The Orlando Solar Bears opened their 10th season of play recognizing their growing and deepening ties to the city of Orlando.
The Orlando Solar Bears have been a part of the Orlando community for 20 years. There was a run of time where the Solar Bears were hibernating, but the passion within the Central Florida hockey community only lay dormant during that time waiting to get reactivated.
The right team — with the right name — would recreate this passion in a sport transplanted in a place that seems completely unnatural. There are no ice sheets in Central Florida. There are is not the ability to go play hocky int he backyard during snow days off from school.
Yet hockey has survived and thrived in Central Florida. The Solar Bears were fourth in the ECHL last year in attendance with 6,209 fans per game. The ECHL All-Star Game in Orlando attracted 9,288 fans to the Amway Center along with a week full of hockey activities.
This unnatural home has become very much a home.
“From the time I got here, it has only grown,” veteran defenseman Eric Baier said. “Every year, you can see the excitement getting bigger and growing and you hear the buzz going around. Everyoen gets super excited for October to come around when the season starts.”
As the Solar Bears prepare to celebrate their 10th year of play — their fourth in the ECHL — they have found their niche in the community and are ready to grow into more than just a team with a quirky and beloved name but a team that can compete for and win championships too.
The Solar Bears have made the Playoffs the last two years. With new coach Anthony Noreen assuming the lead chair with a clear vision of helping his players grow and develop as players and men. They have an opportunity to make some noise with the ECHL as they have become more integrated into the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
Ticket sales are up, Solar Bears president Jason Siegel said, and excitement and momentum built in the community continues to grow.
The Solar Bears kicked off their season Thursday with a jersey unveiling (jerseys are above) and some big announcements. The UCF club hockey team would play the first college hockey game at Amway Center on Nov. 7 in a game against South Carolina that will take place after the Solar Bears play that evening.
The Solar Bears announced all their games would air on the radio on 96.9 The Game and on iHeartSolarBears.com. There would also be three games televised on News 6 WKMG in Orlando this season.
With a full room of season ticketholders and stakeholders in the team — the team itself was gathered together for one of the first times after Marlies training camp wrapped up — the Solar Bears were in good hands and with good company to open the season.
“We are in this thing to win,” Solar Bears president Jason Siegel said. “There are no more competitive people than Joe [Haleski, general partner of the Solar Bears] and I . We work at it. There is no ivory tower. We are at this thing night and day to get to our goals as an organization. First and foremost, we want to support the community. We want to give back. We want to make sure at every moment we have an opportunity to support the community who are here to support us. Second, for sure, we are a for-profit business. We want to make sure we can keep this thing going. Let’s be that franchise that goes on and on and brings championships.”
The Solar Bears’ 10th season will be a mix of the future of hockey in the self-dubbed “Hockey Central” with the growing grass roots framework continuing to grow.
It will also be a recognition of the past.
The Orlando Magic and the DeVos family will also help the Solar Bears recognize their past dating back to their IHL days. The Magic granted the new hockey team permission to use the name and the brand, and there really could be no other. Orlando needed the Solar Bears back if it was to embrace hockey.
And it has.
“Sports does one great thing for this community,” Central Florida Sports Commission President John Bisignano. “It helps grow this community. Through this franchise, what the Solar Bears have done in its run is special. To bring hockey to this community is just great.
“Jason and his team what they are doing, besides what they are doing with their franchise, besides what they are doing with this hockey game, with the new complex they are building, it’s an opportunity for our youth to play in a great facility but also to bring in great events that kids from all over the country can come in and participate in. Sports does grow this community and what the Solar Bears do is a great example of it.”
The Solar Bears have indeed built something special. This 10th season will be a celebration of all they have built and all they will continue to build.
It starts with getting back to the ice and going after something more than an ECHL playoff berth. That journey starts Saturday, Oct. 17 against Greenville at the Amway Center.
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