| Ice hockey in Louisiana | |
|---|---|
 Flag of Louisiana | |
| Country | United States |
| Governing body | USA Hockey [1] |
| National team(s) | Men's national team Women's national team |
| First played | 1995 |
Club competitions | |
Louisiana has seen many failed attempts to expand ice hockey within its borders. While many teams have met unfortunate ends, a concerted effort has allowed a few teams to establish themselves in the state.
Louisiana was effectively an afterthought for the ice hockey community until the 1990s. When the sport began expanding south at the end of the 20th century, the Bayou State was one of the main targets for minor professional leagues. The Louisiana IceGators were the first team to call the state home. When they debuted in 1995, the IceGators were very successful in the ticket booth; after drawing more than 9,000 fans on average for their inaugural season, the team saw crows of over 11,000 for years two and three. The immediate success induced the ECHL to relocate a dormant franchise to Baton Rouge in 1996 and then place a third team in the state in 1997. With the Baton Rouge Kingfish and New Orleans Brass both in action, the year-old WPHL decided to get into the action and expanded eastwards with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, Monroe Moccasins and Lake Charles Ice Pirates beginning play in 1997 and the Alexandria Warthogs following a year afterwards. A state that had virtually no history with ice hockey suddenly found itself with seven different minor league teams but the shine had already worn off.
The initial success of IceGators soon fell away and the attendance figures for the club dropped precipitously after 1999. [2] While those figures didn't adversely affect the team well into the 21st century, the other clubs had not started out in such a charmed position. The Kingfish, who were mired in mediocrity for the stay in Louisiana, began with crowds numbering 6,000 but saw that number diminish every year. The Brass, on the other hand, posted winning records every year and their march to the quarterfinals in year two allowed the team to move into the much larger New Orleans Arena. Their attendance figures swelled but soon relaxed to less than 5,000. While that number was still enough to keep the team afloat, the team was offered a poison pill when the New Orleans Hornets arrived in 2002. The NBA franchise got the state (the owners of the Arena at the time) to force the Brass to cover the cost of converting the building from basketball to hockey and back as a condition of remaining at the venue. [3] Though the team was solvent, they would not have been able to afford the additional expense and were forced to search elsewhere for a home. To make matters worse, the Municipal Auditorium, the original home of the team, had just finished a renovation that had included the removal of the icemaking equipment. With no viable buildings available the team folded and the rest of the ECHL teams fell like dominoes.
In the meantime, the WPHL had fared even worse. While the Mudbugs were one of the leagues best teams, winning three consecutive championships and commanding more than 4,000 in attendance in each of their first four seasons, the Warthogs were only able to stick around for two years while the Ice Pirates and Moccasins each saw dwindling ticket sales and folded in 2001. That season saw the collapse of the entire league and while that could have meant the dissolution of the Mudbugs as well, the team was able to stay alive when the WPHL merged with the CHL. The team not only survived but flourished in their new league, routinely winning their division while making several deep playoff runs. In the mid-2000s, the Mudbugs were seeing over 5,000 fans per game but their finances took a hit during the Great Recession. After 2008, the team saw its crowd diminish to less than 3,500 and, despite winning the league championship in 2011, the team could no longer afford to operate. [4]
In 2005, junior hockey arrived in the state in the form of the Cajun Catahoulas. The team was never successful, winning just 19 games in three years before relocating. After the recession, the SPHL sought to bring the IceGators back in 2009. Despite using the same venue as the previous incarnation, the Cajundome, the team could barely draw more than 2,000 fans per game, well below the league average. [5] Even success on the ice was unable to bring more people into the building and the IceGators got what they hoped was good news when the Cajundome closed for renovations in 2016. The team suspended operations for the season with intent of returning once the venue reopened, however, in the interim the team shut down its business department and website. In 2018 the franchise was sold and moved to the Quad Cities. [6]
After the departure of the second IceGators, another revival occurred in the state when the Shreveport Mudbugs returned. While the new team played junior hockey and had no formal connection to the prior club, they used the same venue, colors and logo while also bringing back former Mudbug Kārlis Zirnis as the team first head coach. The team was an instant hit, just like their namesake, and they won the league championship in their second season. A second title followed after the COVID-19 pandemic and helped establish the team as a fixture. Baton Rouge was the next city to see a return of ice hockey when the Baton Rouge Zydeco were founded in 2023. [7]
| Team | City | League | Arena | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baton Rouge Zydeco | Baton Rouge | FPHL | Raising Cane's River Center Arena | 2023 |
| Team | City | League | Years Active | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana IceGators | Lafayette | ECHL | 1995–2005 | Defunct |
| Baton Rouge Kingfish | Baton Rouge | ECHL | 1996–2003 | Defunct |
| New Orleans Brass | New Orleans | ECHL | 1997–2002 | Defunct |
| Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs | Bossier City | WPHL CHL | 1997–2001 2001–2011 | Defunct |
| Lake Charles Ice Pirates | Lake Charles | WPHL | 1997–2001 | Defunct |
| Monroe Moccasins | Monroe | WPHL | 1997–2001 | Defunct |
| Alexandria Warthogs | Alexandria | WPHL | 1998–2000 | Defunct |
| Louisiana IceGators (second) | Lafayette | SPHL | 2009–2016 | Quad City Storm |
| Team | City | League | Arena | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shreveport Mudbugs | Shreveport | NAHL | Hirsch Memorial Coliseum | 2016 |
| Team | City | League | Years Active | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cajun Catahoulas | Carencro | WSHL | 2005–2008 | Defunct |
* Relocated from elsewhere
Active Active (out of state) --->
In spite of the myriad professional team that have called the state home, Louisiana residents have a very low level of engagement. Less than 300 people were registered with USA Hockey in 2022 placing the state 50th in the nation in terms of both total and population percentage. [8]
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which operated the league from 2000 to 2013, at which point it was purchased by the individual franchise owners. As of the end of its final season in 2014, three of the 30 National Hockey League teams had affiliations with the CHL: the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Jacksonville Barracudas were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They were established in 2002, and played in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–2003), the World Hockey Association 2 (2003–2004), and the Southern Professional Hockey League (2004–2008), before folding in 2008.
The Western Professional Hockey League was a minor professional ice hockey league.
The SPHL is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the midwestern United States.
The Lubbock Cotton Kings were a professional ice hockey team formerly based in Lubbock, Texas as members of the Western Professional Hockey League and the Central Hockey League. The team played home games at City Bank Coliseum.
The Cajundome is a 13,500-seat multi-purpose arena located in Lafayette, Louisiana on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. It is home to the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's and women's basketball programs in addition to hosting various university events and commencement ceremonies including high school graduations.
The New Mexico Scorpions were a Central Hockey League (CHL) team located in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The team was established in 1996 as a part of the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL). In 2001, the WPHL merged with the CHL. On July 2, 2009, the Scorpions ceased operations.
The Louisiana IceGators were an ECHL team based in Lafayette, Louisiana, from 1995 until the end of the 2004–05 season. The team played its home games at the Cajundome and were last an affiliate of the NHL Minnesota Wild and the AHL Houston Aeros.
The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs were a professional ice hockey team which played in the Bossier City-Shreveport metropolitan area of Louisiana. From 1997 to 2001, the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs were members of the Western Professional Hockey League, until a 2001 merger between the WPHL with the Central Hockey League. From 2001 to 2011, the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs played in the Central Hockey League. From 1997 until 2000, they were known as the Shreveport Mudbugs, changing the name to the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs after the team relocated from the Hirsch Coliseum in Shreveport to the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City.
Blackham Coliseum is a multipurpose arena in Lafayette, Louisiana. It was built on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus in 1949 as the home to the then-named SLI Bulldogs, now called the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball teams. The arena was named for Stafford Morgan Blackham, former dean of the Department of Animal Husbandry at SLI, and as such it was built to host livestock exhibitions as well as athletics. It replaced the 1,500-seat Earl K. Long Gymnasium as home to the athletics teams. It remained the home for the men's team until the Cajundome was completed in 1984. The women continue to play the majority of their games at Earl K. Long. Blackham hosted the Southland Conference men's basketball tournament in 1982.
The New Orleans Brass were a hockey team in the ECHL from 1997 to 2002. The team was at one time affiliated with the San Jose Sharks. Home games were played first at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium and then at the New Orleans Arena. In 2002, the NBA's Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans and became the primary tenant in the arena. The New Orleans Hornets pressured the state of Louisiana, which owns the arena, into demanding that the Brass bear the expense of converting the arena to and from basketball and hockey as a condition of staying in the arena. The expense was more than the Brass' ownership was willing to pay. The Municipal Auditorium had recently replaced its floor, and in the process removed its ice plant. Without a suitable home, the Brass folded.
The Baton Rouge Kingfish were a minor professional ice hockey team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a member of the East Coast Hockey League. The franchise arrived in Baton Rouge in 1996 after relocating from Erie, Pennsylvania, where they had played as the Erie Panthers since 1988 as one of the ECHL's charter teams. After a team-naming contest, they were renamed the Kingfish in honor of legendary Louisiana governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long who shared the nickname. They played as the Baton Rouge Kingfish from 1996 to 2003 before moving to Victoria, British Columbia, as the Victoria Salmon Kings.
Hirsch Memorial Coliseum is 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Shreveport, Louisiana, designed by the late local architect Edward F. Neild Jr. (1908–1958) who, with his father in 1937, had designed the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport. The coliseum is named after William Rex Hirsch, a former fair president, manager and treasurer. The building completed construction in 1954, the year of Hirsch's death, and initially was planned to have the name The Youth Building. The coliseum has been used for a variety of events through the years, with dirt being brought in and placed on the floor for rodeos and tractor pulls. It is located adjacent to the Independence Stadium and across from Fair Park High School in Shreveport. Hirsch coliseum is very similar in design, though smaller in size to the John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum, owned and operated by the Louisiana State University Campus in Baton Rouge. However, the Parker coliseum has a dirt floor arena and is mainly used for livestock-type events, with portable hard floors laid on top of the dirt for other types of events such as basketball games or concerts.
The Shreveport Mudbugs are a Tier II junior ice hockey team based in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a member of the North American Hockey League. The new Mudbugs replaced a former professional team that played in the area from 1997 to 2011 known as the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.
The Louisiana IceGators were a professional ice hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League that began play in the 2009–10 season. Like the original IceGators, which played from 1995 until folding in 2005, they were based in Lafayette, Louisiana. The IceGators were brought back by local businessman Danny Smith. In August 2010, Smith sold the team to two local businessmen, E.C. "Chuck" Anselmo, Jr. and E.C. "Chuck" Anselmo, III.
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The Baton Rouge Zydeco are a professional hockey team located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, playing at the Raising Cane's River Center Arena. They are a member of the Federal Prospects Hockey League. Their inaugural season was the 2023–24 season.
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