New Hockey Franchise Coming Near Chicago

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Wade Messier
January 17, 2024 (12:29)

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It seems like these days expansion franchises are coming left and right, with no end in sight! Keep reading to find out where the newest hockey franchise will be!

Hockey Comes to Bloomington

It was just announced that a new hockey franchise will be coming to Bloomington, Illinois for the 2024-2025 season. The currently unnamed franchise will be competing in the ECHL, the third-tier professional league in North America.

Bloomington, Illinois will be getting an ECHL franchise in 2024-25.

The ECHL is the 11th-ranked ice hockey league in the world and third-ranked in North America, according to our global league rankings

How and Why?

This new ECHL franchise will be owned and managed by Hallett Sports and Entertainment, the same group that runs the Indy Fuel, also of the ECHL.

Ownership spoke of the new addition, and their plans going forward.

"My goal is to get to 32. Sometimes, it takes markets four or five years to develop. Other times, they fall in your lap, quite honestly. They've got to make sense geographically, they've got to make sense market wise and you've got to make sure you have the right ownership teams in there. But it's a really big focus of mine, to bring all of that to pass."

Clearly, it is the goal of the ECHL to match the NHL and AHL in terms of the number of teams, in order to ensure a 1 to 1 ratio of affiliates. This would be tremendous for the growth of hockey and could see new teams in places that otherwise might not have a hockey team.

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