing, their football teams are crap

[cooperphil156]

Looks promising. I agree with other comments, as there is a space for another sport played at a different time. Also there is a big catchment area just outside the city and further to the north. Manchester is also not that far away and they did get some big attendances there in the past.

[pingchowchi]

To be fair, Forest were pretty good when the Panthhers first reformed.

[BigLad]

It'd give me a new team to despise at least. Maybe more so than Cov & Shuff!!

[tek]

May 18, 2014 18:00:56 GMT pantherdman said:

I'm still waiting for project yes in Sheffield to get started.

The YES project is dead and buried.

I can actually see the site from where I live, its about a mile away down in the valley.
It got changed from the extreme sports project to a Chinese theme park "China Visions", which also never happened.

www.worksopguardian.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/lease-signed-for-visions-of-china-1-5222916

[spik]

May 18, 2014 9:29:49 GMT Phil Mitchell said:

It would seem as if Liverpool have proposed development plans for an Olympic size ice rink

Would it be great to have a team in the EIHL from the North West...though it may be a few years away yet.

.....and was a few years back too when they last played in the domestic programme. Here's some nostalgia, all in the 70's regional leagues era before the English league revival ahead of the British league period.


1974
Southern League

GP W D L GF GA Pts
Streatham 12 11 0 1 105 27 22

Altrincham Aces 12 11 0 1 127 48 22

Bristol Redwings 12 7 0 5 77 42 14

Solihull Barons 12 7 0 5 66 48 14

Blackpool Seagulls 12 2 1 9 42 97 5

Liverpool Leopards 12 2 0 10 28 106 4

Solihull Vikings 12 1 1 10 20 97 3



1975
Southern League

GP W D L GF GA Pts
Streatham 10 10 0 0 122 14 20

Solihull Barons 10 6 2 2 33 29 14

Bristol Redwings 10 6 0 4 62 33 12

Blackpool Seagulls 10 3 1 6 43 92 7

Altrincham Aces 10 1 3 6 32 61 5

Liverpool Leopards 10 1 0 9 13 76 2





1976
Southern League
Midland section

P W D L GF GA Pts
Altrincham Aces 16 11 3 2 98 48 25

Liverpool Leopards 16 10 3 3 111 49 23

Blackpool Seagulls 16 11 0 5 160 53 22

Grimsby Buffalos 16 2 2 12 64 142 6

Sheffield Lancers 16 2 0 14 47 188 4





1977
Southern League
Midland section

P W D L GF GA Pts
Altrincham Aces 10 9 0 1 62 26 18

Blackpool Seagulls 10 8 0 2 65 32 16

Liverpool Leopards 10 6 0 4 38 36 12

Grimsby Buffalos 10 3 0 7 45 63 6

Deeside Dragons 10 2 0 8 31 51 4

Sheffield Lancers 10 2 0 8 31 64 4



1978
Southern League
Midland section

P W D L GF GA Pts
Blackpool Seagulls 10 9 0 1 74 24 18

Deeside Dragons 10 7 0 3 53 41 14

Grimsby Buffalos 10 6 0 4 60 47 12

Sheffield Lancers 10 6 0 4 42 33 12

Liverpool Leopards 10 1 0 9 31 68 2

London Sobell All-Stars* 10 1 0 9 22 69 2

* Played all games away for 4 points





1979
Southern League – midland

P W D L GF GA Pts
Sheffield Lancers 16 11 0 5 78 58 22

Blackpool Seagulls 16 10 1 5 68 41 21

Grimsby Buffalos 16 10 0 6 47 28 20

Liverpool Leopards 16 5 0 11 40 79 10

Deeside Dragons 16 3 1 12 55 82 7





1980
Southern League – midland

P W D L GF GA Pts
Liverpool Leopards 8 8 0 0 55 14 16

Blackpool Seagulls 8 4 1 3 65 27 9

Grimsby Buffalos 8 4 0 4 53 37 8

Deeside Dragons 8 3 1 4 47 29 7

Sheffield Knights 8 0 0 8 3 116 0

[Mythosman]

Liverpool City Council missed the boat big time in 2007/8, when they took the decision not to incorporate an ice pad in the ECHO Arena in King's Dock, preferring to invest in a basketball court to host the Mersey Tigers, a BBL franchise that bombed as a viable resident sports club in 2011, when they moved their operation out of the Arena to Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park. They eventually withdrew from the BBL in 2013.

Why on earth the City Council are now planning to build a separate building with an Olympic size ice pad is beyond me, unless they are hankering after regeneration grants from the Government? Investing in an ice plant at the ECHO would be infinitely cheaper, and would potentially give the Arena the chance of developing / regenerating an income strand from the sports sector that they badly miss.

It's not as if the ECHO Arena is bursting at the seams with other events during the ice hockey season:

September 2014 - 2 nights booked
October 2014 - 4 nights booked
November 2014 - 5 nights booked
December 2014 - 5 nights booked
January 2015 - no events to date
February 2015 - no events to date
March 2015 - no events to date

Also, during the whole of 2012/13, there were only 89 events staged at the Arena - i.e. one every 4 days, so I would argue that there is ample scope to accommodate an ice hockey team.

[Rob Scott]

It's a cracking arena as well.

With some decent marketing and ticket offers they could build a fan base pretty quickly there.

It also has the advantage of people being able to use it as part of their night out as some do with a Panthers game.