Conference Western Home arena i wireless Center Arena/Stadium I Wireless Center | Division Central Founded 2009 Head coach Phil Axtell | |
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Colors Black, green, orange, white Location Moline, Illinois, United States | ||
Quad city mallards 20th anniversary alumni weekend pregame celebration 13 january 2017
The Quad City Mallards are a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa. The Mallards are a member of the ECHL. Named in honor of the Mallards team that played in the United Hockey League from 1995 to 2007, the current Mallards debuted in 2009 in the International Hockey League before joining the CHL for the 2010–11 season after the CHL and IHL merged. The Mallards play their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois.
Contents
- Quad city mallards 20th anniversary alumni weekend pregame celebration 13 january 2017
- History
- References
History
The original Mallards franchise played in the Quad Cities from the 1995–96 season through the 2006–07 season. Their first two seasons of existence were played in the Colonial Hockey League, which was renamed the United Hockey League (UHL) in 1997. The Mallards were an overwhelming success in their first few years, with attendance figures that regularly topped 6,000 per game. Attendance peaked in the 1997–98 season at over 8,500 fans per game, and while it declined, average attendance remained over 6,000 fans per game through the 2001–02 season. It continued to drop, though, until it reached a low of 3,120 fans per game in the Mallards' final UHL season in 2006–07.
In 2009, a new ownership group brought hockey back after two seasons and named the new team in honor of the former team.
On May 11, 2011, the Mallards originally ceased operations due to a lack of funding, but almost a month later, Club 9 Sports, a consortium between Chicago-based investment bank Prometheus Capital Partners, LLC, management and consulting firm Tobacco Road Capitalists and sports management and marketing firm ScheerSports, Inc. (headed by former National Basketball Association general manager Carl Scheer) bought the team from former owner Eric Karls and announced the team would return for the 2011–12 Central Hockey League season.
On August 27, 2013, a new affiliation agreement was announced between the National Hockey League Minnesota Wild, its American Hockey League affiliate Iowa Wild, and the Mallards.
On October 7, 2014, soon before the 2014–15 Central Hockey League season was set to begin, it was announced that the Central Hockey League ceased operations and the Mallards, along with the Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder, were all approved the expansion membership application into the ECHL for the 2014–15 season.