Bloomington, Illinois is the latest city to join the ECHL expansion, with Lake Tahoe in Nevada being the other newest expansion city in the league.
The new team will be managed by Hallett Sports and Entertainment, who already run the Indy Fuel, a current ECHL team.
A lease will be negotiated on January 22nd, with a press conference following on the 24th. The team in Bloomington will be a part of the Central Division in the ECHL, sharing the division with teams such as the Cincinnati Cyclones, Fort Wayne Komets, Toledo Walleye, Indiana Fuel, Iowa Heartlanders, and Wheeling Nailers.
«My goal is to get to 32,» Crelin told FloHockey's Justin A. Cohn in a recent interview about expansion. «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.»
With this move, the ECHL moves closer to reaching their goal of 32 teams, in order to match the AHL and NHL, and their goal is to bring in more teams to serve as NHL affiliates.
